The University at Albany Department of Music is pleased to present the Youth Movements Festival from November 13-16, 2008 at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center on the uptown campus. The festival of four events is centered on music for and about children. All events will take place in the Recital Hall.

Kicking off the series on Thursday, November 13 at 7pm, pianist Duncan Cumming, violinist Hilary Cumming and mezzo-soprano Frances Pallozzi-Wittmann perform a concert entitled Reflections on Childhood which will include music by Mozart, Brahms, Amy Beach and Erik Satie as well as narration by Jeffrey Cumming and art by Charles Martin. Loosely constructed as a program that works as “A Day in the Life of a Child,” the concert also features poems and artwork created by students from UAlbany’s Honors College who were inspired by each selection of music. Each poem will be read before the piano piece and each artwork will be projected during the performance.

On Friday, November 14 at 7pm, soprano Amanda Boyd will perform songs about Mothers and Children with Michael Clement at the piano. The program will be a voice recital of works by Schumann and Poulenc.

A Musical Carousel on Saturday, November 15 at 3pm will feature a reading/performance of three children’s books. Duncan Cumming wrote two of the original stories -- From Bangor to Bangkok, in which his kids and their cousins (from Bangor, Maine) visit their other cousins in Thailand, and From Haverhill to the Highlands, a story about his children accompanying their Grandfather to Scotland. This past summer, Cumming commissioned Los Angeles based composer David Walther to write a musical score to accompany The Country Bunny, the 1930 book by Du Bose Heyward with illustrations by Marjorie Hack, which will be the third story in the program. All three stories will be presented with narration, projected illustrations and piano music.

The grand finale of the festival will take place on Sunday, November 16 at 3pm. The concert of French Four Hand Music is inspired mostly by children or children’s themes and will include over 80 pianists from the Capital Region, youths aged 5-75. Performers will include faculty, staff, students and alumni from the UAlbany as well as other teachers and students of all ages from the area. The selections will include Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite with narration, Faure’s Dolly Suite, Bizet’s Jeux D’Enfants and Erik Satie’s Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear.

For festival planner Duncan Cumming, the Youth Movements Festival grew out of a small idea to try and expose some great music to young people. Says Cumming, “Many companies do this, but unfortunately most seem to think that Mozart is better experienced (and the “Mozart Effect” is more successful) when this music is transcribed for electronic sounds and kazoo, or occasionally xylophone and toy trumpet.” This festival challenges that notion and offers an alternative approach.

Tickets for the Thursday, Friday and Sunday concerts are each $10 for the general public; $8 for seniors and UAlbany faculty-staff and $5 for students. Tickets may be purchased through the Performing Arts Center Box Office. Admission to the Saturday afternoon concert is free. For further information, contact the Box Office at (518) 442-3997 or visit the Performing Arts Center website at www.albany.edu/pac.

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