Classics 4 Kids Features Mozart, Elgar, Beethoven in Concert’s First Half, Sharon Katz and Peace Train Band in Second

Detailed lesson plans are sent to the teachers, and docents visit many of the classrooms ahead of time to prepare the young listeners for their concert experience. That advanced work was evident in the children’s conduct. Conductor Zembric also reminded them of the expected concert behavior, including when to applaud.

Zembric spoke a bit about the Magic Flute and then told them about the second piece, Elgar’s “Nimrod” from his Enigma Variations. She asked if anyone had a best friend and most hands shot up. She related why Elgar dedicated “Nimrod” to his best friend and suggested they think of their best friend while listening. Once again, there was attentive silence.

The third offering involved the students even more. English words were projected for Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, and the children were taught the melody. The orchestra played the introductory segments of the last movement of Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony, before the Ode is sung. It was inspiring to hear the young voices chime in along with the orchestra.

The second half of the program featured Sharon Katz and her Peace Train Band, which consisted of Katz on electric guitar and vocals, Ignacio Arengo on bass guitar and Casey Jones on drums. The moment the children heard the rock sounds of the electric guitar and the beat of the drums, they began bobbing up and down. They responded to Katz’s charismatic presence and her songs, which included their participation.

One selection, Shosholozo, was about the train carrying the miners in South Africa to the gold mines, and at various times they were asked to shout out Shosholozo. Another song in Spanish, an original by Katz, Vamos en el tren de la paz, had them sing Vamos. The audience participation kept them totally engaged.

Sharon Katz, a South African native,  formed the Peace Train Project in 1992 as a way to honor Nelson Mandela, who would become president in 1994, and help heal a divided country. Katz had her master’s degree in music therapy and, along with her Zulu singing partner, Nonhlanhla Wanda, formed a 500-voice multiracial and multicultural youth choir.

They hired a train, dubbed “The Peace Train”, and they traveled to various and still separated communities all over South Africa. The goal was to rehearse and build trust as they stopped and performed in different towns. Katz likes to say that the Peace Train was a moving billboard for Mandela’s message of peaceful coexistence.

Currently, she and her wife and business partner, Marilyn Cohen, are relocating to the town of Todos Santos in Baja California Sur where she will be volunteering, working with families who are migrant workers from other parts of Mexico and who live in poverty in this rapidly developing environment. She will be conducting music therapy projects with the children of the migrant workers who work there.

At the Classics 4Kids concert, in front of where I was sitting were students from the San Diego Language Academy, immersed in either Spanish or French. I was happy to know that the immersion language programs, established in San Diego under the leadership of my husband, Hal Wingard, of blessed memory, are still flourishing, and that the school, by bringing students to this Classics 4Kids program, continues to also value the Arts.

Congratulations to Classics 4Kids for the fine work they do, bringing music into the lives of students in San Diego County.
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Eileen Wingard, a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts.