Have you heard of KickStarter.com? It’s a cool site where people can raise money for creative project of all kinds. Ordinary people like you and me can support these projects. Here’s the kicker: the team must reach the monetary goal by 3-month deadline or else they don’t get any of the money that was pledged.
Well, a colleague of mine has started a kickstarter project with her sister to create CDs of classical music with narration for children. They plan to distribute the CD to schools where art programs are being cut. Read all about their project below, or click here to visit their official KickStarter page. There you will find a video with more info and you can make your pledge. With your support, they can go ahead with the CD project and you can receive a copy too! The CD looks like it could be a great resource to use during group lessons with piano students or young children — I’m excited to receive mine. Please read more about their project and consider supporting Sonya and Elizabeth.
Sonya & Elizabeth Schumann’s KickStarter Project | Piano Carnaval CD: Classical Music and Stories for Kids
Who are we?
We (Jeanne and Sonya) are classical concert pianists who happen to be sisters. We decided to record a children’s CD which, through narrative storytelling, is an attractive vehicle for classical piano pieces.
Why do we want to record a children’s CD?
Government funding for Arts Education has been cut everywhere, and we’re worried that children are not exposed to classical music. If classical music could be presented to young children in a way that captured their imaginations, a larger audience of children could grow to love music in a way that would enrich their whole lives.
What is the goal?
To allow elementary school aged children to discover the world of classical music
What are the objectives?
1. To record a CD!!
2. To distribute free copies to programs and educators where arts funding is being cut.
So, what is the narrative plot of the CD?
The recording will present 20 short movements and classical piano pieces, each shorter than 2 minutes. These pieces will be presented within two narratives, in a combination of the classic radio drama and a concert of classical favorites.
The first story, written in verse, is about a little girl who loves animals so much that she hides at the zoo’s closing time and is locked inside overnight. There she sees wondrous things: A tortoise who moves so slowly that he sees everything else in the world as a blur, a midnight skeleton ball (tuxedo clad fossils!) and a myriad of other mysterious creatures doing bizarre and whimsical things. This poetry is based around the Saint-Saens “Carnival of the Animals”, written for two pianos.
In the second story, the little girl has a magic, talking piano, which plays any piece she asks. At first she uses the piano so that her strict grandma and grumpy piano teacher will think she’s practicing… However, they think her playing is so marvelous that they send her on concert tour with her piano! Trapped in her own fibs, she fools everyone into thinking she is a prodigy, until the inevitable moralistic end, when the piano tires of her hubris and refuses to play for her! Every piece that the magical piano performs will be logically integrated into the dialogue.
How do we plan to spend your hard earned money?
Although our musicians, artists, writers, voice actors and producers are donating their time, talent, and resources, putting out a high quality record will be expensive. Kickstarter funds will pay for instrument rental, studio time, and recording equipment, as well as partially covering the costs of the audio engineering/mixing, team transportation, disc duplication, distribution and publicity.
