Posted March 15, 2022
DAYTON, OH (March 13, 2022) – On Sunday, March 20, 2022 at 3:00 pm in the Mead Theatre of the Schuster Center, Conductor Dr. Patrick Reynolds and the Dayton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (DPYO), along with dancers from Dayton Ballet II, present an exciting 2021‒2022 Family Series concert called BUGS!!
Featuring music and dance for creeping, crawling, and adorable insects of all sorts, this family concert will showcase the student musicians and dancers of the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance. Founded in 1937, the Dayton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra brings together the greater Dayton area’s most gifted young orchestral musicians, providing the opportunity to study and perform a broad range of orchestral repertoire.
The concert opens with the rousing Tarantella from the one act ballet La Boutique fantasque, a piano work by Gioachino Rossini with orchestral arrangement by Ottorino Respighi. The moods then switches to the awakening of day with the soothing “Morning Mood” from Edvard Grieg’s moving Peer Gynt. The melodically delightful “Moths and Butterflies” by Edward Elgar follows.
A concert entitled BUGS!! would not be complete without the dizzying “Flight of the Bumblebee” by Rimski-Korsakov. Then two more pieces by Edvard Grieg follow: the majestic and methodically rising “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and the fantasy invoking “March of the Trolls.”
The Dayton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra then performs Jonathan Peters’ Arthropod Suite, with music depicting the full range of creepy, crawling insects, from ants to butterflies and beetles to grasshoppers. Three young talented conducting apprentices, under the tutelage of Dr. Reynolds, will make their conducting debut at the Schuster Center for this work. The DPYO welcomes Bonnie Burgess-Gay, Nicholas Hogue, and Alena Scott to the podium for this piece.
The afternoon continues with the creative “Imaginary Creatures” from the larger work Let’s Make a Symphony by contemporary Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra. Then, it’s a trip to the big screen with an excerpt from Danny Elfman’s daring musical score from the Hollywood blockbuster Spiderman. This engaging DPAA Family Concert scurries to a close as audiences members will be unable to contain themselves from dancing in their seats to the delightful Johann Strauss II composition “Thunder and Lightning Polka.”
To add to the festivities of the afternoon, Dayton Ballet II dancers, under the direction of Megan Forney and Gabrielle Sharp, will join the DPYO to bring to life on stage all things creepy and crawly depicted by these fantastic musical selections.
Additionally, throughout the concert, guest narrators Mollie Steen and David Harrison will take the stage to read aloud selections of poetry by Harrison from his work entitled “Bugs: Poems About Creeping Things.”
Activities for kids of all ages begin at 2 p.m. in the Wintergarden of the Schuster Center, with crafts, crafts, coloring, and a scavenger hunt. All pre-concert activities are supported by the Dayton Philharmonic Volunteer Association.
Come out and celebrate the arrival spring and let the entire family fall in love with live music and dance with an afternoon of fun at the Schuster Center for BUGS!!
Safety Protocols
The DPAA is excited to welcome audiences back to the 2021–2022 Season. The health and safety of patrons, performers, staff, and volunteers is our top priority. Beginning March 5, 2022, in partnership with DPAA’s venue partner Dayton Live and in accordance with the CDC’s new guidelines, the following new health and safety protocols will be in place at all performances and events:
- Vaccination and Testing – Proof of vaccination or COVID-19 testing will no longer be required to attend performances at Dayton Live venues, including the Schuster Center and the Victoria Theatre.
- Masks – Masks will no longer be required while attending a DPAA performance or event. The DPAA welcomes patrons to wear masks at any performance if they so choose.
Tickets for BUGS!! start at $5 and are available at the box office by calling (937) 228-3630 or online at www.daytonperformingarts.org. The $5 Tickets are sponsored by AES Ohio as part of DPAA’s “The Arts Are for Everyone” program. Senior, teacher and student discounts are available at the box office. For more information or to order subscriptions, including flexible subscription types that include performances by Dayton Philharmonic, Dayton Opera and Dayton Ballet, visit www.daytonperformingarts.org.
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About the Conductor
The conductor of the Dayton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Dr. Patrick Reynolds, is celebrating his 21st year on the DPYO podium. He is the second longest serving conductor of the DPYO in its eighty-four-year history. As leader of the youth orchestra, he serves as a mentor to gifted young musicians from throughout our region.
Dr. Reynolds also serves as Associate Conductor of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, regularly conducting SuperPops, Rock and Educational concerts. An enthusiastic proponent of educational programming for orchestras, each season he leads the DPO in Magic Carpet and Young People’s Concerts, reaching thousands of young students across the Dayton metropolitan area. Additionally, he has conducted Dayton Opera productions of Verdi’s La Traviata, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Gian-Carlo Menotti’s The Consul, Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, and Puccini’s La Bohème.
Dr. Reynolds is a Professor of Music on the faculty of the University of Dayton and was the recipient of the University’s 2020 Faculty Award in Teaching. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the University of Michigan School of Music.
He is married to Sonya Szabo-Reynolds, a pianist, Czech music specialist, and respected piano pedagogue.
About the Dayton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra
The Dayton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (DPYO) brings together the greater Dayton area’s most gifted young orchestral musicians, providing the opportunity to study and perform a broad range of orchestral repertoire. The DPYO is committed to inspiring an overall cultural awareness and appreciation of music in its members and audiences, strengthening our region’s existing school music programs, and helping stimulate interest in the development of school orchestral programs where none exist. Founded in 1937 by Paul Katz, the DPYO is one of the nation’s oldest youth orchestras.
The DPYO performs three concerts each season. In 2002, 2004, 2006, 2014 and 2019 the group was invited to perform at the Ohio Music Education Association conferences.
The orchestra regularly appears on the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra’s Family Concert Series, featuring collaborations with Cirque de la Symphonie, Zoot Theatre, Platypus Theatre, the Dayton Ballet II Senior Company, the Gem City Ballet, the South Dayton Ballet, illustrator Rob Shepperson, performance artist Dan Kamin, and the Magic Circle Mime Company. In March 2008 a chamber orchestra from the DPYO participated in a production of Hans Krása’s opera Brundibar in a collaboration between the DPYO, the Dayton Opera, the Kettering Children’s Choir and the Victoria Theatre Association.
The DPYO is supported by the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Association of Parents and Friends of the Dayton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, and the Dayton Philharmonic Volunteer Association. The orchestra is affiliated with the Youth Division of the League of American Orchestras.
About the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance
The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance (DPAA) was formed in July 2012 as the result of a groundbreaking and innovative merger between the Dayton Ballet, the Dayton Opera, and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. Together, they are the largest performing arts organization in the greater Dayton community, with a mission to be the community’s indispensable source for traditional, diverse and innovative experiences in ballet, opera, and orchestral music. The vision of the DPAA is to transform lives through the power of music and dance. The DPAA offers a wide variety of performance and education programs, setting a new standard for artistic excellence. DPAA performances reach an audience of more than 90,000 people annually, and their rich arts education programming serves over 60,000 schoolchildren in 150 schools in the Miami Valley. These performances and education initiatives are made possible in part through major support provided by the Ohio Arts Council, Culture Works, the City of Dayton, Montgomery County and the National Endowment for the Arts.