Santa Rosa Symphony´s ´Child of Our Time' PROJECT
The poster for the performance of ``A Child of Our Time'', given by the Santa Rosa Symphony on April 14 this year, is a computer collage by ArtQuest student Alex Mingoia showing a young boy in a swirling series of images, including the World Trade Center and a New York City taxi - a signal that this was a project with special dimensions. Nearly 1,000 students from Santa Rosa High School had studied the oratorio as part of the school´s ArtQuest program, whose curriculum for the entire year revolves around issued raised by the oratorio - racism, prejudice and violence.
In fact, Jeffrey Kahane, conductor and music director of the Santa Rosa Symphony had chosen to perform the work last year before the events of September 11 made its message even more relevant. Kahane commented, "In our collective grief, shock and anger, it is imperative that we look into our own souls and encourage our children to do the same, and examine the ways that blind hatred of 'the other' has shaped and continues to shape the human story."
ArtQuest´s project has involved a wide range of creative work by the students - music, paintings, sculpture, banners, photographs, poetry, dances and theatre - and the entire collaboration with the Santa Rosa Symphony is being documented on film by Tommie Dell Smith of Verite Productions.
Since the beginning of the year, Smith has been following students in performing and visual art disciplines, chronicling their progress and hopes to show how the students´ involvement changed as the project and their work evolved over the year. Her goal is to create a 30-40 minute film that could be a teaching tool and inspirational model for similar artistic collaborations between civic and school groups.
An initial grant of $100,000 for the film came from Maureen and Don Green, founders of Advanced Fibre Communications in Petaluma and major backers of the new music center for the Santa Rosa Symphony at Sonoma State University.
Their grant overs the year´long filming of the students, the Symphony and joint performances. The Symphony hopes to secure similar funding to complete the editing, sound and other post-production work and distribution of the film.
Further information at www.santarosasymphony.com
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