Arts & Entertainment News Release 1/15/08
CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS TO COME TO CITY

What do Leonard Bernstein, Bugs Bunny, and Sting have in common? They've all performed CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS, a zoological music suite for animals and orchestra.

On Saturday, February 23rd at 2PM, the WSO's Annual Free Family Concert at the Community Arts Center) will feature the CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS with actor/mask artist Jamie Peck and performing partner Joanna Tyler. The text will be narrated by Jeff Breon of the James V. Brown Library. The 2008 Young Artists' Competition Winner will also perform. Dr. Gary Boerckel will conduct.

Jamie, a.k.a. James J. Peck, is founder and artistic director of Nutshell Masks and Theater. Besides advancing the art of mask-making in America, he has been a professional actor for twenty years. 2008 marks his eighteenth season as an actor with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Reared in northeastern Pennsylvania, Peck studied theater at Northwestern University, mime in San Francisco with the Houle-Wibaux Mime Troupe, masks and mythology at theDel' Arte School (Blue Lake, CA), and mask dance and carving in Bali, Indonesia He has toured with CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS many times.

Father/daughter piano duo (of State College), Elisabeth and Timothy Shafer, will also perform in CARNIVAL.

It was a February day in Austria when Camille Saint-Saëns finished CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS (Le Carnaval des Animaux) as "an entertainment" for his party. The CARNIVAL was instantly accessible and "commercial" for 1886, but Saint-Saëns thought CARNIVAL was silly and possibly harmful to his reputation as a serious composer and star of the French Romantic style. He wanted CARNIVAL suppressed (at least until after his death). Yet the piece is now performed constantly around the world and is considered a family classic.
In 1950, poet Ogden Nash added text to CARNIVAL. This version is available in an array of books and recordings, and has been narrated by Leonard Bernstein, Hugh Downs, John Lithgow, Sting, Sir Peter Ustinov, comedian Robert Klein, and Toy Story actor John Davis.

The Lycoming County SPCA will be at the Concert to accept donations of kitten and puppy food, cat litter and other pet items.

The WSO's Free Family Concert is totally free (no tickets are required, general seating); donations will be accepted. The Concert is sponsored by Wegmans. Clear Channel is the media sponsor. For more information visit the WSO web site (williamsportsymphony.com/freefamily.html) or phone (570) 322-0227.

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