Event Calendar
Allentown Band Family Concert: Wild Symphony, Dan Brown
Saturday, November 04, 2023, 2:00 pm
Students with an Adult FREE, Adults $5.00
Ronald Demkee, Conductor
Edward Pleasant, Narrator
Dan Brown—the man behind the #1 best-selling publishing phenomenon The Da Vinci Code—is known for exciting twists, turns, and surprises. His newest surprise, Wild Symphony, unveils the novelist as a lifelong musician and composer who was inspired at a young age by Peter and the Wolf, The Carnival of the Animals, and The Young person’s Guide to the Orchestra.
Featuring nearly two dozen musical portraits drawn from the animal kingdom, Wild Symphony springs to life on stage and is poised to become an instant children’s classic. From the joyous rhythms of “Bouncing Kangaroo” to the mysterious melodies of “Wondrous Whale” to the hair-raising harmonies of “Brilliant Bat,” this is a very wild symphony indeed.
“My hope for Wild Symphony,” Brown says, “is to provide a fun, fresh opportunity for families, parents, children, and people of all ages to reconnect with the magical experience of classical music both in the concert hall and in the home. I hope audiences have as much fun listening as I had composing.”
Wild Symphony is accompanied by a vibrantly illustrated New York Times bestselling children’s book of the same title, which has been translated in more than 20 countries worldwide.
Movements
Maestro Mouse
Woodbird Welcome
Bouncing Kangaroo
Clumsy Kittens
The Ray
Happy Hippo
Frogs In A Bog
Anxious Ostrich
The Armadillo shell
Dancing Boar
Impatient Ponies
Wondrous Whale
Cheetah Chase
Eager Elephant
Rat Attack
Busy Beetles
Spiders On A Web
Brilliant Bat
Swan In The Mist
Cricket Lullaby
Maestro Mouse Reprise
EDWARD PLEASANT BIO
Edward Pleasant, baritone is recognized as one of the most versatile performers of his generation. Critically acclaimed in opera, stage, narration, recording, and musical theater, he has distinguished himself as an expressive singer and a gifted actor with brilliant comic timing and a luscious baritone voice. His voice has been heard in such prominent venues as David Geffen (Avery Fisher) Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Texas State Capitol and the White House.
Mr. Pleasant gained national attention when he appeared with the New York City Opera as Jake in Porgy and Bess, which included a first-time, Emmy-nominated Live from Lincoln Center telecast on PBS. He has reprised this and other roles both nationally and abroad.
Pleasant is also a professional storyteller who is in high demand as an orchestral narrator. He has narrated the perennial children’s favorites Peter and the Wolf, Carnival of the Animals, Tubby the Tuba, Russell Peck's The Thrill of the Orchestra and most recently a new work, Uzu and Muzu from Kakaruzu by Avner Dorman.
Mr. Pleasant is a also recording artist who can be heard in operatic arias and in all three volumes of the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra’s Black Manhattan recordings. These recordings highlight the works of prominent African-American composers of the Harlem Renaissance. A recording of the early music of Irving Berlin titled This is the Life! for New World Records, was lauded as “an engaging time capsule” by Opera News. He appears in the definitive recording of Scott Joplin's Treemonisha, which was noted in a New York Times article on prominent Black composers.