"Scenes From Childhood" Featured as 2006 One Score, One Chicago

Watch this lighthearted demonstration of pianist Lang Lang conducting a master class with Ravinia President/CEO Welz Kauffman. In it you will see how this brilliant performer interprets Robert Schumann's "Scenes from Childhood."



This piece will be heard twice this summer at Ravinia as Robert Schumann's "Scenes From Childhood" (Kinderszenen) has been named the 2006 One Score, One Chicago selection. The work is the first solo-piano work to be featured in the project, which each year chooses a musical masterpiece to serve as the focal point of community discussion.

"This year's One Score project gave Ravinia the perfect opportunity to embrace the musical tradition of getting composers to express their own experiences through the prism of an existing masterpiece. It was easy to find willing composers because Scenes from Childhood is so well-loved by everyone we approached," said Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman. "We turned to composers we've commissioned over the past several seasons along with artists who will help demonstrate the composition process to the students in our community outreach and education programs. In fact, by the time we're done, we hope to have a new 'scene' composed by the students themselves."

The diverse group of composers commissioned to create "New Scenes from Childhood" include Kenneth Frazelle, Lita Grier, Jake Heggie, Aaron Jay Kernis, Ana Lara, Ramsey Lewis, Ricardo Lorenz, Nicole Mitchell, Ned Rorem, Jorge Torres Saenz and Augusta Read Thomas.

Inspired in 2003 by the Chicago Public Library's One Book, One Chicago, Ravinia's One Score is designed to promote the enjoyment of classical music and to create a cultural touchstone to enable people of diverse musical backgrounds to engage in community-wide discussion.

We also produce a bilingual (English and Spanish) supplemental resource guide that includes a CD of the featured work in addition to informative essays and children's activities.