Symphony Addict

And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.(1)
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I can not get it out of my noodle. I just have to hum - and dum dum de dum that melody as it is so much fun. We double dog dare you to go to a symphonic performance of Peter and the Wolf and not have your feet tapping to the rhythm and not take away a great memory. It is the most fun you can have and you will never forget it. We looked forward to another evening with the sixty talented local musicians of The Fort Bend Symphony Orchestra Young People‘s Concert. They are celebrating their fourteenth year. “If music be the food of love, play on”(2)

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) “was a child prodigy on the order of Mozart, composing for piano at age five and writing an opera at nine. His first teacher was his mother, a talented pianist. . . . . He traveled widely, spending many years in London and Paris, and toured the United States five times. In 1936, Prokofiev returned to settle permanently in the Soviet Union. One of his first compositions after his return was Peter and the Wolf, written in just two weeks in April 1936 for a children's theater in Moscow.”(3)

In the beloved composition “Peter, the hero, is represented by the strings. The flute is the bird, the oboe the duck,” etc.(4) (Listen at http://www.philtulga.com/Peter.html)

Dr. John Ricarte, accomplished Musical Director and Conductor for nine years, led us in a spirited program of Piano Concerto in D by Aram Khachaturian and Peter and the Wolf (narrated perfectly by Mayor Leonard Scarcella). I was delighted when Dr. Ricarte asked the children in the audience to come sit by their favorite musical instrument during the playing of the following piece. The finale was the rousing The Olympic Spirit by John Williams.

There was mention of one of Mayor Scarcella’s many achievements, the beautiful new Stafford Centre. It is a unique 1,100 seat performing arts theatre, cultural complex and convention center. It is a possible future location but the convenience, facilities and acoustics of the First United Methodist Church of Missouri City are excellent.

The Piano Concerto was played by 16 year old Kevin Charubhat, winner of the F.B.S.O’s 2006 Young Artist Concerto Competition, Piano Division. He also plays piano in the Jazz Band, viola and violin at Westside High School. He began at the age of six.(5)

Auditions are by appointment. Tickets are reasonable and dress can be casual. Young and mature alike will share with Wordsworth that “The music in my heart I bore, long after it was heard no more”(6) and become symphony addicts just like us.


1 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), The Day is done, Columbia Encyclopedia,
2 William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Twelfth Night. Act i. ,
4 Program of the Fort Bend Symphony Orchestra, Missouri City, Tx., May 27, 2006, 281-276-9642; Program notes written by Dr. Monte Keene Pishny-Floyd
5 Ibid.,
6 William Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper