Chris Rossi/The Gazette
Highland View Elementary School second-grader Lucia Montoya Cardenas sings along with the National Philharmonic's performance at Strathmore.
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Until there was a music hall to seat nearly 2,000 people, Piotr Gajewski couldn't have attempted to give a symphonic concert for 10,000 7-year-olds in three days.
But five years ago, before the Music Center at Strathmore had even opened officially for the public, the director of the National Philharmonic gave the venue a series of test runs in the company of every Montgomery County Public School second-grader, fresh ears exposed to classical music in a brand new location.
"The first year I conducted these I was totally terrified," Gajewski said. "They turn out to be really incredible, attentive and engaged."
Engaging youth in the classical world was Gajewski's aim when he started the program. In a musical genre the conductor complained is "dying" because of its own stiffness, it's refreshing to have an audience that is open to anything.
"Adults' minds tend to close off," Gajewski said. "[Second-graders] have no preconception of what's good and what's bad."
"It's almost more like a jazz type atmosphere than a classical atmosphere, where if they like something, they'll give [the orchestra] a hand right there," Gajewski said.
The willingness to enjoy and experience comes through at the concerts, where children openly gasp and giggle at abrupt movements, and begin clapping along with music, unconcerned if they're not in rhythm. Through the program, Gajewski tries to emphasize two themes: that music comes from composers who must first think it up, and that the kids could be a composer or musician themselves someday.
County teachers are given materials ahead of time to allow the kids to participate in the program by singing "The Berry Pickers Song" during Heitor Villa Lobos' "Little Train of Caipira," and this year, singing "Happy Birthday" to the concert series at Strathmore.
Each of the six concerts, which will take place through Thursday, also features a solo from one of the teenage winners of the National Philharmonic Concerto Competition who is intended to "serve to inspire them that they can do this too," Gajewski said.
Gajewski said it is his hope that as the concerts continue, a second-grader that attends the concert will someday be the ninth- or 10th-grader that performs the solo.
"That will be a totally cool experience for me when that happens," Gajewski said.
Amy Estrain, a second grade teacher at Garrett Park Elementary School, said her classes "absolutely have loved" the concerts every year.
"It's very kid friendly," Estrain said. "They talk about the things that they learned, they talk about all the different instruments."
Instruments are highlighted in the finale, in which composer Russell Peck narrates his piece "The Thrill of the Orchestra," describing in Seussian rhyme each section of the orchestra, the role of each instrument and the good and bad sounds they can make.
Even the building, Estrain said, puts the children "in awe."
"On the whole, 7-year-olds haven't been to this kind of concert or this kind of concert hall," Estrain said.
