The Animated Orchestra
Photos by rr jones, “Ari” sketch by Thomas NovotnyThe Animated Orchestra was commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music to celebrate the festival’s 50th anniversary. It was premiered in August of 2012 with Marin Alsop conducting the festival orchestra. The author narrated.
The Animated Orchestra’s storyline consists of a cartoon score being performed at a symphony concert. The film of the cartoon was sent to the wrong address and so is not available. To salvage the concert, the narrator describes the scenes and the orchestra plays the music as the audience imagines the missing cartoon.
The hero of the cartoon is a playful and curious ferret named Ari. The setting is an instrument repair shop owned and operated by a sleepy, older gentleman who lives above the shop. Ari, who inadvertently sneaks into the shop late one night, discovers that the shop is a ferret paradise. The story moves beyond the shop as the audience, orchestra, and conductor are called upon to act out the cartoon's climactic scene.
Orchestration: 3(pic),2,2,2 4,3,3,1 Timp+2, Harp, Strings, Narrator
Timing: 29 minutes