Videos for Children
Adapted Children's Books with music
"Miss Marietta's Memory Music"
Written by Debbi Ponella, Illustrated by Joi Almonacy
Stuck inside with nothing to do, a young girl uses her imagination to transport herself to various locations. Inspired by a memory book given to her by someone special, she relives experiences through memories of the sights and sounds from the various environments.
*Joi Almonacy is a high school student in CT who generously collaborated to create the beautiful illustrations for the book and video.
"Zin! Zin! Pop!"
An adaptation of "Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin!" written by Lloyd Moss and illustrated by Marjorie Price
Narrated by renowned opera singer Marietta Simpson, this video incorporates musical variations of "Pop Goes the Weasel" composed by Debbi Ponella. The music introduces the instruments in parallel with the storyline as it counts from solo trombone to a chamber group of ten.
Supplementary videos
"Meet the Musicians of 'Zin! Zin! Pop!'"
The musicians of "Zin! Zin! Pop!" introduce you to their instruments. These top notch musicians from around the world each share a favorite thing to do on their instrument. The diverse geography of where they are from is highlighted and provides a fun example of how music can be created and shared across cultures and generations.
"Meet the Creators of 'Miss Marietta's Memory Music'"
Get a behind the scenes peek at what inspired both the video and the book "Miss Marietta's Memory Music." From the high school-aged illustrator and college-aged composer, to narrators who span the generations, see how this collaboration took shape. Additionally, musicians show how their instruments create various sounds from the video—a tenor sax 'howls' like wolves, a cello produces sea gull and whale sounds, and the percussionist recreates the sound of waves on his drum.
Children explore music composition
4th grader, Scott, explores his original composition "Alleyway Blues" with a group of live musicians. He gets to experiment by having his melody played by the various instruments, culminating in the premiere of his piece as it was developed in this workshop.
For more videos and further information about the Kids Compose program, click here.
5th grader, Quinn, discusses composition with professional composer Gabriel Lubell.
For more videos of students interviewing composers and further information about the Vonnegut Requiem Composers Student Interviews project click here.