Santa Cruz Symphony presents ‘Peter and the Wolf’ family concert
The Santa Cruz Symphony will present a family concert featuring Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” at the Civic Auditorium on Sunday, March 2, at 2pm.
This popular “family priced” concert is a culmination of the Symphony’s annual free music education program for elementary schools throughout the county. It’s part of the Symphony’s participation in the Carnegie Hall Link Up program, and this year’s theme is “The Orchestra Rocks.”
The first part of the program will feature master of ceremonies Omari Tau introducing performances from community-based organizations. These include El Sistema and Cabrillo Youth Chorus singing a selection from Carmina Burana, plus The Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore; the Kuumbwa Honor Jazz band performing “I Got Rhythm”; Esperanza del Valle and Nematalin Musicians performing “La Bruja”; the Symphony Youth Orchestra performing “Juba Dance” and “Ram Tori Maya”; and Community Partners presenting “Oye.”
Following intermission, the Santa Cruz Symphony, conducted by Daniel Stewart, will perform “Peter and the Wolf,” with Tau narrating. At the program’s close, the orchestra will open for a “petting zoo,” allowing young people to touch and play instruments while interacting with the musicians. This has been a popular program feature for youth.
“It’s always been a priority for us to bring free music education to our elementary schools,” said Gary Reece, the Symphony’s executive director. “This is especially true when funding for the arts becomes even more challenging. Young people have few opportunities to hear quality music and to appreciate what goes into creating these lasting compositions. Ultimately, our goal is to inspire kids, especially those from under-represented communities, to expand their imaginations and think more creatively about how to plan a rewarding life.”
Science has shown that many of the neural pathways for music are the same ones used for solving mathematics problems. In this way, music helps to improve the development of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) skills. Further, the brain lights up in new ways when people listen to music. However, playing a musical instrument has been described as “setting off fireworks.”
“During our performances, children actually sway to the music and sometimes even dance in the aisles,” Reece said. “It’s obvious that they have a natural affinity for absorbing music and expressing it with their movements and their moods.”
For tickets, order from Santa Cruz Box Office at SantaCruzTickets.com.
New website design unveiled for Visit Santa Cruz County
Visit Santa Cruz County (VSCC) has launched a new website design, incorporating enhanced functionality and leveraging four portions of the site that garner the most traffic overall on the homepage.
With the VSCC blog content generating approximately 50% of the traffic to the site, three blog stories are featured on a seasonal basis on the homepage. A scrollable photo-centric carousel featuring upcoming events highlights one of the more popular portions of the website.
To provide orientation, a redesigned countywide map with featured destinations within Santa Cruz County clicks through to designated landing pages devoted to Scotts Valley, Davenport, Capitola, Santa Cruz, Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley, Soquel, Pleasure Point, Corralitos, Aptos and the mountain towns of Boulder Creek, Felton, Brookdale, Bonny Doon and Ben Lomond.
Finally, elevating the visibility of VSCC’s Instagram platform, two dozen of the latest posts showcase the beauty of the county through bite-sized, aspirational photos and videos.
Santacruz.org continues to enable visitors to book a hotel stay online, search for activities and events, and find places to eat, enjoy coffee and sweets, and sample local beer and wine. Blog stories illustrate each themed landing page, linking the visitor to more detailed information about restaurants, activities and more—as well as the ability to search for events or attractions by date, type or region.
“We have enhanced the online visitor experience by streamlining navigation and leveraging our wealth of creative assets,” said Terence Concannon, Visit Santa Cruz County’s CEO. “It is the ultimate marriage of technology and creativity, boosted by expanded search features. The end result is a travel site that is a valuable resource for both visitors planning a trip to Santa Cruz County and for residents to find out about local events taking place within the area.”
The navigation has been divided into two categories for both consumers and businesses with refined and created new layouts for the Spotlight Featured Business program and free online listings for local businesses.
To maximize its presence on the internet, VSCC optimized the website for better search engine optimization (SEO), improving the ranking of the site in search engine results. VSCC is extending its adventure-seeking Find Your Awe brand as it employs a less literal creative suite of images and video, embracing a more emotive aesthetic. These cost-effective methods allow VSCC to reach repeat as well as new visitors to Santa Cruz County in an informal and savvy way, on trend with other DMOs.
According to a recent survey, nearly 8 in 10 (78%) Americans always or frequently research and book at least some portion of their trips online.
For more information, see santacruz.org.
