[CLASSICAL MUSIC]
REBECCA YOUNG: Hi, everybody.
Welcome to the first episode of the New York Philharmonic's
Very Young People's Concerts at Home.
I'm Becky, your host, and I play viola
with the New York Philharmonic.
As you know, none of us can get to a concert hall
right now, not even Phillipe, the penguin
who helps us with our shows, even he has to stay home.
Everybody say, hi Phillipe.
But as they say, the show must go on.
Join us each time as we meet a new member of the orchestra
family.
[CLASSICAL MUSIC]
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) The Violin, viola, and the cello,
and the bass, and the harp and piano, each one
is in its place.
The piccolo, flute and clarinet, the English horn and bassoon,
don't forget the oboe, because he's the one who tunes us.
French horn, trumpet, tuba and don't forget trombone.
The tympani, and cymbals and the xylophone,
for now you know the orchestra, our family.
Next time won't you sing with me.
REBECCA YOUNG: The special instrument of the day is--
[VOCALIZING] The viola.
That's what I play.
Here to help us learn a little bit about the viola
is the principal viola with the New
York Philharmonic, my dear friend, Cynthia Phelps.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: Hi Becky, hi kids.
Happy to be with you today.
REBECCA YOUNG: Cindy, before we do anything else,
could you play a little bit on your viola
so we can hear what a viola sounds like?
CYNTHIA PHELPS: How about a beautiful tune
written by Johannes Brahms?
[VIOLA MUSIC]
Isn't that pretty?
REBECCA YOUNG: Cindy, how old were you
when you started playing viola, and was
viola your first instrument?
CYNTHIA PHELPS: I was actually four years old
when I first started to play an instrument, it was the violin.
I didn't switch to the viola till I
was bigger because as you can see,
it's a bigger instrument than a violin
and it has a deeper sound, which is
more beautiful in my opinion.
I was 10 years old when I first got a viola to play.
REBECCA YOUNG: Oh.
I don't know if I knew you started on violin,
I started on violin too.
I was five and I switched to viola
when I was 16, for the same reasons you did.
I love that lower sound.
Cindy, I know you come from a musical family,
could you tell us a little bit about that?
That must have been fun.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: I come from a family of musicians, yes,
and I have all sisters as well, four of them.
We all played instruments growing up.
We had a pianist, a cellist, two violinists and me the violist.
So we could play all kinds of chamber music together,
it was really, really fun.
REBECCA YOUNG: I bet it was fun, Cindy.
Cindy and I are stand partners.
That doesn't mean we stand next to each other,
it means we sit next to each other
and share the music that's on our music stand.
We also happen to be really good friends
and we have a lot of fun when we're playing in the orchestra.
Sometimes more fun than we're supposed to, like sometimes we
play games on our music.
Shh, don't tell anybody.
And sometimes, when the music's really loud, even in concerts,
we sing along really loud, but nobody
knows because the music's really loud around us.
We have a lot of fun.
Sometimes when I'm in a sad mood, or a mad mood
or something like that, Cindy will
start to sing one of our favorite songs
and it's called the Princess Pat.
And instantly, I'm happy again.
One time, I asked her to sing it with me
at a Young People's Concert in front of the whole audience.
I'm wondering, maybe we should do that now.
If we do that now, you'll want to stand up because there
are some moves involved.
What do you say, Cindy?
Can we do it?
CYNTHIA PHELPS: Yes, let's sing the Princess Pat.
Ready?
REBECCA YOUNG: Ready.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: (SINGING) The Princess Pat.
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) The Princess Pat.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: (SINGING) Lived in a tree.
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) Lived in a tree.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: (SINGING) She sailed across.
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) She sailed across.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: (SINGING) The seven seas.
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) The seven seas.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: (SINGING) She sailed across.
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) She sailed across.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: (SINGING) The channel too.
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) The channel too.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: (SINGING) And she brought with her.
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) And she brought with her.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: (SINGING) A rick-a-bamboo.
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) A rick-a-bamboo.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: (SINGING) A rick-a-bamboo
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) A rick-a-bamboo.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: (SINGING) Now what is that?
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) Now what is that?
CYNTHIA PHELPS: (SINGING) It's something made.
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) It's something made.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: (SINGING) By Princess Pat.
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) By Princess Pat.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: (SINGING) It's red and gold.
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) It's red and gold.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: (SINGING) And purple too.
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) And purple too.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: (SINGING) That's why it's called.
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) That's why it's called.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: (SINGING) A rick-a-bamboo.
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) A rick-a-bamboo.
CYNTHIA PHELPS: Yay.
REBECCA YOUNG: Yay.
That was fun.
See, it made me happy.
Did it make you happy?
Cindy, what if we do it one more time?
This time, you played on the viola,
and the kids and I will answer you by saying la-la-la-la.
But you try and trick us by playing it fast, or slow
or however you want to, just try and trick us.
That means we have to listen really careful you guys.
Can we do that, Cindy?
CYNTHIA PHELPS: Sure, we can do that.
Are you ready?
[VIOLIN PLAYING]
REBECCA YOUNG: (SINGING) La-la-la-la.
La-la-la-la.
La-la-la-la La-la-la-la.
REBECCA YOUNG: Well, that was fun I love copycat games,
like the Princess Pat.
Sometimes music is a little bit like a copycat game, where
one person plays, one instrument plays and then
another instrument plays after.
Cindy, can you think of anything like that for two violas?
CYNTHIA PHELPS: I know, let's play
a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach, for two violins.
It's called Branford Concerto, number 6.
[VIOLIN PLAYING]
REBECCA YOUNG: I love that piece, it's so much fun
to play.
But I think it's time to hear the whole orchestra.
You're going to hear a piece by Wolfgang [HOWL] Amadeus Mozart.
Yes, Mozart.
Now in this piece you'll hear the orchestra and two soloists.
Now a soloist is someone who plays a special part, the solo,
means you're the star, and there are two in this piece.
Cindy is playing the solo viola part,
so she's the star on the viola.
And on the violin, playing the solo violin part,
is our friend Cheryl Staples, who is
going to be the star violinist.
Now here's what I want you to do while you're listening,
choose one of the instruments to follow,
either the violin or the viola.
If you can get someone to play with you, a grown up,
or your brother or a sister, then they
would have the other instrument to follow along.
While your instrument is playing, you get up
and then you dance along to that music,
and your partner dances when their instrument is playing.
But here's the tricky part, only dance
when you hear your instrument, that means
you have to listen carefully.
There will be colors on the screen to help you.
Yellow is for the violin, blue is for the viola.
Ready?
Here we go.
[MUSIC - MOZART, "PRESTO"]
REBECCA YOUNG: Well, that was fun.
Did you get your wiggles out?
Now, you should get out your piece of paper
and a couple of crayons or a couple of markers,
because it's time for picture the music.
[CHEERING] As our Mozart continues, you can draw along.
You take one color and your partner can take another color,
it could be yellow for the violin and blue for the viola
or any colors you want.
You only draw when your solo instrument is playing.
And then, when your partners solo instrument is playing,
you watch them.
And when you're drawing, they watch you.
And see If you can add to each other's pictures,
it might be very interesting.
And then when both instruments are playing at the same time,
see if you can draw at the same time.
By the way, if you'd rather just listen and draw
what comes to your mind, that's fine too.
Are you ready?
[MUSIC - MOZART, "PRESTO"]
[APPLAUSE]
REBECCA YOUNG: Wow, what a Mozart.
Cindy you're all amazing on the viola,
and Cheryl's fantastic on the violin too.
Cindy, thank you so much for joining us today,
it was a lot of fun to play with you.
I miss sitting next to you on the stage,
but I guess this is the next best thing.
Anything else you'd like to say?
CYNTHIA PHELPS: Thank you so much for having me here today.
It's been so fun to spend this time with you guys.
Now listen, you're at home now, so don't forget to practice.
Bye.
REBECCA YOUNG: Well, that's our show.
Thanks so much for joining us.
We hope to see you again next time.
Remember, music is a way to keep us together,
even while we're apart.
So keep making it.
Toodaloo.
[VIOLIN PLAYING]
[CLASSICAL MUSIC]