Children’s Program / WORLD MUSIC DAY

Playtoy Orchestra, a unique ensemble that has performed music exclusively on toys since 2002, brings a refreshing and witty approach to the classical repertoire. This unusual “orchestral play” blurs the boundaries between play and art, reminding us that in many languages, the concepts of playing music and playing games are inseparable. With miniature instruments, from plastic wind instruments and a cardboard accordion to children’s drums and guitars, the ensemble creates a surprisingly rich sound world, featuring works by composers such as Johann Strauss, Georges Bizet, Gioachino Rossini, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, all in original and imaginative arrangements.

The ensemble comes from the Italian region of Campania. It has performed in leading theaters throughout Italy and around the world, from Europe to Asia
and South America and regularly appears on television and radio. For many years, it has collaborated with the renowned children’s festival Zecchino d’Oro, performed with the RAI Orchestra and Piccolo Coro dell’Antoniano and held the title of ambassador of the National Council for Children and Adolescents (CONADI).

Playtoy Orchestra bases its performances on interaction with the audience, especially the youngest listeners, bringing so-called serious music closer to them in a direct and accessible way and successfully combining education, art and social responsibility. In doing so, it opens the doors of theaters and concert halls to audiences of all generations or, as the ensemble’s founder and director Fabrizio Cusani likes to say, to “children from 2 to 120.”

PROGRAM:

Johann Strauss Jr.: Annen-Polka
Vasily Bogatyrev: Masha and the Bear, theme
Introduction and a short excursion into the Neapolitan tarantella
Georges Bizet: Carmen, overture
Gioachino Rossini: William Tell, overture – Finale / Ennio Morricone
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 / Pérez Prado: Mambo No. 5
Jacques Offenbach: Can-Can, from the opera Orpheus in the Underworld
Gioachino Rossini: La Danza
Dmitri Shostakovich: Waltz No. 2
Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5
Mo Li Hua, Chinese folk song
Franco Migliacci – Domenico Modugno: Nel blu, dipinto di blu
Pascual Marquina Narro: España cañí
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, from the ballet The Nutcracker
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Serenade in G Major, K. 525 (Eine kleine Nachtmusik)
Johann Strauss Sr.: Radetzky March
Ludwig van Beethoven: Ode to Joy, from Symphony No. 9