Orchestra Invests in Baby Musicians
Sound is one of the first experiences for a baby and the Orchestra of Southern Utah wants those sounds to be beautiful. The OSU is providing CDs to new mothers through the Valley View Medical Center. The “Baby Ears” project encourages the use of music as a home enrichment tool. Recordings will be donated to the Cedar City and Enoch Public Library as well.
“We have chosen some of our favorite performances to share with the families,” said Sara Penny, OSU manager. The CD begins with a lovely violin duet of “Lover’s Waltz” featuring sisters Megan Cottam and Amanda Munford with Carol Fife from a fall recital performance. Full symphony orchestra pieces include the Largo of Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” with the haunting English Horn solo featuring Dr. Virginia Stitt. The vibrant “Jupiter” movement from Holst’s Planets adds energy to the CD. Two of the works commissioned by OSU. These Marshall McDonald and Steven Sharp Nelson pieces are “Africa” and “Celebration” from the Spanish Trail Suite. Xun Sun directed all of these performances. Adding choir to the orchestra is “The Promise of Living” by Aaron Copland conducted by Craig Jessop as part of a special combined choir performance featuring high school, university, and community vocalists with the OSU. Ken Hedgecock recorded the performances and produced the CD. Jamie Bayer assisted with the recordings.
OSU launched the Baby Ears Project because of research indicating that classical music can affect the way the brain develops, creating new pathways and improving spatial reasoning. Classical music, such as played by symphony orchestras, has a complex pattern musical structure which appears to prime the brain to solve spatial problems more quickly.
Other benefits exist in listening to classical music. Premature babies who have been exposed to classical music have also shown greater weight gain and lower blood pressure after as little as four days. Babies have also shown recognition to familiar classical music patterns as young as three months old.
Music educator Shinichi Suzuki wrote, “If a child hears fine music from the day of his birth, and learns to play it himself, he develops sensitivity, discipline, and endurance. He gets a beautiful heart.”
“ Cedar City has a positive cultural environment and we want to share music early and often with our youngest residents,” said Penny. “We hope that we can continue to encourage people of all ages to play instruments, sing, and enjoy music.”
For more information on the Baby Ears Project and the Orchestra of Southern Utah, visit the OSU website at orschestraofsouthernutah.org. Free music, via podcasts, is available at the website produced by Ken Hedgecock and hosted by Sandy Hedgecock. CDs may also be ordered from the website and the orchestra will seek additional funds to offer more than the initial 170 CDs since about 600 babies are born in Cedar City each year. If you would like to help with this project please designate “Baby Ears” on your donation.
