Ware Center's Family Series Kicks Off with CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS Today

Families with young children will be able to enjoy a veritable musical menagerie-along with a "petting zoo" of musical instruments-at the first event in the "Family Fun Fest" performing arts series. The event will be held at the Ware Center of Millersville University today, Oct. 4, at 11 a.m.

Lancaster's Allegro Next-GEN Orchestra and the Barefoot Dance Company team up to perform Camille Saint-Saëns's beloved "Carnival of the Animals." Allegro Next-GEN Orchestra includes a combination of professional musicians from the Allegro Chamber Orchestra and outstanding student musicians from the Allegretto Youth Orchestra. The program features a lushly melodic overture to Mendelssohn's "The Hebrides," also known as "Fingal's Cave."

The Family Fun Fest series is geared to bring quality arts and entertainment to children ages 5-12. Families may come to the Ware Center one hour before the performance to participate in creative, hands-on activities based on the performance themes. Healthy and fun snacks will be available at no cost.

Saint-Saëns composed "The Carnival of the Animals" in 1886, intending for the musical suite to be a whimsical frolic. Its 14 movements evoke the nature of a variety of animals from roaring lions to gliding swans, to lumbering elephants, to pecking hens. Written for two pianos and a variety of other instruments, Allegro Next-GEN will feature Sara Newswanger, a Millersville University senior music major, and Steven Gao Jungyuan, a Pre-College Music Division student at M.U., playing the piano parts.

Priscilla Barden Kaufhold, artistic director of Barefoot Dance Company and manager of the Millersville University costume shop, created the choreography and costumes that turn the dancers into the animals they represent.

After the performance, kids will have the opportunity to explore an instrumental "petting zoo," as the musicians invite them to see their instruments up close and even try them out.

Tickets cost $8 for adults and $5 for kids 12 and under. Tickets can be purchased by calling 717-871-7600 or 717-871-7018. On the web at ArtsMu.com. In person at the Ware Center Box Office (42 N. Prince St., Lancaster) or at the Student Memorial Center Ticket Office on Millersville University's campus. Ticket Offices are open Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Tickets may also be purchased one hour prior to the performance.
Discount parking vouchers for the Prince Street Garage (half a block north of the Ware Center, at North Prince and West Orange streets) are available the day of the performance.

For more information, contact Laura Kendall at Laura.kendall@millersville.edu or 717-871-7026.