BSO Announces 2013-14 Music Box Series For Kids 6 Months to 3 Years

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) announces the 2013-2014 season programming for the popular Music Box Series, a unique music program for young children ages 6 months to three years old and their families. The series debuted at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall last season and was wildly popular, with all of the sessions reaching capacity. The BSO will now offer the program at The Music Center at Strathmore.

Hosted by acclaimed actress, dancer and storyteller Maria Broom, the Music Box Series gives young children the chance to explore music through highly engaging and interactive performances. Each thirty minute concert promotes musical, motor and language development through bouncing, clapping, listening, singing and other hands-on activities. The concerts will feature the musical talents of a small ensemble of BSO musicians performing classical, jazz and children's pieces to provide a captivating musical, social and educational experience for both children and their families. Each performance also features pre-concert activities hosted 30 minutes prior to the show by the BSO and partner organization Ready-at-Five, a non-profit that works to ensure that all Maryland children are ready to learn by age five. The wide range of pre-concert activities will encourage literacy, creative play and musical skills. Music Box programs take place in the spacious main lobbies of both the Meyerhoff and Strathmore.

Concerts are offered at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. on select Saturdays listed below. For programs at the Meyerhoff, tickets are $10 for children and $10 for adults; programs at Strathmore are $15 for children and $15 for adults. Tickets are available at 410.783.8000 or BSOmusic.org.

COMPLETE PROGRAM DETAILS:

Teeny Tiny Critters

September 21, 2013 at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.-Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (JMSH)

Delight in the smallest of animals as a string quartet performs selections by Haydn and Mozart.

Cars, Trucks, Trains & Boats

October 12, 2013 at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.-JMSH

The sounds of travel come alive with performances by a jazz ensemble of standards like Duke Ellington's "Take the A Train."

Arctic Animals

November 9, 2013 at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.-JMSH

It's a musical winter wonderland when a woodwind quintet celebrates cold-weather animals like penguins, polar bears, seals and walruses with music by Beethoven and more.

Bugs!

March 29, 2014 at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.--JMSH

April 5, 2014 at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.-Music Center at Strathmore (Strathmore)

The music of Debussy and Mendelssohn will soar like the bees, butterflies and ladybugs when performed by a piano trio.

Moo, Baa, Neigh

April 26, 2014 at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.-- JMSH

May 3, 2014 at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.-- Strathmore

A clarinet quintet celebrates the barnyard noises of sheep, pigs, horses, cows with some sprightly music by Mozart.

Summertime Movin' & Groovin'

June 7, 2014 at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.--Strathmore

June 14, 2014 at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.--Meyerhoff

A brass quintet will perform the swinging tunes of Joplin and sparkling music by Handel to celebrate what makes summertime great: sunshine, the beach, ice cream, swimming and more!

About Maria Broom, narrator: Maria Broom is an actress, dancer and storyteller. She has completed a breadth of work in film, television, media, dance, theatre, therapy and education. Ms. Broom had a recurring role on HBO's The Wire, HBO's mini-series The Corner and also appeared in NBC's Homicide: Life on the Streets and The West Wing. Ms. Broom has starred in numerous theatre productions in Baltimore and beyond including Center Stages' Les Blancs, Theatre Hopkins' Racing Demon/Pericles, and Henry Street Playhouses' Pass It On.

Ms. Broom currently works as an Instructor in the Theater Department of Baltimore School for the Arts. She also works as "The Story Mother" telling stories at schools, libraries, camps, conferences and more. Her other work includes teaching therapeutic dance classes and stress management to women, children and veterans. Additionally, Ms. Broom performed in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's Women of the World (WOW) Festival in 2012.

Ms. Broom received a Fulbright Scholarship from Morgan State University to Berlin Dance Academy. She also attended UCLA where she studied the dance arts of Bali, India, Japan and Java, and she received her Masters in Dance Therapy from Goucher College. Ms. Broom was the former dance artist in residence at Fisk University of Nashville, Tennessee, and has served as a guest instructor at various schools including Johns Hopkins University, MICA, Peabody Preparatory and Vanderbilt University.

Ms. Broom has a long list of achievements for her artistic performances. In 2004, she received the Governor's Arts Award for Individual Artist, and in 2007 she was named the Young Audiences of Maryland's Artist of the Year. In 2011, Ms. Broom was the recipient of the Zeta Phi Beta Award for Woman of the Year in Cultural Arts.