THE CARNIVAL OF MORE ANIMALS Comes to Palm Beach Symphony Next Month

Families will be treated to a symphonic safari through Florida featuring its indigenous animals when Palm Beach Symphony performs “The Carnival of More Animals” as part of the Dale A. McNulty Children’s Series Saturday, Oct. 7 at 3 p.m. at the Eissey Campus Theater on the Palm Beach State College campus. The concert will be preceded by an animal meet & greet in the lobby with Busch Wildlife Sanctuary at 2 p.m.

Palm Beach Symphony Music Director Gerard Schwarz, who will lead the orchestra, has created a new arrangement of Camille Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of the Animals,” which was originally composed for a chamber orchestra. The new arrangement features an expansive array of instruments to accompany this reimagined multi-media presentation that incorporates video and photos filmed at Busch Wildlife Sanctuary and provided by Friends of Manatee Lagoon.

Animal Planet host Forrest Galante will narrate the work in an engaging, fact-based educational journey that integrates music with science topics related to conservation, the environment and the preservation of Florida’s indigenous animals.

“As president of our Board of Directors from 2008 until his death two years ago, Dale A. McNulty was instrumental in the establishment of our education programs and enjoyed narrating the children’s concerts,” Palm Beach Symphony CEO David McClymont explained. “He would be thrilled to see this work engage young audiences with orchestral music and the importance of conservation knowing that, thanks to the Symphony’s partnership with South Florida PBS, this concert will eventually be broadcast to families around the country.”

In addition to the concert on October 7, “The Carnival of More Animals” will be presented in two school field trips at the Dolly Hand Cultural Arts Center on October 4 as well as a school field trip at the Kravis Center on October 6.  Palm Beach Symphony has created age-appropriate curriculum guides with lesson plans for grades K-12 that are available on its website for educators and families. 

A gifted composer and arranger, Maestro Schwarz’s works  are performed by orchestras worldwide. Five Naxos recordings feature works by Gerard Schwarz: Holiday Classics, Echoes, Rudolf and Jeanette, Above and Beyond and In Memoriam while the released 30-CD box set “The Gerard Schwarz Collection” features one CD dedicated to his compositions including his Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano and the band version of Rudolf and Jeanette. Maestro Schwarz also arranged five holiday works that were recorded recently by the Palm Beach Symphony and produced by multi-Grammy® and Latin Grammy Award-winning producer Carlos Fernando Lopez for distribution by LandL Entertainment and Sony Latin America. The Symphony will perform an orchestral world premiere by Maestro Schwarz on December 13 as part of the commissioning project in celebration of its 50th anniversary season. 

Called a “Modern-day Charles Darwin” by The Outdoor Journal, Galante has pursued a career in high-risk wildlife biology fieldwork, always focusing on animals on the brink of extinction. In 2014, he participated in Discovery’s hit show Naked and Afraid.  His hands-on approach to wildlife, passion for nature and extraordinary background eventually led to the development of his own television show, Extinct or Alive, on Animal Planet. Galante continues to conduct field expeditions and surveys with a mission to inspire and educate people about animals and adventure through hosting programs on Animal Planet, on-camera expert interviews and production of his own wildlife and natural history shows. 

Tickets for “The Carnival of More Animals” on October 7 are $20 with a $10 student ticket. Tickets may be purchased at PalmBeachSymphony.org by calling (561) 281-0145, and at the Palm Beach Symphony Box Office weekdays from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at 400 Hibiscus Street, Suite 100, West Palm Beach.