Nature’s Symphony
Speaker: George J. Scharr
Tuesday, April 9, 2024 – 5:00 PM
Birds do it, and even whales do it. Here is a look at Mother Nature as the first composer! Music and instruments of the orchestra are only natural. In this multimedia presentation using lots of video and images, We will be introduced to new concepts like playing Jazz on a conch shell, “Jazz for Cows” and “Snowball, the dancing cockatiel.” Do animals have an innate sense of music?
We will discuss the difference between the art and science of bird songs, meet Mozart’s pet Starling and see how Mozart incorporated his song into a composition. But in Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, the pastorale you will learn how Beethoven weaves together bird songs into an exciting solo section for his masterpiece.
Reservations are available by clicking HERE. Admission: $10, Members are Free
About George J. Scharr:
George Scharr currently plays bass trombone for the Cape Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is founder and conductor of the Symphony Swing Band and the Downtown Dixie Strutters; and is a founding member of the Cape (Cod) Symphony Orchestra and Plymouth Philharmonic’s Brass Quintets.
Scharr is the Chair of the Arts department, Director of Orchestra and the Advanced Jazz Band at Falmouth Academy in Falmouth Massachusetts as well as the Director of Community Outreach. Scharr formerly served, for fifteen years as the Director of Community Education for the Cape Symphony Orchestra & Cape Conservatory where he was responsible for such programs as Music Memory, Music Works! Everyday, Tix4Music, Lesson Plans for the Classics and the Young People’s Concerts. In total these programs reached over 16,000 Cape Cod students annually. Scharr currently is training schools for the national Music Memory organization and you will also find him giving Pre-Concert Talks for the Cape Symphony Masterpiece Concerts.
In 2007 he received the Music Advocacy Award from the Massachusetts Music Educators Association and in 2013 the Arts Educator of the Year from the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod.
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A graduate of New England Conservatory with a major in trombone performance, George Scharr began playing professionally at the age of sixteen. After a cross-country performance tour, Scharr settled here on Cape Cod. He is married 36 years with three adult children and four grandchildren, the joy of his life.
As a jazz trombonist, Scharr is the recent recipient of the Vince Gannon Award from Bridgewater State College for a May 2003 International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) performance. He is former president of the Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra’s board of directors.
Scharr has played with or backed up a very diverse group of conductors and performers including Yo Yo Ma, Peter Schickle (PDQ Bach), Morton Gould, Daniel Pinkham, Joshua Bell, The Drifters, Freddie “Boom Boom” Cannon, Wendy Law, Royston Nash, Rebecca Parris, Bobby Vincent, Ike & Tina Turner, Nadia Salerno-Sonnenberg, Gunther Schuller, Caroll Spinney as Sesame Street’s Big Bird, the Paul Winter Consort, John Pizzarelli, Dee Daniels, Byron Stripling, Pat Carroll and Bill Holcombe.
In addition, Mr. Scharr has studied with Gerard Schwartz (Seattle Symphony), John Coffey (Boston Symphony), John Swallow (New York Metropolitan Opera), Rebecca Parris (International Jazz Vocalist), Ken Keisler (New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra), Joseph Gifford (Boston University), Jaki Byard and Carl Atkins (New England Conservatory), Kauko Kahila (Boston Symphony), and Ray Barlow (Vaughn Monroe Orchestra).