World of Dinosaurs

Dan and I stopped to laugh and take a picture of the small trail of sand we left as we hauled sand by wagon onto campus this week. We were creating a dinosaur dig, and in the middle of the project, it just seemed really funny that we'd somehow come to a point in our lives where all of our efforts were focused on creating a dinosaur dig together. Who would have thought?

The dino-dig was part of the pre-concert family dinosaur activities. The whole project started last year when Dan and his composer (not composed, but composer) brother Keith were commissioned by the Orchestra of Southern Utah to write a piece of music. They ended up writing a dinosaur piece -- an orchestra piece where each of the ten movements was based on a different dinosaur. They collaborated with elementary school students, so the students wrote poems, played or sang melodies, and created artwork. The Bradshaw brothers used the poems to inspire their music. They incorporated the kids' melodies into their pieces. Then, in the concert, the writers read their poems, they played the kids' melodies, and then the BYU-H orchestra and symphony players performed the pieces. The child-collaboration and recognition was awesome. While the music was playing, they showed dinosaur artwork by children on a slide show. So the audience was filled with kids and families, all smiling at the both the efforts of the children and the creativity of the composers, and I think that everyone who heard it could be inspired by the possibilities of creativity. . . especially where there is no art program or music program at the elementary school here. That sends the message to kids that those things are not important, but I think they all felt the excitement of combining scientific learning with creativity. Also, it provided such great exposure to orchestral music in a fun, kid-centered setting. Yeah for Dan and Keith for making such a great project come to life! And the Elvis thing worked, Dan, even though I doubted your wisdom in including an Elvis impersonator for "Elvisaurus." How often do you have an audience screaming during an orchestral concert? Success.

So many people helped, from parents to teachers to students, to friends who came and created dinosaur activities (thank you, Laura Blum!) and face painting. I have called in so many favors. I'm on my own for the next year.





It was all so exhausting for the composer.