By Alan Phillips

From time to time, I am honored to transport kids from Redding School of the Arts to various shows, cultural events and concerts.

I didn’t think I’d get “blown away” taking my 6-year-old daughter and some of her school pals to see a free morning preview of “Crystal Harmony” presented by our own Shasta Community Concert Association.

We felt very lucky before the show started when the richly accented and beautiful spokeswoman for the touring group stated they were from Russia and this was Crystal Harmony’s American debut performance.

When these gifted performers played their first notes, it was like some fabulous fairy sprinkled pixie dust over all the little heads of 500 starry-eyed kids at the very same time. And, as an added bonus, I no longer had to chaperone or redirect the youthful fidgetiness of my rambunctious passel of rugrats! We adults were truly impressed with the skill, technique and artistic performance.

The kids, on the other hand, were absolutely mesmerized.

After several masterfully performed classics, these gracious musicians actually allowed several children to come up on stage to touch and play their very delicate - and undoubtedly priceless - crystal instruments. They use bowls of water for playing these finely crafted and rare devices. My 6-year-old daughter came bouncing back from the stage with her hands dripping wet and her eyes as bright as a Shasta sunrise.

Talk about making a huge impression upon these students who had teachers smart enough to seize this fortunate and unique opportunity from SCCA.

At the same time, the SCCA and Crystal Harmony were building our kids up to receive another culture in a mutually enjoyable setting. Thank you, SCCA, for outdoing yourselves by immersing our children in the classics in a most magical, ear-catching way.

These are very smart, unsung people behind the SCCA, and if they can blow you away with just one show, imagine how you could feel with a season membership!

As an aside, I used to have a frustrated expression about the lack of arts and culture in our area:”When it’s 9 o’clock in New York, it’s 1957 in Shasta County.”

On Feb. 3, 2009, SCCA also brought Dale Gonyea to Redding. Who’s that? Oh, he’s just some guy who writes music scores for Walt Disney. WOW! What an encouraging impression he made on the hundreds of young students who came from the many corners of Shasta County! The Crystal Harmony and Dale Gonyea concerts were indelibly memorable for little Iliana and me.

I encourage everyone to attend (or contribute to) local events such as those presented by the SCCA - and do it with your children. While you may not get the opportunity to go up on stage to touch a masterfully crafted crystal verrophon while being gently assisted by the knowing hands of a master player, you definitely won’t get the chance to see these talented masters again anytime soon.

The upshot is this: Support the local arts, and you will help to make culturally disgruntled people (like I used to be) eat our whiny words.

 

Alan Ernesto Phillips is a proud son of Shasta County and is raising two daughters - Iliana, 6, and River, 12. He works for Shasta County Chemical People, Inc. (a non-profit agency dedicated to supporting the health and well being of youth and families) as a parenting educator, chemical-dependency counselor, victim-awareness counselor and developmental-asset builder and trainer. In his former life, Alan was a Clio- and Telly- award-winning filmmaker for more than 25 years in which he produced and directed political campaigns for congressmen, senators, governors and one president (Ronald Reagan). His national commercial clients also included Coca-Cola, NIKE, CBS News and NOVA documentaries. He is a former board member and public affairs officer for the Northern California Hispanic Latino Coalition.

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