Children’s TV made me a conductor they know

Kwamé Ryan, music director of the Charlotte Symphony, says he owes it all to Cbeebies:

… Whenever I hear people refer to orchestral music as arcane or incompatible with young ears, it occurs to me that any young person who has enjoyed a Marvel or Star Wars movie has heard a lengthy orchestral performance (of a sort) and might well be amenable to hearing and seeing more, were it presented in a similarly imaginative and relatable context. So, in the summer of 2019, I was thrilled to join the already popular CBeebies Proms for Off to the Moon, an “edutainment spectacle” celebrating 50 years since the first astronauts walked on the moon, with giant video screens, a Saturn V rocket model, a new work by Hans Zimmer, beloved TV hosts as crew, and myself cast as the conducting Mission Commander! Cinematic appropriation? Perhaps, but popular cinema has borrowed some of its most evocative musical vocabulary from the concert world, so it’s only fair that the pedagogical concert world should occasionally poach cinema-style storytelling in return….

Since my journey to the moon at the 2019 Proms, I’ve returned to the Royal Albert Hall for an Ocean Adventure in 2022 and again for this year’s Wildlife Jamboree – not least because paying forward the “power of wow” from the very platform that delivered it to me as a boy has been uniquely fulfilling. At my most recent CBeebies Prom, as I walked on stage, I heard a pre-applause gasp from the audience that perplexed me. Backstage after the show, the director shared with me that this was in fact the moment the kids had excitedly recognised their trusted musical friend and the only conductor they knew, thanks to watching previous Proms on iPlayer. I thought: if this signals the start of a lifelong musical journey for even a handful of them, then the circle is complete. Mission accomplished.

Full article here.