Philharmonic Conductor Will Spice Up the Holidays
By John Lynch

Christmas with the Lexington Philharmonic should be more kid-friendly this year as new conductor Scott Terrell instills his interactive approach to the traditional Candy Cane Concert at the Singletary Center.

Terrell, who joined the Philharmonic this summer after an international, two-year search to replace George Zak, brings 10 years experience as a conductor of children’s concerts and education programs to his job in Lexington.

Terrell spent six years as the Assistant Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra where he conducted family and children’s performances and oversaw an ambitious children’s education program.
In the course of a year, he performed before more than 50,000 children, including an intense five-week program that featured two-a-day performances.

In Charleston, S.C., he was the director of education programs.
He doubled the number and scope of the orchestra’s educational offerings, adding neighborhood Kinder Konzerts, adopt-a-school residencies and high school curriculum connections programs to the in-school ensemble and young people’s concerts programming.

Under his direction, the orchestra further expanded its educational offerings by adding a new Family Concert series.

To use a musical term, he’s obviously got the chops for kids’ concerts.

He also has a simple mantra - transform passive listeners into active, engaged listeners who are responding to performances on multiple levels.

“There’s always great energy in the house for a children’s concert,” Terrell said.

“You will see kids moving to the music, tapping their bodies as they listen.”

Terrell remembers playing Leonard Bernstein’s “America” from “West Side Story” with its emphasis on percussion, and the audience of 2,000 children felt the rhythm of the piece and became part of the orchestra.

“When kids are engaged, it’s the difference between saying, ‘I saw the orchestra play’ and ‘I performed with the orchestra,’” he said.

Terrell will make that claim literal by reaching out to young musicians in the area.
In October, he invited the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra, SCAPA chorus and students of the

Lexington Ballet to perform on stage with the Philharmonic at the Youth Arts Day concert.

On Dec. 13, the Diana Evans Dancers join the orchestra for the annual Candy Cane Concert.

For the final dress rehearsal for his debut performance in September with solo percussionist Evelyn Glennie, Terrell invited students from the Kentucky School for the Deaf on stage to feel the music.

In Minnesota, he lined the stage with 40 xylophones and invited players from local school orchestras to perform during a series of children’s concerts.
“Kids said, ‘Oh wow. That’s our school up there.’ That was talked about for a long time,” he said.

“That’s the difference between simply playing music and creating an engaging program.

“People can expect to see a freshness to the Christmas concerts in the breadth of the music and the arrangements of the repertoire.

“One thing we will never do is fall into a rut.”