Vallejo Symphony Orchestra conductor Marc Taddei will be leading a special performance of Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony, tailor-made to an audience of band students at area schools this Monday. (Photo courtesy of Tim Zumwalt)

Benicia Middle School’s band students will be joining more than 800 pupils from area schools to attend a pair of special Vallejo Symphony Orchestra performances at the Empress Theatre on Monday. The best part? They will have the auditorium just to themselves as they take in the sounds of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony.

According to VSO conductor Marc Taddei, this is the first time the local symphony has put on such concerts, which he described as being in the vein of Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts, in which the noted conductor taught lessons on symphonic music for a younger audience. Taddei attended one of those concerts at a young age, and he assures that the setup will be similar.

“For our first concert, I thought it best to go with a proper concert that has been tailored for students,” he said.

The schools attending will include Benicia Middle plus Hogan Middle School, Solano Middle School, Franklin Middle School, Steffan Manor Elementary School, Vallejo High School, Vallejo Independent Study Academy, Federal Terrace Elementary School, Jesse Bethel High School and Grace Patterson Elementary School of Vallejo; Holy Spirit School of Fairfield; and Napa Junction Elementary School in American Canyon.

Taddei said the students would not be joining in as performers but instead would be watching a 20-minute presentation featuring images and musical excerpts played by the orchestra. This will be followed by a performance of Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, also known as his “Jupiter” symphony. Taddei said it was arguably Mozart’s greatest symphony, and felt it was a good fit for a concert aimed at students.

“By placing the work in historical perspective, as well as Mozart’s personal circumstances, and introducing the students to fundamental ideas about musical structure, or how the work was constructed, I hope that it gives them an insight into a different world,” he said.

Taddei also believes that attending symphonies and concert halls are a good way to expose the youth to a larger culture.

“They are resources that absolutely add to the quality of life we enjoy in our communities,” he said. “I certainly hope the students have fun, but even if classical music ends up not being to their taste, we have exposed them to the arts and community resources that they may not have been aware of, or exposed to.”

Moreover, Taddei believes that exposure to the arts is crucial to education.

“The arts offer us insights into where we have been, where we are, and where we are going,” he said. “While they don’t help us to count, read, or write– although the stimulation that the arts provides unquestionably has an impact on our ability to learn–, they provide experiences that require thinking of a different sort. I would suggest that the kind of lateral, creative, and interpretive thinking that the arts demand, actually have huge relevance in one’s day to day existence.”

The concerts will take place at 10 and 11:30 a.m. Monday, April 16 at Vallejo’s Empress Theatre. It will not be open to the public, but VSO hopes to broadcast at least one of the concerts on Facebook Live and Vallejo’s KZCT (“Ozcat”) at 89.5 FM and online at ozcatradio.com. The day before at 3 p.m., VSO will perform the final concert of its season, featuring performances of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Hamlet,” pianist Cecile Licad’s rendition of Camille Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 2 and Mozart’s “Jupiter” symphony.

The Empress is located at 330 Virginia St. For tickets and additional information, go to vallejosymphony.org.

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