Kids Groove to the Sound of Music at CSUN Concert

About 500 fourth- and fifth-graders from schools throughout Los Angeles got a music lesson Tuesday at Cal State Northridge while clapping along with songs from artists as varied as Tito Puente and Mozart.

The concert was the first of four performances offered to about 2,000 elementary school students to stress the importance of music in education, said Laura De Valencia, executive director of the 1999 L.A. Grammy Host Committee, which is sponsoring the concert series. The concerts cost about $8,000 to organize.

Tuesday’s show included performances from the CSUN Jazz Ensemble, the Imbroglio Quintet and the salsa group Tolu.

“We’re trying to expose the kids to music at this age because of how important it is to overall education in terms of supporting analytical skills,” said De Valencia. The Los Angeles Unified School District and the Entertainment Industry Development Corp. also helped organize the event.

The performers served as instructors as well, mixing their music with lectures about their instruments.

“The clarinet is the softest instrument in the ensemble. See if you can hear this,” Kathleen McNermey, clarinetist for the Imbroglio Quintet, said before playing a few notes.

“Yes, yes, yes,” the noisy audience replied.

Some students already had musical passions.

Kimberly Hernandez, 10, said she has been playing the piano for nearly two years. “I got really interested in the movements and the sounds,” said the fifth-grader from Parthenia Elementary in North Hills. “I feel good playing it.”

The next three performances will take place at the African American Museum’s Kinsey Hall today, Cal State Los Angeles on Thursday and the Carson Civic Center on Feb. 23.