From being part of a legendary folk trio to becoming a celebrated children’s performer, in the last few years musician and songwriter Rick Scott has turned his talents towards a new focus: igniting a passion for playing music in children.
And he’s going to do that by joining the Vancouver Island Symphony.
At least that’s the premise of his upcoming show My Symphony, which begins with Scott’s bumbling appearance onstage carrying an Appalachian mountain dulcimer and a red plastic trombone.
The story then follows Scott’s attempt to cajole conductor Cosette Justo Valdés to let him join the orchestra, even though he’s a self-taught musician.
Conceived as an educational concert to introduce children to the orchestra, the show aims to make the symphony an accessible experience and was initially written for local Grade 4 students. It is performed in partnership with the symphony and its 40-member Noteworthy Kids children’s choir, directed by Patricia Plumley.
In the five years since My Symphony was first performed, in 2014, it has been shown to more than 10,000 local schoolchildren.
Now, for the first and only time, it will be performed for the general public at The Port Theatre on Jan. 27.
“One of the first turning points in my life was when I was seven and my dad took me to Broadway to see Mary Martin do Peter Pan. And that was it for me. It was like, ‘I don’t know exactly what they’re doing. But I want to do that.’ It just looked like such fun. Like Peter said, ‘Think lovely thoughts, and you can fly,’” says Scott.
“I really feel like I’m in a perfect position now to turn back to where I came from, and pass on what I’ve got to the kids. I always say that whenever I perform, there’s always one kid that is looking at me thinking, ‘I could do that.’ And they do.”
One of those kids was local musician Nico Rhodes, who wrote Scott a fan letter as a child and by the age of 23, was hired by Scott to take 10 of his original songs and orchestrate them for the My Symphony show.
The two also formed their own rhythm and blues touring duo, Roots and Grooves.
“I listened to his music constantly growing up,” says Rhodes via message, whose own show Piano Heist plays at the Port Theatre on Jan. 25. “When I was in Grade 4, I wrote him a letter and he wrote back. After that, we shared the Port [Theatre] stage on a show where I tackled him since I was so excited to see him.”
Scott’s musical career first took off in the 1970s with his folk trio Pied Pumkin String Ensemble, which developed a “legion of grassroots cult followers,” according to a 1976 review in The Province newspaper.
Despite frequent successful reunions over the decades, by the 1980s Scott had begun to perform in schools and found inspiration in writing, touring and recording children’s songs, which have won a number of awards over the decades.
“There’s nothing like the connection we make when we are in the presence of live music,” says Valley Hennell, who co-wrote My Symphony, and is Scott’s life partner and publicist.
“More and more, live music is endangered for children. They’re getting their music from a screen. They’re watching it, almost more than listening to it. And so the whole purpose of My Symphony was to create that connection from Rick’s very first entrance, to make them feel like they are like him, stumbling on stage and trying to be part of something unfamiliar.”
Both Hennell and Scott say they hope this performance de-mystifies orchestra music and shows children and their families that they, too, could belong to a symphony.
“What the symphony is offering is inviting families to engage,” says Hennell. “And then what Rick is doing is saying, ‘Come on, play with me,’ so that in the end it’s My Symphony because it belongs to everyone in that room.”
My Symphony starring Rick Scott plays for one show on Jan. 27 at 3 p.m., for ages 5 and up. Tickets are $33 for adults and $16 for youth, with group rates available.
