{"id":25749,"date":"2020-01-23T18:48:09","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T23:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25749"},"modified":"2020-01-23T18:48:18","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T23:48:18","slug":"beatbox-trio-shares-stories-of-song-with-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/beatbox-trio-shares-stories-of-song-with-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"Beatbox trio shares stories of song with kids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Music tells a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can tell a story from the standpoint of the composer\nor song-writer, but often the interpretation of the story can vary from person\nto person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Infinitus, a strong trio that brings a splash of\nbeatboxing into the mix, music is much more than just something to have on in\nthe background \u2013 it\u2019s magic and next month they hope to weave a spell for local\nkids as part of the Aurora Cultural Centre\u2019s family-friendly Kaleidoscope Music\nSeries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aurora Cultural Centre will present Infinitus: From\nHandel to Hip-Hop on Saturday, February 8 at 2 p.m., a show perfect for kids\nfive and up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Handel to Hip-Hop is \u201ca 50-minute highly engaging\nand interactive music presentation,\u201d according to the Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis dynamic trio engages every audience member with\nmusic ranging from familiar classical standards to classic rock, and from TV\ntheme songs to hip-hop beatboxing. It\u2019s everything from the Flight of the\nBumblebee to the theme from Star Wars!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded in 2008 by violinist Anthony Cheung, cellist Alex\nCheung and violinist John \u201cAddidam\u201d Littlejohn, the Vancouver-based Infinitus\nbegan performing for children and families after recognizing a gap when they\nsettled in Canada from the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe knew it was missing,\u201d says Mr. Littlejohn of\ndeveloping a program of classical music geared towards budding music lovers.\n\u201cAll of us grew up in the Midwest, and there every school has an orchestra. I\nwas exposed to orchestra instruments and playing the violin around Grade 6. It\nwas something I was able to do for free, paid through taxes, and we just had it\nkind of inherently. I played in band all the way through high school, always\ndoing shows for younger students to inspire them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we left school and moved to different places, [we\nfound] they didn\u2019t have it as much. We thought these kids are not exposed to\nthese instruments on a regular basis and some don\u2019t have the opportunity to\nplay. We also found there were a lot of misconceptions about what the\ninstruments are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, they aim to spark creativity, showing kids how\nto create and foster their own imaginations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All too often their string instruments are associated\nwith the classics, and not enough young listeners connect the music they make\nto the tunes they\u2019re currently streaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome of the audiences we play for, when they walk into\nthe theatre and see three string players, we have kids have this, \u2018aah, this is\ngoing to be boring\u2019 feeling,\u201d says Mr. Littlejohn. \u201cAs soon as you play things\nthey recognize, that they think is relatable, we catch their ear and once we\nget their ear, we can bring then in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMusic tells the story and it has been telling the story.\nPeople are used to music only being background to something visual. When you\nsit down and have music as the main event and you help people hear just this\nmusic without any words \u2013 and we\u2019re beatboxing and doing all these different\nthings \u2013 the music is telling the story. There\u2019s a real connection because when\nyou listen to music without a visual image and it tells you the story, it tells\nyou the story you need to hear because everyone is hearing it in their own way.\nThey hear the same thing, but they interpret it differently, they feel it\ndifferently, so it is a much broader experience than if you\u2019re watching a movie\nor playing a video game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe like to spark creativity and use our show to\nencourage our audiences to create things and we let every kid know they have an\nimagination. We end by asking kids to be discerning about what they listen to\nwhen they leave. We say, \u2018Every time you hear music, see if you can find the\nstory.\u2019 If it is a really great story or a story you love, listen to lots of\nthat music. If it is a story that is giving you negative messages or making you\nfeel bad about yourself, you don\u2019t have to listen to every story someone wants\nto tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Infinitus\u2019 From Handel to Hip-Hop presentation, part of the Aurora Cultural Centre\u2019s Kaleidoscope Family Series, will take place Saturday, February 8 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 each, or $48 for a family four-pack. For more, including tickets, visit auroraculturalcentre.ca or call the Box Office at 905-713-1818.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Music tells a story. It can tell a story from the standpoint of the composer or song-writer, but often the interpretation of the story can vary from person to person. For Infinitus, a strong trio that brings a splash of beatboxing into the mix, music is much more than just something to have on in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/2020-01-23-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Hj","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 22:55:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}