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Jessica Barbour

Marilyn Horne, world-renowned opera singer and recitalist, celebrated her 84th birthday on Wednesday. To acknowledge her work, not only as one of the finest singers in the world but as a mentor for young artists, I give you one of my favorite performances of hers:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sesame Street has always been a powerful advocate for utilizing music in teaching. “C is for Cookie,” a number that really drives its message home, maintains its cultural relevance today despite being first performed by Cookie Monster more than 40 years ago. Ms. Horne’s version appeared about 20 years after the original, and is an excellent re-imagining of a classic (with great attention to detail—note the cookies sewn into her Aida regalia and covering the pyramids).

Horne’s performance shows kids that even a musician of the highest caliber can 1) be silly and 2) also like cookies—that is, it portrays her as a person with something in common with a young, broad audience. This is something that members of the classical music community often have a difficult time accomplishing; Horne achieves it here in less than three minutes.

Fortunately, many professional classical musicians have embraced this strategy. Representatives of the opera world (which is not known for being particularly self-aware) have had a particularly strong presence on Sesame Street, with past episodes featuring Plácido Domingo (singing with his counterpart, Placido Flamingo), Samuel Ramey (extolling the virtues of the letter “L”), Denyce Graves (explaining operatic excess to Elmo), and Renée Fleming (counting to five, “Caro nome” style).

Sesame Street produced these segments not only to expose children to distinguished music-making, but to teach them about matters like counting, spelling, working together, and respecting one another. This final clip features Itzhak Perlman, one of the world’s great violin soloists, who was left permanently disabled after having polio as a child. To demonstrate ability and disability more gracefully than this would be, I think, impossible:

Click here to view the embedded video.

American children’s music, as described in the new article on Grove Music Online [subscription required], has typically been produced through a tug of war between entertainment and educational objectives. The songs on Sesame Street succeed in both, while also showing kids something about classical music itself: it’s not just for grownups. It’s a part of life that belongs to everyone. After all, who doesn’t appreciate that the moon sometimes looks like a “C”? (Though, of course, you can’t eat that, so…)

Jessica Barbour is the Associate Editor for Grove Music/Oxford Music Online. You can read her previous blog posts, “Foil thy Foes with Joy,” “Glissandos and Glissandon’ts,” and “Wedding Music” and learn more about children’s music, Marilyn Horne, Itzhak Perlman, and other performers mentioned above with a subscription to Grove Music Online.

Oxford Music Online is the gateway offering users the ability to access and cross-search multiple music reference resources in one location. With Grove Music Online as its cornerstone, Oxford Music Online also contains The Oxford Companion to Music, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, and The Encyclopedia of Popular Music.

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The post C is for Coloratura appeared first on OUPblog.

I love working the circulation desk at school libraries because that is where I really get a sense of what kids are taking home with them. Checking out a library book is such a commitment for some children. Even though the book is "free," it is fascinating how seriously some kids make their decision.




It is fun to note the continuing popularity of Ann M. Martin's The Doll People and The Meanest Doll in the World at the elementary schools where I work. Girls check-out these books everywhere I sub.

I loved dolls as a girl. I liked stories about dolls and doll houses. My own little entlings did not share my enthusiasm. They tolerated dolls but never really played with them.



I read Pam Conrad's Tub People books to
my kids because we had tub people at our
house when they were small.





As a girl I read all of Rumer Godden's doll stories.
I loved the Tasha Tudor illustrations of
The Doll's House...






...and the idea of a Japanese doll house,
with sliding screens, was so appealing in Miss Happiness and Miss Flower and the sequel, Little Plum

Offenbach intended that the four soprano roles be played by the same singer, for Olympia, Giulietta and Antonia are three facets of Stella, Hoffmann's unreachable love...While the doubling of the four villians is quite common, most performances of the work use multiple sopranos for the heroines. This is due to the different skills needed for each role: Olympia requires a skilled coloratura singer with stratospheric high notes, Antonia is written for a more lyric voice, and Guilietta is usually performed by a dramatic soprano or even a mezzo-soprano.

To improve the blog as it enters its third year, I had to look at some of the things I didn't do well . These are not New Year Resolutions and there are no timelines to them. I will get to them, when I get to them. Still, for 2008, you can look forward to: 1. More book reviews, done regularly to some sort of schedule – I didn’t do book reviews regularly, and I didn’t do many. But I have learnt

Today I was feeling blue because of a work-related accident ( deleted an article I shouldn't have, and I couldn't get it back because I created it today and had't backed it up on the network yet). Anyway, my creative juices sort of tanked, and I couldn't concentrate much on writing. Just to feel productive, I started going through my blogs to see if there were minor updates I could do that

The blog post outlining the history of storytelling in my family is now up on Riehl Life. For my grandfather, storytelling was a way for him to share our history as a family and community. Born in 1890, he and my grandmother saw a different world to the one I grew up in. I hope you enjoy this two-part article.

I mostly did this video as part of my experiment on my Mobile Life blog. But I couldn't figure out how to load it up on that site, so I brought it here. James Theledi, CEO of South Africa's Universal Service and Access Agency, was kind enough to be my guinea pig for my first interview using a mobile phone (LG KU990). His agency has the job of ensuring that the poor and disadvantaged also gain

This time I am diverging from my brief of telling African folktales and contemporary stories, but this story was just sitting there at my fingertips, begging me to share it with you. So how could I not? Please note that my take is very different from the original Russian fairytale The Frog Princess and is not intended to be a revision of that story. Also note I am not the originator of the

August is National Women's Month in SA, and many of the companies I come into contact with are likely to send me notices as to what they are doing to support children's organisations. So don't be suprised by an unusually high volume of posts related to that issue. If you'd like to support non-profit organisations in SA, maybe even child-related ones, check out the PRODDER database.

In 1978, my school won the Sipolilo Choir Competition. The competition was held almost twenty kilometres away from our home.We were very excited on the journey home, but our joy was short-lived. When we were arrived at the school with the trophy, we found the school surrounded by Ian Smith’s Rhodesian army.We were all forced in our rural council hall for screening. All the pupils found with

I've posted another folktale retold. Enjoy! ........................................................................ The Tortoise and the Baboon Plant Fruit Trees “Let’s plant fruit trees,” Tortoise said to his friend Baboon. Baboon was lazy. He did not want to plant a fruit tree.“It’s too much work,” he said. Baboon said he always found enough food from other people’s trees.“Why should I

“Let’s plant fruit trees,” Tortoise said to his friend Baboon. Baboon was lazy. He did not want to plant a fruit tree. “It’s too much work,” he said. Baboon said he always found enough food from other people’s trees. “Why should bother to plant my own tree?” he asked. “So you can have your own fruit from your own trees. Then you won’t have to steal,” Tortoise said. Baboon did not want to work

Baby was reading through my online stories the other day when she saw the poem “Across the Sea.” She loved it. I mean, she really, really loved it. She even started singing the words to some tune going thru her head. She asked to take the poem to school to use in her class’ upcoming musical to be produced in September. The poem resonated with Baby’s teacher, who sent a message saying she has a

I’m not sure how this story, which I finally called Old Man Moseki, came into being. All the kids I grew up with knew it. It was the classic story you told if you couldn't think of an original/interesting story to tell in class. Anyway, this version is told from the perspective of an adult. Enjoy. If you speak/read Setswana, read the original versionhere.

Amos Nobele was born in Chegutu at the Chegutu General Hospital, on the 4th of September 1963. He was the sixth born in the family of eight children, five boys and three girls. By the age of 10, he began to ponder joining the Zimbabwean liberation army so he could get revenge for his sister, who was murdered in his presence. By 14, he was a war spy, entering camping sites of the Rhodesian army

I have a lot of work-related articles to finish, so I’m doing a short post today, rather than not posting at all.

- The good news I sent out feelers to a major publisher for my project with Ramon. I'm planning to submit a proper proposal, but I think the book could fit into an existing series, so I need to double check some things before sending it out.

I've met the publisher before, and he did say I should send him something, so it's not exactly a "cold call."

In the meantime, I expect Ramon and I will get started on getting the material we have together and outlining the scope of the book. We met on Friday, and indications are we have complementary visions for the project.

- The articles I said were to be published on Absolute Write have been postponed to run on the 25 July and 1 August. I don’t mind though - it will be nice to have something with them on the 25 July – my birthday.

The next meeting of the SCWBI Gauteng is on the 12 July, from 09h00 – 13h00. Local children’s authors Rob Marsh, Leanne Hardy and Agueda Nunes will show their books and discuss their writing processes.

If I can swing it, I will attend so I can report on the event on this blog, maybe even review the books here. But I'm not holding my breath - lately my schedule has been very hectic. Check out the day’s programme here.

BTW, at the last meeting in May, Russell Clark from Jacana Mediasaid local teachers and librarians identified a need for non-fiction books on some specific topics, and that Jacana was open to proposals on those topics.

Russel also gave writers some writing and submission guidelines:

* Develop a clear concept for your book.
* Put together a proposal and submit it.
* Keep your target group in mind.
* Limit the age bracket for which you’re writing.
* Keep the language level consistent for the target group.
* Do not patronise your audience.
* Write from an African perspective.

I just found out today that my article for the Gauteng chapter of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCWBI) is online. Check it out the post here.

I'm going to see The Lion King ( the musical) on Thursday night. I wish I could take Baby with me, but it's one of the rare work-related social evenings that I've accepted. It will be fun, but it's also business, and no place for a child. Also, I'm going on a school night.

My Q and A with Ramon Thomas made the front page of the web site of the South African NGO Network (Sangonet).

Sangonet is a national non-profit organisation that encourages and assists other non-profits with issues around the use of technology to deliver services to disadvantaged communities.

I’m very excited about this, because Sangonet is a reputable, well-known organisation with national scope, and members include child welfare organisations.

Sangonet also publishes an online database of South African non-profit organisations called Prodder.

I also have an article (about blogging) due to come out in the newsletter of the South African chapter of the South African Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Not sure about dates, but will keep you posted. The article will also be published in the SCWBI Gauteng blog. Will link up to it when it's out.

Also, don’t forget to read Absolute Write on Tuesday 2 July and 9 July, where I expect to have 2 articles published.

I’m still not sure if the Ezine Articles experiment is working. In the month since I joined the portal, I submitted 12 articles and they are now live.

Collectively, these articles have been viewed over 650 times by publishers, online markets and bloggers. I don’t know how many publishers eventually used them though.

I haven’t seen an increased hit rate on my stories at ITWeb, but I remind myself that it’s only been more than a month since I joined the portal.

It will take time for publishers start using my stories and for people to click through to the ITWeb site and my blog.

It also strikes me that maybe readers from Ezine Articles do click through to the ITWeb site, but don’t find anything they can use directly for their business because it’s a South African technology news site, so they move on. I need to give this experiment more thought…..

Read my interview with Ramon here.

I mentioned some time ago that I submitted two writing-related articles to Absolute Write, a weekly writing newsletter. The articles were accepted and will be published in the 2 and 9 July editions. Yay!

Also, my post on why and how I blog has now been published on Quasifictional. Please visit the blog, and if you are a blogger, why don’t you respond to Diogenes’ (blog owner) invitation about why and how you blog? Chat about how you find your subjects, when you write, how you promote your blog and/learn from other bloggers.

I’ve posted The Mouse Trap, a story I heard related by one of the speakers at a conference hosted by the Black IT Forum.

Mmamathe Makhekhe–Mokhuane is the chairman of South Africa's Government IT Officers Council ( a council made up of all the public sector Chief Information Officers) and CIO for the North West Provincial government.

She used the story to drive home a message to IT companies that said : “Please let us help one another. Let my problems be your problems.”

I think the story is very appropriate for short people too, who sometimes don't understand why they should help if they are not affected directly by an event.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR LOCAL CONTENT PROVIDERS

Mmamathe also spoke about the opportunities that South African content providers will enjoy once the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has licensed more pay-TV providers.

She noted that many South African children watch the Disney channel and Cartoon Network every opportunity they get (24 hour channels on DSTV).

The stories on these channels do not reflect South Africa and were not developed in SA, she said.

“It’s about time South Africa created as many entrepreneurs, animators, content providers as possible, so we do not have to import content when the eight TV channels that are planned go live,” she said.

ICASA is currently holding public hearings where companies that would like to be licensed as pay-TV services providers (satellite and broadband) present their case.

Applicants include old broadcasters like the SABC, etv and Multichoice, and new potential players( in the SA market) like Black Earth Communication, Pretoria-based power-line broadband company Goal Technology Solutions, Quantic TV Network, Walking on Water Television, MultiChannel Television, Q Digital Cable Vision and MiDigital.

Eighteen companies/ consortiums submitted their written applications at the end of 2006.

Local writers of all kinds, including children’s writers, would do well to watch these developments, as they promise to bring forth new opportunities for their work to be used.

I have an article published on this week’s edition of Writers Weekly. I’m rather excited about it, so if you haven’t seen it yet, please check it out?

Also, I’ve finally written the article that came out of my interview with Candi Castleberry-Singleton, Vice President of Global Inclusion & Diversity at Motorola.

I met Candi recently while she was in South Africa, and she had some strong feelings about the role of education and mentorship in ensuring diversity in the workplace.

She speaks quite a lot about educating our children, guiding them, providing them with role models and how ensuring diversity shouldn't just be something companies have in their "to do" list to comply with laws and regulations. It should be part of our lives.

A lot of the information was not appropriate for my ITWeb article, which is strictly IT business orientated, so I asked DiversityBusiness.com if they’d like to see it and they responded with a yes. We’ll see how that works out.

Speaking of diversity, a book package for my book review project arrived last week, and Baby and I spent the past week going through the books.

Baby divided the books into three piles – those she can read (English), those I wish she could read (Setswana language) and those she struggled through (Zulu language).

As we are not Zulu-speaking and our grasp of the language is basic, we decided to ask Baby’s friend (9 years old; next door) to read the Zulu books for us. Unfortunately, she can’t read the language. Like Baby, her English-language reading level is high, but she has no clue about reading her own language. So her grandmother has offered to read for us this coming weekend.

The issue of South African kids not being able to read or write in their own language is an emerging problem among the South African middle class, because we tend to send our kids to private schools where they may not necessarily teach the child’s mother tongue.

Baby’s friend speaks fluent English and Afrikaans (her school uses Afrikaans as a medium of instruction) but can’t read and write in her own language, and Baby can’t read or write in her mother tongue (Setswana) because her school doesn’t offer the language as an option.

This problem is one of the many reasons I began writing children's stories in Setswana (in addition to English).

Anyway, we selected Zanzibar Road, written and illustrated by Nicky Daly and I’ll post our review/impressions tomorrow. We have the English and Setswana versions of the book (published in 13) so we’ll look at it from a multi-lingual perspective too.