STOCKTON - Antonio Vivaldi's concertos - many of the hundreds he composed, anyway - were written to be studied and performed by students at the Venice girls' home that employed him throughout his career.

Inside Atherton Auditorium at San Joaquin Delta College on Thursday, Stockton Symphony conductor Peter Jaffe introduced a selection from one of Vivaldi's most famous concertos. In the third movement from "Autumn," Jaffe told hundreds of San Joaquin County fourth- and fifth-graders they would hear the repetition of a theme and sounds that would evoke images of a fall hunt.

He turned around, the students hushed and the music started.

Now in its 11th year, the Stockton Symphony's "Steppin' Out" program invites county students to a classical music concert. For many children, educators said, the field trip offers a first encounter with a live classical performance, an experience that can inspire music appreciation and enhance arts education.

"It was really great," said Jessica Flores, a 10-year-old fifth-grader at Stockton Unified's Taft School. "It was like an adventure."

Two "Steppin' Out" concerts were performed in Stockton at Atherton on Thursday, while two more are scheduled today at Hutchins Street Square in Lodi. Each sold out to more than 1,000 students.

"Ideally, I see this as a program that introduces fourth- and fifth-graders to the symphony in a more casual, more stimulating environment," said Megan Rafferty, the organization's education coordinator. "We have 1,400 kids in the auditorium with a high level of engagement. It's a really neat thing to experience."

This year, Stockton Unified sent about 900 students to the concert, said Dean Gorby, who oversees arts education in the district.

"We want them to become aware of the symphony in our community and to have that experience of hearing classical music," Gorby said. "They quit talking to each other and focus on the music."

Hal Willenborg teaches music at Elmwood School and also plays trumpet for the symphony. He said it's important for students - many of whom experience music only on television or radio - to grasp that people make the sounds they hear.

"It makes it more tangible as opposed to something that just comes out of a box," he said. "When I was a kid, I would wonder, 'Do people really play those instruments?' "

They do, Jaffe told students Thursday.

"All these people on the stage are doing this live," he said. "All these people on the stage go through an adventure also."

Enrique Mata, 10, said he enjoyed listening to selections from Aaron Copland's "Billy the Kid." Shanice Perry, also 10, sketched pictures of symphony instruments as she listened to the finale from Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony."

The last pieces the symphony performed Thursday were composed by John Williams for the Harry Potter movies. As in the Vivaldi piece, Jaffe said, students would hear the repetition of themes, music that sometimes mimicked nature.

The alto flute and English horn evoked an owl in flight, he said. "There's also some tinkling-bell sounds that you'll here in the celesta ... and then the violins play a lot of notes."

Contact reporter Jennifer Torres at (209) 546-8252 or jtorres@recordnet.com.
 

	Craig Sanders /The Record
Marcus McCauley, 10, left, and Jaquan Williams, 10, from Nightingale Elementary School write their thoughts of what they hear during the Stockton Symphony educational concert at the Atherton Auditorium on the Delta college campus Thursday.