The San Francisco Symphony (SFS) will perform the world premiere of the children’s work for full orchestra, with Mr. Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events) narrating, on July 8 at 2 p.m. as part of a Summer in the City festival family concert. SFS Resident Conductor Edwin Outwater will lead the Orchestra in Davies Symphony Hall.
Part of the SFS’s effort to make classical music more accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds, The Composer Is Dead is a collaborative effort by the San Francisco Symphony, Stookey and Mr. Snicket, also allegedly known as Daniel Handler. The goal of The Composer Is Dead commission, book, and CD is to build upon the wild popularity of Mr. Snicket’s inventive humor and Stookey’s new score to introduce the orchestra to young listeners in an original and entertaining way.
The Composer Is Dead engages listeners with a gripping plot—in this case, a whodunit murder mystery—while the music and Snicket’s narration work together to provide an entertaining introduction to the instruments of the orchestra, in the vein of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.
“What Lemony Snicket and Harry Potter have done for books, we want to do for music,” said Stookey. “With his kids’ books, Lemony’s made something, ostensibly for children, that’s not just for children. This is something I’ve always wanted to do—to make something people can access on all levels.”
Mr. Snicket agreed, saying, “Ever since I was a boy, classical music has made me weep uncontrollably. I hope The Composer Is Dead does the same for a new generation. It’s certainly either alarmingly original or originally alarming.”
“The Composer Is Dead is a joyful and intelligent introduction to classical music,” said Brent Assink, SFS Executive Director. “It’s a wonderful expression of one of our key goals here at the San Francisco Symphony: to introduce children and young people to the riches of orchestral music, and to do so in an engaging and entertaining way. With The Composer Is Dead, Lemony Snicket and Nathaniel Stookey have succeeded.”
Stookey seemed fated to work with Mr. Snicket, ever since he serendipitously ran into his old Lowell High School friend, Daniel Handler, in 2003, years after graduation. Within days, SFS Resident Conductor Edwin Outwater contacted Stookey, a SFS Youth Orchestra (SFSYO) alumnus, to ask if Mr. Snicket might be interested in narrating an SFSYO performance of Peter and the Wolf (he was). After the concert, Stookey approached his old schoolmate with the idea of collaborating on an opera, and the seed for The Composer Is Dead grew from there.
HarperCollins will publish The Composer Is Dead, written by Lemony Snicket, with the SFS audio recording included in every book. The publication date will be announced at a later time.
ABOUT LEMONY SNICKET
Lemony Snicket is an international best-selling author. An alleged San Francisco native, he is best known for his series of novels for children, known collectively as A Series of Unfortunate Events, which chronicle the misfortunes of the likeable but luckless Baudelaire siblings. To date, the books in A Series of Unfortunate Events have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide and been translated into 39 languages; the first three books in the series formed the basis for the 2004 hit film Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. The End, the thirteenth and final installment in the series, will be published on Oct. 13, 2006. Mr. Snicket is represented in all legal, literary, and social matters by Daniel Handler, who has also written three novels for adults, The Basic Eight, Watch Your Mouth, and his newest book, Adverbs. An alumnus of the San Francisco Boys Chorus and graduate of San Francisco’s Lowell High School, he graduated from Wesleyan University in 1992.