PRESS RELEASE                                                                                          PRESS RELEASE Press Release-For Immediate Release Penguin to appear at the Shirley Lubeznik Children Concert! La Porte County Symphony Orchestra reaches thousands of school children! Date:  October 14, 2009 Time:  9:30 am, 11:10 am, 12:45 pm Location: La Porte Civic Auditorium                 1001 Ridge Street                  La Porte, IN  46350 Press Contacts Only: Lee Bauman, Executive Director, La Porte County Symphony Orchestra Office: 219-362-9020, executive@lcso.net, cell: 630-235-8676 www.lcso.net To initiate the season of "Symphonic Surprises", Wednesday, October 14, the La Porte County Symphony Orchestra is proud to present the Shirley Lubeznik Children Concert. The orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Philip Bauman, will provide a unique concert experience that will both educate and entertain a young audience of 8,000 school children at three consecutive concerts. Attorney V. Michael Drayton, the volunteer concert coordinator for 21 years, has once again succeeded at filling the seats of the La Porte Civic Auditorium. The sound of laughter that emulates from a young audience of such a large size is an unusual noise of joy that the musicians look forward to hearing each year.    The orchestra would like to announce that the Shirley Lubeznik family, owner of local McDonald's restaurants, has become a major concert sponsor for this event. The Lubeznik's are thrilled to be part of this musical feature, which focuses especially on children in our community.  Numerous financial donors and hundreds of volunteers are essential to making this concert a wonderful success every year. Other substantial sponsors for the event include V. Michael and Jan Drayton, Dr. Hester Muller, La Porte Savings Bank, and General Insurance Services. Volunteers that assist in the ushering these large events come from the La Porte Service League, Kesling Middle School student council and La Porte Little Theatre.  The program for this year's concert is an animated adventure featuring Picardy Penguin®. This witty cartoon character will be interacting with Maestro Bauman and the orchestra, through a large projection screen that will be suspended above the stage. This work was created by Music Director and Conductor for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Lucas Richman. Titled "Music, Music Everywhere!" the theme of the show is to connect with music as it touches our daily lives. Musical selections to be performed include classic compositions from Chen Gang, George Gershwin, and Ludwig van Beethoven.  Students, led by the lovely voice of Hoosier Star 2009 winner Kyrie Anderson, will join the orchestra in singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".  Upon the singing of over 2000 voices perhaps a major league baseball game will actually begin.  It is anyone's guess as to what surprise will occur at this concert.  With the theme Symphonic Surprises, an unannounced guest will appear or special song will be heard. Perhaps a special surprise guest will join the orchestra's percussion section as they are featured on a piece by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The finale will be a lullaby entitled, "Day is Done", an original composition by Lucas Richman, that will be sung by Ms. Anderson, but hopefully won't put the audience completely to sleep. There are already 38 area schools attending this event and the number is growing. Lee Bauman, LCSO executive director, has created a teacher's guide for the concert. These guides will be made available to those schools which have made reservations. The guide covers concert etiquette, brief biographies of the composers and classroom activities that coordinate with the musical selections. This concert is in keeping with the LCSO mission of instilling a life-long love of music in people of all ages.