TELLING A STORY—Westlake High School Chamber Orchestra cello musicians Derek Andrzejewski, left, and Vanessa Pan perform Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf,” directed by Liz Blake. The performance took place last Sunday in the Thousand Oaks High School Performing Arts Center. Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf,” which was commissioned in 1936 to teach Russian children the instruments of the symphony orchestra, has since become an enduring classic. The Westlake High School Chamber Symphony recently performed the work in a special concert held at the Thousand Oaks High School Performing Arts Center. Under the direction of Liz Blake, the orchestra played the charming music while Westlake High School’s longtime choral music director Alan Rose narrated the familiar story about a small boy who defies his grandfather’s warnings and captures a dangerous wolf in a meadow.

Although on the surface, “Peter and the Wolf” appears to be a children’s fairy tale, there are some who claim that the apolitical Prokofiev had more latent messages in mind. In these interpretations, Peter, representing the proletariat, captures the wolf, which represents the oppressive Communist government.

Prokofiev, however, had little interest in politics, and it is likely that his fanciful story was nothing more than what it appeared to be: a simple fairy tale. “Peter and the Wolf” became Prokofiev’s most famous composition, recorded by hundreds of orchestras around the world with celebrity narrators such as Boris Karloff and David Bowie.

As is the custom with live performances of the work, Liz Blake began the concert by introducing the instruments of the orchestra to the audience, with each principal member demonstrating their particular instrument. The characters are linked to musical themes played by the strings (Peter), flute (the bird), clarinet (the cat), oboe (the duck), bassoon (Grandfather), the wolf (three French horns) and gunfire (timpani).

“Peter and the Wolf” is not an easy piece to perform. The flute, which represents the bird in the story, chirps and flutters with acrobatic arpeggios and trills throughout the instrument’s range. High school junior Pamela Guo did a great job in playing these difficult passages. The other soloists were equally up to their respective tasks, notably Stephanie Yang (clarinet), Jennifer Zhou (oboe) and Maegan Richards (bassoon).

While watching the orchestra rehearse, David Blake, director of the Los Cerritos Middle School Band (and Liz Blake’s husband) observed that few of the orchestra members knew anything about Prokofiev or had heard “Peter and the Wolf” all the way through before tackling their assignment.

“We’re in a generation now where kids don’t know anything beyond what’s on their iPod,” he lamented. Fortunately, most of the students study privately and are exposed to classical works that they would not otherwise be familiar with.

Clarinetist Stephanie Yang is one young musician who takes her responsibility seriously. Her parents, Michael and Mary Yang, made sure that Stephanie was exposed to classical music at an early age; she took up the clarinet in the fourth grade (Mary Yang herself is a piano teacher). Today, Stephanie is the principal chair for the Conejo Valley Youth Symphony and has attended the Idyllwild Summer Arts Camp. Music director Liz Blake invited Stephanie to join the chamber symphony especially to play the clarinet part for “Peter.”

The concert was the first in a series of performances geared toward children that will be presented each October. It was gratifying to see the audience full of school-age children, many of whom were taking notes on the music. (Class credit is offered for reports on the concert.) Despite the fact that hiphop and Miley Cyrus dominate youngsters’ iPods and iPhones, there are still opportunities to keep the classics alive, thanks to enterprising programs such as this one presented by Westlake High School.