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12/01/2006
The Tale
of Peter and his Wolf...
Actor Peter Strauss,
an Emmy-Award winner and Golden Globe nominee, will join
Mr. Nuvi Mehta and an ensemble orchestra to narrate the
classic tale of Peter and the Wolf at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday,
December 9, 2006 at the Serra Center at San Buenaventura
Mission. Strauss will bring his special brand of creativity
through voice and character to the free concert presented
by the Ventura Music Festival in association with the San
Buenaventura Foundation for the Arts "Arts Explosion."
Ventura Festival Offices. December
9, 2006
A 23-member ensemble orchestra conducted by Ventura Music
Festival Artistic Director, Mr. Nuvi Mehta will captivate
young music lovers with the tale of Peter and The Wolf.
Characters and instruments are introduced to the audience
at the beginning of the story. Each character is represented
with a specific instrument and tune from an orchestra member.
As the tale unfolds with Strauss' narration, accompanied
by the orchestra, imagery and imagination is enhanced through
a unique blend of music and voice.
In 1936 Sergei Prokofiev wrote a light-hearted piece for
children that would introduce them to instruments and sounds
of an orchestra. The story tells of how young Peter ventures
into a meadow with his animal friends and captures a wolf.
He hands the captured wolf over to hunters and all of the
characters come together in the finale, where the wolf
is taken to a zoo in a triumphant procession.
This unique concert is sponsored by The Julius Guis Foundation
of the Ventura Rotary Club and Mainstreet Architects +
Planners, Inc., and in Association with the San Buenaventura
Foundation for the Arts "Arts Explosion" Series.
The concert is free and open to the public. It will be
performed at the Serra Center at the San Buenaventura Mission,
211 E. Main Street in Ventura. December 9, 2pm.
The 2007 season of the Ventura Music Festival is May 3
to 13, 2007. A gala opening of the festival's art exhibit
titled "Impressions," opens Saturday, December
16, 2006 at the Artists' Union Gallery at 330 South California
Street Plaza in Ventura. For more information about the
Ventura Music Festival, call 805-648-3146. For interviews
with Mr. Mehta, Mr. Strauss or Ventura Music Festival,
please call CMS @ 805-983-3495 x111
Additional Background About Peter
Strauss
Peter Strauss is well known for his long list
of starring roles in motion pictures for television,
including "The Jericho Mile" for which he
won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a
Limited Series or Special. Strauss also has received
Emmy Award nominations for his roles in the mini-series "Rich
Man, Poor Man" and "Masada" as well
as five Golden Globe Nominations.
Strauss lives in Ojai, California where he operates a commercial
citrus enterprise that produces 400 tons of citrus per
year. He is an avid gardener specializing in cacti and
Mediterranean plants and his gardens have been featured
on television and in several periodicals including the "LA
Times Magazine," Martha Stewart's "Living" and "Better
Homes & Gardens." He recently was appointed to
the advisory board of the Los Angeles Arboretum.
He has also made several appearances with orchestras. He
performed Aaron Copland's "Lincoln in America" for
the New West Symphony in Los Angeles and the Hamilton Philharmonic
in Toronto, Ogden Nash's poetry for Saint-Saëns "Carnival
of the Animals" for the LA Philharmonic Brass Section
at the Ojai Music Festival, and appeared this April with
the Ventura Music Festival in California to narrate their "Stories
in Music."
His previous residence in Agoura, California was donated
to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and has been
acquired by the National Park Service and is now open to
the public as "Peter Strauss Ranch." He
is a spokesman for the National Search Dog Foundation,
serves on many community committees including the Ojai
Youth Foundation, Ojai Music Festival, Ojai Film Society,
and he has developed and teaches a course for high school
public speaking in Ojai schools. He is also developing
a program called "Ojai Artists Teaching Others" that
volunteers local professional artists to mentor students
in local schools.
Peter Strauss just completed production on the Warner Brothers'
feature "License to Wed." He portrays Mandy Moore's
father in the film also starring Robin Williams. He was
last seen as the U.S. President in Revolution/ Columbia's "XXX:
State of the Union." He recently starred Off Broadway
as Sigmund Freud in Primary Stage's "Sabina" and
in Jon Robin Baitz's new political thriller "Chinese
Friends" at Playwrights Horizon Theater in NY.
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