Now in its third year the Instrument Petting Zoo has become a staple of summer in the Valley and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. And while you're not encouraged to say, ride a llama at a conventional petting zoo, participants at Bravo's Petting Zoo have free reign over the instruments, provided they don't go on some rock out rage and destroy the music makers. "Each year, the Festival purchases instruments for schools to use in the classroom. These instruments are borrowed back from the schools to use in the summer for our Instrument Petting Zoo", says Education Coordinator Liz Campbell. "We have a trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, bass; clarinet, flute and sometimes a sax. There are lots and lots of percussion as well."As you may imagine, this Zoo, like many zoos, is extremely popular with children. You could get a kid to eat a plate of broccoli if you called it the "vegetable zoo". And which instrument do you suppose is the most popular with the zoo attendants? "All the instruments are popular and most children who come into the Zoo try all the instruments," Campbell says. "They tend to spend more time with both the string and percussion instruments." I can attest to this, or at least to the popularity of the drum among children. You can hear the (somewhat) steady beat resonate throughout the Vail Farmers Market on Sundays. You'd almost think you had been transported back to some primitive time, if not for the plethora of people walking around with snow cones and the disappointing dearth of dinosaurs. Packed into a tent outside the Sonnenalp, kids, and oftentimes their parents, explore the variety of instruments under the guidance of Bravo! Music Matters volunteers. For many youngsters it is their first encounter with the instruments, but Music Matters hopes it will not be their last. "The goal of the Zoo is to turn kids onto music," Campbell says. "We hope children walk away from the experience wanting to play a particular instrument." Liz relates one of this year's successes, a young girl who received some instruction on the violin last year at the zoo and began taking lessons soon after. This year, the future star returned to play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" for the volunteers and organizers. The Instrument Petting Zoo seeks to be the first step on a road to a lifetime of musical experience."We judge if a zoo is successful based on the amount of time children stay," Campbell says. "And of course if we can convince the parents to come to one of our concerts and bring the kids." Apparently, the Music Matters volunteers, comprised of local students, have their own standards for what makes a successful zoo. How do they know it's working? If there are "a number of noise complaints, number of broken instruments, and number of volunteers who become sick because there were not enough handy wipes to disinfect the kids," Campbell reports.The Zoo's season has ended but before they came to a close they made appearances all across the Valley. You may have seen them at Avon's Independence Day Celebrations, Eagle's Flight Days, the Vail and Minturn Farmers Markets, or the free family concert at Ford Amphitheater. If you missed out this year, that's rough. But fear not, it's safe to say the Instrument Petting Zoo will return again next year.
For more information on the Instrumet Petting Zoo or the Music Matters program, check their website www.vailmusicfestival.org.
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The Bravo! music festival wants to build its future musical icons. That's why the program's youth guild designed the Instrument Petting Zoo, in which children can try instruments from every part of the orchestra and see which suits them best. Check out the zoo and free Bravo! family concert.
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