Short, Loud, and Fast

Talk story about a free concert for children at Carnegie Hall, performed by the American Symphony Orchestra. The concert was one of six identical one-hour programs, which have been designed to introduce about 15,000 public- and parochial-school pupils to the symphonic repertoire, in the hope that some of them will ultimately appreciate and study classical music. The concert music ranged from Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" to the best-recieved piece, the John Williams theme from "Star Wars.O Writer sat in a box with some 5th-graders from P.S. 20, in Manhattan, who told about the music program in their school. All of them said that they take string lessons once a week. After the concert, a Carnegie Hall official showed writer letters received from some students who had attended the previous day's concert. These students were from P.S. 81 and P.S. 95. The letters were generally appreciative, full of errors, and indicated that "Star Wars" was everybody's favorite.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com