"How Mr. Silver Stole the Show" was based on a children's book written in 2023 by Kate Klise. It's about a stray cat that walked into the Hamilton Hotel in St. Louis in 1947. Two days later he won first prize in two categories (Best Color for Kittens and Best in the Non-Champion Class) at the Greater St. Louis Cat Club Show.
The event took place in a beautiful Art Deco building that started life as a synagogue. When the congregation moved the building became a community music school for a couple of decades and now houses the music school of Washington University.The program began with Maurice Ravel's "Mother Goose Suite". After that ended the musicians on the left side of the stage moved their chairs slightly and a large screen descended from the ceiling. Two narrators (the composer and a local media celebrity) took their places at music stands at the front of the stage. Even though the orchestra had already gone through their opening routine they did it again. The concertmaster entered, the instruments were tuned. The conductor entered to applause, bowed, then turned and started.
Illustrations from the book were projected onto the screen during the piece. The narrators and the orchestra did a great job of tag-teaming to bring the story to life. Of course the story had a happy ending. When the last note was played the conductor turned around to acknowledge the enthusiastic clapping from the audience. He had the soloists, then the entire orchestra, stand for recognition before the house lights came on for intermission.During intermission the shelter we foster with was there with a information table and a litter of incredibly cute kittens. It was fun to talk with the other volunteers before returning back to our seats for the second portion, Paul Hindemith's "Symphonic Metamorphosis".
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