Musicians and audiences are big fans of Britt Hill, the best-known spot in Jacksonville where Britt Music & Arts Festival performances unfold on a stage fronted by an egalitarian, up-sloping lawn.
The natural outdoor amphitheater, buffered by mountains, woodland and trails, knocks away pretension from any event.
But add a crowd of kids, comedic actor Bruce Campbell narrating the exuberant Lemony Snicket fable of classical instruments suspected of committing a crime, and the playful Britt Festival Orchestra, renamed the fictional Big Friendly Orchestra, performing “The Composer is Dead,” and there will be laughter and actions more common in a community park than a concert venue.
Before the start of the one-hour Britt Family Show on Tuesday, June 28, little ones in floppy sun hats ran like Peter Rabbit to blankets on the grass as picnickers dawdled in the shade of oak, madrone and ponderosa pine trees.
Taking the stage, Britt Festival Orchestra conductor Teddy Abrams explained that he uses a baton — which could be a pencil, chopstick or just a stick, he said — to direct the woodwinds, strings, brass and percussion sections as they reveal their role in the funny, symphony hall whodunit.
Like the Britt orchestra’s “Oregon style” adaptation of “Peter and the Wolf” in 2019, “The Composer is Dead” introduces children to the sounds and personalities of classical instruments.
From the first note on, kids focused on the music, and reacted in their own way. A toddler marched to the rhythm in soft sole shoes. A little brother used his hands to drum softly on his sister’s back while a dad bounced his baby on his lap as the trumpets made sounds well known for royal introductions.
Aidan Beaton, 11, and his mother, Sierra Beaton, both of Minot, North Dakota, attended the Britt Family Show at Britt Hill in Jacksonville on June 28, 2022.Janet Eastman/The Oregonian
Aidan Beaton, 11, of Minot, North Dakota, was not distracted by kids sipping from juice boxes or licking Oreo cookie ice cream to the beat.
He sat in front of his family, a free Britt Festival Orchestra 60th anniversary souvenir program on his lap, his eyes on the musicians.
Aidan, who plays the violin and flute, and is teaching himself piano, smiled when he heard Campbell say that bird-imitating flutes are “too wimpy and high-pitched for murder.”
Campbell, who works around the world but moved to southern Oregon in 1998, did a hilariously exaggerated Maurice Chevalier impersonation when speaking about the French horns.
Acting as the inspector, Campbell was told the oboe could be trusted because it gets the entire orchestra in tune by playing an A. And the hard-working cymbals were too “beat” to cause trouble.
“That’s enough, strings,” bellowed Campbell as the inspector halted his interrogation of musical murder suspects. “You all have very good alibis.”
The inspector’s conclusion: Conductors select works from dead composers, from Bach to Wagner. “The crime,” he declared, “was committed by one man and one little stick.”
Aidan and his family have season tickets to the Minot Symphony Orchestra, which performs inside a concert hall. His grandparents, who are Britt volunteers, bought his $5 lawn ticket.
Afterward the performance, Aidan said he liked the event “first, because it was outdoors and second, because it was interactive.”
His mom, Sierra Beaton, holding her three children close, said, “the Family Show lived up to its name.”
See the Britt Music & Arts Festival 2022 schedule at brittfest.org. The Britt Pavilion is at 350 S. First St., Jacksonville, 800-882-7488.
— Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072
