Munching with Mozart: Free Noon Concerts Make Classical Music Deliciously Easy PDF Print E-mail
Written by Tara Leonard   
SANTA CRUZ (April 2009) -- It’s 12:15 on a recent Thursday and the Main Branch of the Santa Cruz Public Library is anything but quiet. In an upstairs meeting room, pianist John Orlando flies through the lightning fast runs of a Mozart sonata for close to a hundred appreciative listeners, many of whom are discretely lunching on sandwiches or salads. These lucky music lovers are attending Munching with Mozart and Friends, a series of free noontime concerts offered the third Thursday of every month.
While no Carnegie Hall, the intimate, casual setting more than makes up for the simple upright piano and bare bones acoustics. In between pieces, Orlando talks and jokes with his audience, helping to make the classical music accessible and fun for listeners of all ages. It’s exactly what Carol Panofsky, a local oboe player and teacher, envisioned when she started the series in 2007. Panofsky, who is active with the Santa Cruz County Youth Symphony and the Music Teachers’ Association of California, realized that classical music can be intimidating.
“I wanted something that was low pressure,” she explains. “The lunch series is a very small risk for the audience. You’re not spending any money, you don’t have to get dressed up, it’s easy to get to, and you’re only committed for 40 minutes. Plus it’s the kind of situation where it’s perfectly alright to bring your 4 year old or 7 year old, even if you wouldn’t want to bring them to an evening concert.”
That open and inclusive philosophy seems to spill over to the performers. At one point Orlando, an instructor emeritus at Cabrillo College where he was once head of the piano department, invites 9-year-old Josselyn Verutti to join him on the piano bench. The duo romps through a cheerful Hungarian Dance by Heinrich Enke to enthusiastic smiles and applause.
“The musicians are playing for love,” Panofsky says of the volunteer performers. “They can take a risk as well, because they know the audience isn’t paying $50 to hear them.”
While the program has generally been classical, Panofsky has some interesting variations coming up, including “Recorders and History” on June 18 and “Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar’ on July 16. But next up is the Celebrating Piano Ensemble on May 21 with the rich, many-layered sound of piano for four hands.
And what about the “munching” part of the program? It’s essential, according to Panofsky, who jokes that while it’s okay to picnic during a Pops concert or dine during Shakespeare Santa Cruz, somehow one of the definitions of classical music is that you can’t eat while it’s taking place.
 “It’s lunch time!” she counters. “Some people can’t come if they can’t eat their lunch.”
So grab a sandwich and head down to the Main Branch of the Santa Cruz Public Library on Thursday, May 21 at noon for a lovely musical interlude. Classical music has never been so deliciously easy.
Munching with Mozart and Friends is sponsored by the Friends of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries and the Santa Cruz County Branch of the Music Teachers’ Association of California. For more information, or to make a reservation for a large group, contact Carol Panofsky at (831) 426-3238 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
 
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