An adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winner Eudora Welty’s only children’s book, "The Shoe Bird," set to music by composer Samuel Jones that received a 2008 Grammy Award nomination for "Best Musical Album for Children."
Upcoming National Broadcasts:
Sunday, March 12, 2023 at 2pm EST on WVPBDT Charleston, WV
Sunday, March 12, 2023 at 2pm EST on WSWPDT Bluefield-Beckley, WV
Sunday, March 12, 2023 at 2pm EST on WVPSDT Bluefield-Beckley, WV
Sunday, March 12, 2023 at 2pm EST on WNPBDT Clarksburg-Weston, WV
Sunday, March 19, 2023 at 8pm MT Prime Time on KUENDT Salt Lake City, UT
Sunday, March 26, 2023 at 2am MT on KUENDT Salt Lake City, UT
Sunday, March 26, 2023 at 1pm CT on KCPTDT2 Kansas City, MO
Previous Local Broadcasts:
Sunday, September 11, 2022 at 3:00pm on WPBT
Sunday, September 11, 2022 at 7:00pm on WXEL
Thursday, December 22, 2022 at 8:00pm EST on WXEL
Friday, December 23, 2022 at 9:00pm EST on WPBT
Sunday, December 25, 2022 at 10:00am EST on WPBT
Eudora's Fable: The Shoe Bird is a musical fable written for children's choir, narration, and orchestra. The work is based on the only children's book ever written by Pulitzer Prize winning author Eudora Welty, The Shoe Bird. First published in 1964, the story is considered a fanciful fable, like Aesop, about animals, containing a moral or lesson. While describing the many birds of the story, the music introduces and expands the audience's knowledge of the orchestra instruments by featuring the auxiliary instruments of the woodwind section. Composer Samuel Jones adapted the story to create the music and lyrics of Eudora's Fable: The Shoe Bird.
For our television broadcast, Palm Beach Symphony was joined by a 30-voice chorus with members from Young Singers of the Palm Beaches. The ensemble was be led by the Symphony's Music Director Gerard Schwarz and narrated by voice actor and director Charlie Adler, known for his multiple roles as Cow, Chicken, and The Red Guy in the Emmy nominated series Cow and Chicken as well as Buster Bunny on Tiny Toon Adventures, Ed and Bev Bighead on Rocko's Modern Life, and Ickis on Aahh!!! Real Monsters. Commissioned specifically for this production by painter and sculpture artist Ed McGowin, enjoy bigger than life-sized artwork projected behind the orchestra as the story unfolds.
More than 5,200 students in South Florida enjoyed the concert in virtual field trips during the past school year. In addition, workshops relating to the concert were led by Symphony music teaching artists in elementary through high school classes. A partnership with the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County provided all elementary and middle school students with Eudora’s Fable: TheShoe Bird Literacy Kits, containing a copy of the book and learning activities related to bird proverbs and idiomatic expressions.
Palm Beach Symphony continues to expand its education and community outreach programs with children’s concerts, student coaching sessions and master classes, instrument donations and free public concerts that have reached more than 64,000 students in recent years.
Members from the Young Singers of the Palm Beaches
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