New Storytelling Radio Program
KSVY-FM 91.3, Sonoma, CA
http://www.ksvy.org
Sundays, 5-6 pm Pacific time (adjust for your time zone)
Live audio streaming: Go to the KSVY website. In the upper
right-hand corner, click on High or Low Speed and find
yourself listening to the live program.
Or access the archives later and download.
Theme music: Special thanks to Petra Koch in Germany (she works with Storyteller Richard Martin), who performed the beautifully haunting alto recorder music of Como Podem from the 13th century collection Cantigas de Santa Maria (copy of Kynsecker, Mollenhauer & Co.). Used on this program with her kind permission.
PROGRAM 6:
Nov 5 Sing-along Stories and Songs!
Tales 'n Tunes (NY)
Carol Connolly and Don Darmer
(from Travelin' Down the Road CD—
The Little Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle;
The Cat and the Parrot; Lion Takes a Walk;
and Wide Mouth Frog )
Margaret Read MacDonald (WA)
(Cockroach Party and Pickin' Peas)
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SING-ALONG STORIES AND SONGS!
Guest tellers...
Tales 'n Tunes (NY)
Carol Connolly and Don Darmer
(from Travelin' Down the Road CD—
The Little Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle;
The Cat and the Parrot; Lion Takes a Walk; and Wide Mouth Frog )
Who are Tales 'n Tunes?
Tales 'n Tunes is a musical storytelling duo from the Albany/Saratoga Springs area of New York State with fifteen years of experience presenting programs in schools, libraries, museums, and at community events and festivals. Tales ‘n Tunes perform stories, primarily from the folk tradition, with original songs incorporated in them to allow for audience participation; and they feature songs between stories. They are high energy performers and the imaginations of children and adults are sparked by the tellings.
For more than thirty years, a teacher, teller, and traveler, Carol Connolly has collected stories from around the world. At libraries, museums, schools, festivals, conferences, at community events, and on radio and television, she tells tales which highlight the wit and wisdom of peoples from many cultures and traditions. Her performances have taken her throughout the Northeast and North Carolina.
Don Darmer plays a variety of musical instruments and has a large repertoire of tunes and songs. He has performed locally with “Frosty Morning” and has accompanied performances of Four Stories High, a Capital District storytelling quartet. He enjoys telling tandem tales with Carol and encouraging listeners to sing along with his tunes.
What’s New
Tales 'n Tunes' new CD has just arrived! On Bunches of Beasts, they perform kid-friendly original songs as well as traditional tales into which their lively tunes have been creatively blended. Character voices and catchy rhythms introduce you to their favorite animal friends, both real and imagined.
This 63 minute-long recording is recommended for children ages 3 and up; and includes new songs “Bunches of Beasts” and “Dipsy Doodle Zoo Parade” along with some rollicking tales such as “Little Red Bossy Hen” and “The Lion’s at the Door.” Our version of a Louisiana folk tale, “Poule and Roach Celebrate” features lively fiddle playing, along with banjo, guitar and bass. Yee-haw!
http://www.talesntunes.net/tnt/bunches-recording.shtml
Tales ‘n Tunes' first CD is a celebrated winner of both the iParenting Media Award and the Honors Award presented by the National Parenting Publications Association (NAPPA)! The title is Travelin’ Down the Road: Sing Along Stories from Around the World
http://www.talesntunes.net/tnt/travelin-recording.shtml
It’s chock full of world tales (62 minutes worth). Each one has an original song for listeners to sing along. Recommended for children ages 4 and up, its toe-tappin’, hand-clappin’, finger-snappin’ rhythms will have both kids and adults joining in on the fun. The School Library Journal said: "The storytelling is enthusiastic and expressive and the musical performances are top notch."
If you’d like to purchase one or both of these CDs, or listen to a sample, just click here.
http://www.talesntunes.net/tnt/recordings.shtml
And, remember, they make great gifts!
Now, Tales ‘n Tunes is offering a fundraising opportunity for your school, group, team, club or scouting organization. By selling their award winning CD, you can raise money to support your group. Click here for details.
http://www.talesntunes.net/tnt/fundraising.shtml
Excerpts from a telephone interview with Carol and Don:
Q. Tell me a little about what it's like to be tandem tellers.
A. Carol: Well, it's like any other kind of creative collaboration—more fun.
Don: That's right.
Carol: At one point in my life, I was part of a string quartet and it was always so much more fun to play with others than to play solo. And I've also been part of a storytelling quartet, and that's a whole lot of fun, too, so the collaboration between Don and me just enhances what we do.
Q. A story quartet...what's that?
A. Carol: Well, for a number of years I was part of a group called Four Stories High. And it was myself and three other local women tellers, and we also did tandem stories. We'd open the performance and close it with a tandem story—usually a humor, anecdotal type of story...and then we each told separately.
Q. When you did those tandem tales, was it all four of you at one time?
A. Carol: Yes. And actually because we didn't live together, as Don and I do being married, one of the problems that we had was scheduling rehearsal time because we all had solo careers. It was pretty difficult, but it was a lot of fun. We don't do so much anymore; maybe once a year we have a gig that we share.
Q. We're going to be playing a number of stories today from your CD Travelin' Down the Road. Tell us how that CD came about.
A.
Carol: The CD really came about because of our audiences. People would come up to us after a performance and say, "Do you have a CD?" and we didn't. So we thought, well, maybe we should. That was how that was born, that whole idea. It was a bit of a process. It took us about six months from the time we sat down and decided what we wanted to put on it until we actually had the product in hand.
Q. Tell us about working with kids and getting them to participate—because sometimes that's not always easy for tellers to do.
A. Carol: It's not, but kids love to sing. So the fact that our stories are musical stories seems to be kind of a natural match-up for the kids. We try to do songs as well as stories, songs that stand on their own, so the singing really kind of pulls the kids in.
Q. What's it like to turn a regular story into music and song. It's quite a process, isn't it?
A. Carol: It is, but if you take spoken fairytales, many of them have rrpeated refrains or ideas that come back again and again, so it's kind of a natural place to put a story. That's how we started. The process of getting kids to participate is these repeated refrains and asking them to say them with you. We thought, well, let's have them sing it.
Don: I think our first attempt at adding a song to a story was The Little Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle; there was a natural refrain there. We were sitting around in the living room and the words happened to come and the song came right at the same time.
Q. Do you compose all the music, Don?
A. Don: Sometimes we start with a song that's been around for a long time, and we go from there. Other times, Carol will come up with the words and I keep repeating those words over and over...and then a tune comes along.
Carol: It's not always easy. Sometimes there are edits and re-edits on the lyrics. But one of the songs that's on our new CD I wrote in about 20 minutes and Don had a ready-made tune. There it was. I didn't write it thinking of that tune, but he said, "Well, this is perfect, so let's go for it!"
Q. What do you do in your residencies in schools?
A. Carol: Well, I teach kids how to tell stories. It's not really very hard. Kids are naturals; they always have a story. Usually, they want to tell it right in the middle of a performance.
Just before I retired I had been teaching 5th grade, and every year I did a storytelling unit. Then the kids would put on a show for the parents and they would entertain the other classes in the school. And it's great. It's just great for kids because it just builds self-esteem so easily. And it's great for the parents, too, because the parents suddenly see a side of their kids that they hadn't known was there. And they say, "Oh, I couldn't do that. I can't believe that he's doing it!" Parents need to recognize that kids are multitalented.
#####
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Contact Carol and Don at:
http://www.talesntunes.net/tnt/main.shtml
talesntunes@earthlink.net
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Margaret Read MacDonald (WA)
(Cockroach Party and Pickin' Peas)
Who is Margaret Read MacDonald?
"MacDonald is a grand dame of storytelling." ...School Library Journal
• Storytelling tours to Australia and New Zealand; Borneo, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand; Brazil, Argentina, Cuba; Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland; Republic of Georgia.
• Ph.D. Folklore, Indiana University; Master of Educational Communications, University of Hawaii; Master of Library Science, University of Washington.
• Teaches storytelling at the University of Washington Information School and Lesley University.
• Children's Librarian since 1965: San Francisco Public; Hawaii State Library Bookmobile; Singapore American School; Fairfield Methodist Girl's School, Singapore; Mountain-Valley Library System (Children's Consultant); Montgomery County Maryland; King County Library System (1979-2002).
• Author of over 45 books and audios on storytelling and folklore topics.
Award and Honors
• Fulbright Scholar to Mahasarakham University Thailand.
• Talking Leaves Literary Award, established in 2001 by the National Storytelling Network to honor those who "have had a major influence and force in the literary body of storytelling." .
• Leadership Award, National Storytelling Network
? MRM is former board member of NSN
• Outstanding Author & Storyteller Award 2001-2002, Washington Organization for Reading Development (IRA)
• Aesop Accolade for Mabela the Clever
• Parent's Choice Awards for Mabela the Clever and Fat Cat
• Storytelling World Awards for numerous books.
Print and Net Bios
• Something About the Author, v. 94. Pp142-145. Gale Research, 1998.
• Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series, v. 56 Gale Research, 1998.
• Contemporary Authors, v.110 . Gale Research, 1984.
• Storytellers: A Biographical Directory of 120 English-Speaking Performers Worldwide by Corki Miller and Mary Ellen Snodgrass, McFarland, 1998.
• Lengthy interview about the work of a children's librarian as author at: http://www.ravenstonepress.com/libwritrm.html
• For audio interview with MRM:
http://www.storyteller.net/tellers/mreadmacdonald
All MRM Books and Audio
http://www.margaretreadmacdonald.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Books.Browse
Background Info
Margaret Read MacDonald breathes life into traditional folktales, sharing them in exciting performances, using them to enable beginning storytellers, and publishing them in picture books and folktale collections.
Click to hear MRM (MP3 1.5 MB)
http://www.margaretreadmacdonald.com/Activity_Files/Fat_Cat.mp3
MRM loves...
teaching others to tell. Using time-tested folktales MacDonald can place tales into the heads of workshop participants and enable them to perform on the spot. Participants leave ready to tell. High success rate! Visit Classes & Workshops
http://www.margaretreadmacdonald.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.classes
MRM loves...
sharing stories with audiences. She engages the audience in singing, chanting, moving in what she calls "story play." Both young and old find enjoyment in playing along with these folktales.
Click on Performances.
http://www.margaretreadmacdonald.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.performances
Click on School Visits.
http://www.margaretreadmacdonald.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.school_visits
MRM loves...
talking about the joys of story and the mysteries of folklore. Visit Keynotes.
http://www.margaretreadmacdonald.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.keynotes
MRM loves...
sharing her tellable folktales through books and audio. Visit MRM's Books.
http://www.margaretreadmacdonald.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=books.main
MRM loves...
sharing the stage with...Richard Scholtz...Visit MacDonald & Scholtz Singing Tales
http://www.margaretreadmacdonald.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=friends.singing_tales
Jen and Nat Whitman...Visit Whitman Story Sampler.
http://www.margaretreadmacdonald.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=friends.whitman
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Contact MRM at:
11507 NE 104th Street
Kirkland, Washington 98033, USA
Phone/Fax 425-827-6430
mrm@margaretreadmacdonald.com
http://www.margaretreadmacdonald.com/
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(Page created 11/2/06)
