Atlanta Symphony and gloATL team up for children’s concert by Lemony Snicket

“Mozart — dead! Haydn — dead! Schubert —unfinished, but dead!”

So says the Inspector in Lemony Snicket’s popular children’s book The Composer is Dead which introduces the instruments of the orchestra to kids in the tradition of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.

This weekend, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will perform the work in which the Inspector investigates the long string of dead composers by searching for the culprit in the sections of the orchestra, forcing the various instruments to account for themselves: “The violin section is divided into the First Violins, who have the trickier parts to play, and the Second Violins, who are more fun at parties.”

The show features the sounds of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performing Nathaniel Stookey’s score, performances by actors of the Alliance Theater and movement by dance company gloATL. If you don’t have kids, offer to chaperone those nieces and nephews: The sly humor of the Series of Unfortunate Events author often delights adults just as much as—if not more than—the children it’s intended for.

The ASO will perform Lemony Snicket’s “The Composer is Dead” on Sunday, May 15, at 1:30 and 3:30 pm in Atlanta Symphony Hall. Tickets are $15 - $20. For more information, visit the Woodruff Arts Center or call (404) 733-4263.