The Bottom Line
Even after graduating with a college degree in music, I found these educational DVDs to be highly entertaining and informative. Dennis Kobray's passion for music and history, apparent throughout the series, easily excites and sparks the interest of the audience. Children will love the accurate period costumes, picture slide shows, fantastic story telling, and definitely the performances.
Pros
- Great way to introduce music and history to children
- Concert level performances
- Interesting, exciting, and captivating
- Stunning, high quality production
Cons
- To understand some, but not all, of the concepts, one needs to know some basic music theory
Description
- DVD, single or in a set, each averaging about an hour
- Directed by Frank Cento; Starring Dennis Kobray
- Educational Series
Guide Review - Meet the Musicians
There are a total of five DVDs, each portraying the life and music of a famous composer - Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Joplin, and Gershwin. I had the delightful opportunity to review the Bach and Gershwin DVD's. Although, there are only five DVDs, star, Dennis Kobray also gives live performances of Schubert, Chopin, Stephen Foster, and Brahms in elementary schools, universities, and museums across the US. Dennis Kobray, a talented actor and esteemed musician, created Meet the Musicians in 1986, which has since then won many awards including top honors from the Coalition for Quality in Children's Media. Kobray is able to introduce music and history in such a way that it is far from boring. The only "con" I found was with the Bach DVD. As I said, some of the terminology may go over the heads of young children (or those without training), but overall, it has no affect on the quality of the series. Children and adults alike will be able to pick out something from Meet the Musicians, whether a song they like or a "little known fact." It may even excite you into learning to play an instrument.
