arts & entertainment

Families are sure to love Land of the Gnomes, a free online concert film brought to cyberspace by the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra, Great Scott Productions and Central Florida author, Michele Wallace Campanelli. On Saturday, November 13 at 2:00 PM, the program will come to life on screen, featuring characters from the original children’s story by Campanelli. 

Land of the Gnomes tells the illustrated story of a spectacular rhythm machine called the metronome, a mechanical device that ticks steadily to help musicians around the world keep to the beat of the music. Similar to an orchestrated “story time,” the family concert on film will be narrated by actor, Eric Pinder. Land of the Gnomes will feature kid-tested musical selections from Aladdin, How to Train Your Dragon, Rise of the Guardians, Coco, Up and more, along with instrument demonstrations and a conducting lesson for young viewers by Maestro Aaron Collins. Illustrations for Land of the Gnomes are by bassoon player and professional graphic artist, Angela Moretti. The 90-minute film will be premiered in a free live stream event from the orchestra website at SpaceCoastSymphony.org. While the event is free, donations to defray the cost of production are requested and can be made through the orchestra website. For more information, call toll free to 855-252-7276 or visit SpaceCoastSymphony.org.   

Conductor and Artistic Director, Aaron T. Collins, thinks the family concert film, Land of the Gnomes, is one more way to bring the joy of music to children –by way of interactive fun.

“This is the third of Michele’s stories that we’ve brought to life for young audiences,” said Collins. “Musical education is one of our most important missions and it’s so rewarding to know we’re spreading a little happiness along the way.”  

Land of the Gnomes will also be shown to thousands of Indian River County students in grades K-4. The free family concert on film will be made available for presentation to elementary classrooms in public, private and home schools. Other educators or institutions who wish to show the film should submit a request in writing to jennifer@SpaceCoastSymphony.org.  

In 2019, the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra received a grant from Indian River Impact 100, an organization of women dedicated to impacting the community through transformational giving. The grant allowed for the development and underwriting of youth programming for a period of two years. Now funded solely by donations, the free family concert series adds Land of the Gnomes to the growing list of successful programs, following Music at the Watering Hole (2020) and Musicians Are Superheroes (2019). For more information about the Space Coast Symphony’s 2021-22 Season or the Symphony for Everyone discount ticket program, please visit SpaceCoastSymphony.org or call toll-free (855) 252-7276

ABOUT MICHELE CAMPANELLI — Author Michele Wallace Campanelli has had nine stories on various best-sellers lists, including two that reached #1 for the New York Times. Her short stories have been included in over 30 international anthologies. She has also penned numerous novels, magazine and newspaper articles in both fiction and non-fiction published by Simon & Schuster, Chronicle Books, Fireside Books, Fictionwise, Whiskey Creek Press, Wee Creek Press, Florida Today Newspaper, Woman’s World Magazine, Adamsmedia, McGraw-Hill, Multnomah Books, Red Rock Press, HCI and America House Publishing. When Michele isn’t writing, she is CEO of Regal Entertainment Services LLC and Social Media Director for the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra, which performs concerts across Central Florida. In 2019, she earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from Southern New Hampshire University and had the screenplay Musicians Are Superheroes made into a movie by Twelve Atlas Films. Internationally, over 57 million people have read her written works. For more information, visit michelecampanelli.com