Youngsters invited to enjoy ‘Peter and the Wolf’

The Davis High School Symphony Orchestra and the Puppet Art Theatre Company will present a family-friendly concert featuring Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Brunelle Performance Hall at DHS, 315 W. 14th St.

Tickets are $5 each, available at the door before the concert.

Conductor Angelo Moreno will lead the orchestra and Art Grueneberger will lead the members of the Puppet Art Theater, using puppets designed specifically for this story, with the aim of entertaining and educating the next generation of young musicians and music lovers. Families with young children are particularly welcome at this performance.

In 1936, the Russian composer Prokofiev was invited to compose a new piece with an audience of children in mind, and he wrote “Peter and the Wolf” in a matter of days. The work’s premiere by the Central Children’s Theatre of Moscow drew a small audience and generated little media coverage, but “Peter and the Wolf” soon was presented by the Boston Symphony and other European and American ensembles, and record companies issued multiple versions.

There are now scores of recordings, featuring celebrity narrators ranging from Shakespearean actor-turned-”Star Trek” captain Patrick Stewart to rock stars like David Bowie and Sting. And “Peter and the Wolf” is widely performed in pops concerts throughout the world.

The story involves a young boy — Peter — who is warned by his grandfather to be careful when playing outside, because a wolf might come out of the forest. Peter, filled with boyish confidence, doesn’t exactly follow his grandfather’s advice, and proceeds to play outside with a friendly little bird, a pet cat and a quacking duck. Soon, a real wolf actually does emerge from the forest, spurring the story to a dramatic musical climax.

In addition to the public performance on Saturday, there are four weekday performances for students from Davis elementary schools. This year’s production of “Peter and the Wolf” follows last year’s “Pinocchio,” which also featured the Davis High School Symphony Orchestra and the Puppet Art Theatre. The project is supported in part by a grant from the Tandem Foundation.