Young writers share the stage with the pros

It isn’t enough that Paul Reisler and Terri Allard just finished up their most recent songwriting workshop with a pair of concerts two weeks ago. The talented musicians have kicked it into overdrive with four events over the next nine days.

So, why not call it Kid Pan Alley Week?

“I am up to my earlobes in Kid Pan Alley, because the program is so good,” Allard said. “A lot of stuff was just happening at the same time so we just decided to make a Kid Pan Alley week of it and just have a big celebration.”

The songwriting duo and their young proteges will be the main attraction at a Foxfield fundraiser tonight. They will be sending representatives to sing at Foxfield on Sunday. They will be honored at next week’s First Fridays event at the Paramount. And, saving the best for last, there will be two concerts to coincide with the release of their Kid Pan Alley CD at the Paramount on Oct. 4.

Paul Reisler founded the children’s songwriting program, and Allard said that she fell in love with it by accident.

“I filled in for an assistant of his who had lost her voice,” she said.

Reisler was conducting one of his weeklong workshops in Nelson County when he went looking for a musician who could fill in.

“He called me and asked, ‘Is there any way you can come in and sing with us tomorrow?’ I was just so blown away by the program and what it does for the kids,” she said.

But then Allard “went back to my life after that and he went back to his.”

A year later, she got another call.

“He called with the same problem, only he needed somebody for the full week. I went, and that was it for me. I told him from then on if you are ever in the region, you have to call me,” Allard said.

Reisler has turned Kid Pan Alley into a national program, but Allard has become his Charlottesville connection. Their collaborative efforts from last year have led to this current collection of family-friendly events that will showcase their new CD.

“I Used to Know the Names of All the Stars” was written by local elementary school children, but recorded by some of the top professionals from the area, including Sissy Spacek, Jesse Winchester and John McCutcheon, to name but three of the 18 singers.

“We worked with eight schools last year, and we wrote 80 songs with 1,600 kids,” Allard said.

“The best part of the program by far is the work in the classroom with the kids. But sometimes, as he did in Nashville [with 22 schools] and as he did in Rappahannock, you take a project and you have a cluster of schools.

“Not only do the kids get to work their week, write their songs, perform their songs in an afternoon assembly and again in an evening concert for the community, they have access to a CD of themselves and their school singing their songs. But the next step is to ask professional musicians to record the children’s songs.”

Reisler took the 80 songs and whittled them down to 18.

“We started asking all the great musicians in this area if they would be willing to participate,” she said. “Everybody was fantastic. We have all these incredible artists who recorded the children’s music, and we are getting ready to release it.”

Tonight is the kickoff of Kid Pan Alley Week.

“Instead of all the galas that are very fancy and expensive, we are just having a big family party,” Allard said of the Foxfield Fall Fundraiser from 6 to 10 tonight.

Belmont Barbecue is serving up the dinner with beverages for grown-ups and beverages for kids. The Virginia Science Museum also is bringing its trailer for plenty of hands-on fun in keeping with the “I Used to Know the Name of All the Stars” theme.

“We are going to have a songwriting workshop,” Allard said. “And we are going to have the band E3, which is dance-your-head-off music that the grownups will really love.

Kids from Red Hill are coming to sing and the Kid Pan Alley Band [Reisler, Allard, Steve Van Dam, Andy Waldeck, Nate Brown and Paddy Dougherty] will perform.

“We have designed it so it really is an affordable gala,” Allard said. “A family of four can come and have dinner, two beverages and an unlimited amount of entertainment for a hundred dollars.”

On Sunday during the ninth annual Family Day at Foxfield, Allard and Brownsville Elementary School fourth-graders will sing the national anthem at 1 p.m. as skydivers parachute onto the field.

“We also are going to perform a couple of Kid Pan Alley songs right there in the middle of the track,” Allard said. “They have their big family tent, and we will be there all day.”

The following Friday, the Paramount will hang the original art from all 12 finalists in the Kid Pan Alley art contest in the theater’s ballroom. The opening reception will run from 5 to 7 p.m. and the top four winners will be announced.

But the grand finale is Oct. 4 with the release of the CD during two concerts at 2 and 7 p.m. at the Paramount.

“There will be a nine-piece Kid Pan Alley Band on stage and the beautiful children,” Allard said. “Also some of the artists on the CD are coming.”

The lineup, so far, includes the Sons of Bill, Jesse Winchester, Shannon Worrell, Devon Sproule and Paul Curreri, Kristin Asbury, Sarah White, John D’earth, the Charlottesville High School Orchestra and Trees on Fire.

“We are just blessed to be in such a great community,” Allard said. “The musicians in this community are all such great people.”

And add Terri Allard’s name to that list, too.

For details, visit http://www.kidpanalley.org or call 979-1333 for concert tickets.