Once she has read all the versions of the stories that she can get her hands on, Constantelos memorizes the events, and can repeat the stories off the top of her head to her delighted audiences.

Sing-along

WHEN ARTHUR MURRAY was 7 years old he asked his parents for a trumpet, and in return they gave him a stupid plastic toy with different colored buttons.  Murray always keeps in mind how he felt when he got that toy trumpet during his Sandbox Music series performances.

“If you water stuff down and then the kids aren’t interested, you have no one to blame but yourself,” Murray said. 

That philosophy is why when Murray and the other members of Central Park Brass perform for the children who come to the Sandbox Music program, they play songs like Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” “Dixieland” or “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” with interesting harmonies. Their hope is that the performances will interest children in music.

late one night and thinking if I could rent an artist’s loft in the city and practice trumpet all day long I’d be totally happy.”

A year later, he returned to the trumpet and enrolled in the University of Victoria in British Columbia where he earned a bachelor of music degree. After graduation, he completed a two-year artist diplomat at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg, Germany, followed by a master of music degree at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

He finally reached New York in 2001, after hearing a lecture about freelancing in New York City in 2001. During those first months, Central Park was like therapy for the boy from the west coast of Canada.

“Central Park was the saving grace of the city. I can’t survive in the city,” Murray said. “I was walking through the park and thinking this is so great. The only thing that would make it better would be a nice little free concert with a brass quartet.”

Rather than wait for one to come along, Murray formed his own – the Central Park Brass with fellow musicians David Spier (trumpet), Ann Ellsworth (horn), Gordon Wolfe (trombone) and Morris Kainuma (tuba). The group plays at different locations in the park during the summer, runs several outreach programs within the community during the year and, of course, runs the Sandbox Music series.

The 45-minute summer programs are geared toward the 3- to 8-year-old crowd, and each session has a different theme, although all are interactive. 

“We’re very flexible because the crowd is totally unpredictable,” Murray said.  “We learned early on just to roll with the punches.”

Murray said Central Park Brass tries to take the varying audiences at different playgrounds into account when selecting their music, but always include songs from a variety of cultures.

“We’re particularly interested in playing a variety of music that reflects the diversity of our culture,” Murray said.