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# Music with a colorful bent
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/music-with-a-colorful-bent/
- Published: 2004-05-08T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:17:20.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import

*By Daily Press staff*

Close to 1,600 third-and fourth-grade students from the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District were treated to a special concert by the Santa Monica Symphony last month at the Civic Auditorium.

Allen Robert Gross, conductor and music director, conducted the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra in “AColorful Symphony” with narration by David Avshalomov. The orchestra also played the very lively Farandole from Bizet’s L’Arlésienne Suite No. 2.

“A Colorful Symphony,” by acclaimed Latino American composer Robert Xavier Rodrigues, is based on the children’s book “The Phantom Tollbooth‚” in which a little boy enters a magical world of marvelous adventures, including an encounter with Maestro Chroma, whose symphony orchestra plays the colors into the world.

Tom Whaley, arts coordinator for the school district, arranged the bussing of the children. Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom greeted the children and introduced the concert.

Sponsoring the concert for children were: Sullivan Automotive Group, Southern California Disposal, Larry and Lisa Kohorn, TransAction Companies Limited, John and Diane Petring, and Allen and Karen Gross.

The Santa Monica Symphony has expanded its outreach to children. As part of that outreach, the children of the Grant Elementary school were invited to an interactive talk with Gross, followed by a rehearsal of the Santa Monica Symphony in its auditorium.

The public is invited to a free concert by the Santa Monica Symphony on Sunday, May 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Gross will conduct Mozart’s “Jupiter Symphony,” Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin” and Prokofiev’s “Second Violin Concerto,” which will feature renowned violinist Roger Wilkie.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/050804-09_01.jpg)

(Photo: Way Wong/Special)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 8, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/050804.pdf?ref=smdp.com)