CSO, The Field Museum partner to encourage childhood curiosity

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The ominous quartet of notes at the start of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is instantly recognizable.

"Buh, buh, buh, buh," imitated Chicago Symphony Orchestra Guest Conductor Edwin Outwater, adding, "Those are four different notes that come together to make one musical ideas."

Did you ever imagine that melody could be used as a scientific metaphor?

"A symphony... can be structured like an organic being, with molecules and cells and things that interconnect and bring things to life," explained Outwater of the CSO's new "Let's Explore" concert program, which is a collaboration with The Field Museum.

"There are so many things that we don't know about the world that we're learning every single day and it's thanks to curiosity and observations about the world around us that we're able to really move forward," said The Field's chief curiosity correspondent, Emily Graslie.

She teamed up with Outwater on Friday to guide kids through an hour long program, helping melodies jump off of sheet music into the world around us.

"People might not know about the river Moldau, but maybe they know about the Kankakee River right here in Illinois," Graslie said.

So Graslie talked about the Kankakee and then with Outwater's cue, the orchestra played The Moldau, evoking similar feelings.

"No one is exposed to really great ideas enough. What we're trying to do both at the Field Museum and the Chicago Symphony is to expose people to things that make the world better, like classical music or research or preservation," said Outwater, hoping to fuse the disciplines together and inspire curiosity that will resonate for years to come.