By Ashna Balroop

For The Diamondback

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center partnered with local radio stations to share the Grateful Dead’s music with children in a concert on Saturday.

University of Maryland alum Sam Sessa launched the concert series  — called Saturday Morning Tunes — in 2017. The shows have attracted thousands of parents and children, he said. Saturday’s event marked the first Grateful Dead for Kids show in College Park.
Radio stations WYPR and WTMD teamed up with The Clarice to create an environment where parents could enjoy music with their children and not have to pay for a babysitter.

Ed Hough’s Dead Collective, a band featuring multiple members of the improvisational music scene, performed at Saturday’s event. Members Butchy Sochorow, Mookie Siegel, David Markowitz, Ed Hough and Tim Pruitt played a 90-minute set of Grateful Dead songs.

Children danced in the aisles of Dekelboum Concert Hall and parents kept a watchful eye on their kids while singing along to some of their favorite tunes.

Kate Cooney, who brought her two young children to the event, appreciated how kid-friendly it was.

“I was overwhelmed by how friendly everyone was and how open the environment was for the kids to be able to move around and enjoy,” Cooney said.

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Chris Gowen and his wife love the Grateful Dead, but often have a hard time sharing their music with their children, he said.

“The shows are so late at night and [are] a little too loud for their ears,” he said.

Concerts like Saturday’s help alleviate this issue, he explained.

The concert turned music adults enjoy into a “fun family event,” said Anna Anderson, who brought her children to The Clarice on Saturday morning. She liked seeing her partner, an avid Grateful Dead fan, listen to the music in a kid-friendly environment.

Sessa is the director of events and community engagement for WYPR and WTMD. He wanted to organize a Saturday Morning Tunes show at The Clarice because his own college graduation was held in Dekelboum Concert Hall.

“It’s like this full circle moment for me because I get to stand on the stage where I graduated college and look out and see all these kids and parents,” he said.

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Sessa created Saturday Morning Tunes when he realized that parents need concerts at convenient times to watch with their kids.

He believes improvisational shows, like Saturday Morning Tunes, provide concertgoers with a way to let go of being parents while enjoying an experience with their kids.

For Butchy Sochorow, the lead guitarist in Ed Hough’s Dead Collective, this performance was special because his audience is usually adults. He enjoyed sharing music with a different kind of audience.

Even though the Grateful Dead are not as popular as they once were, Sochorow said he noticed that both kids and parents appreciated Saturday’s show.

In the past, Saturday Morning Tunes organized a Taylor Swift for Kids concert with more than 900 attendees, according to Sessa. The concert series also hosted a Frozen concert, he said.

Saturday Morning Tunes’ next scheduled show is Phish For Kids on Nov. 2 at the Checkerspot Brewing Company in Baltimore.