The Press Democrat  Musical remembrance Santa Rosa High choir takes on oratorio with help of symphony, Bach choir April 15, 2002 By DIANE PETERSON Waiting Saturday for the final dress rehearsal of "A Child of Our Time," Jonathan Kendall of the Santa Rosa High choir looked tired but happy in his white tuxedo shirt and vest.  "Rehearsals have been going until 10 at night," he said. "It consumes a lot of time. People have been calling it 'The Child that Takes All Our Time.'"  The 1941 oratorio by Sir Michael Tippett was performed Saturday night at Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa by the high school choir, along with the Sonoma County Bach Choir, the Santa Rosa Symphony and four guest soloists. It will be repeated today and Monday.  Like the symphony's "War Requiem" project three years ago, "A Child of Our Time" reaches far beyond the 200-some musicians onstage.  Close to 1,000 students from Santa Rosa High have studied the oratorio, with its theme of oppression and injustice.  "The coming together of the community is what makes all the effort that was put into it worthwhile," said Creighton White, interim executive director of the symphony.  During the past week, students, teachers and volunteers camped in the center's lobby to install the results of their hard work -- original paintings, photographs and sculptures.  Audience members who attended the concert Saturday also were treated to student dance and drama presentations relating to the project.  Jan Sofie, director of ArtQuest at Santa Rosa High, estimates that 80 percent of the students working on the project are in the ArtQuest program.  "We adopted it as our theme for the year," she said. "It's a natural for us. We like to collaborate, and we like theme-based study."  Personal link  To kick off the project, students investigated the meaning of the libretto, also written by Tippett, and produced illustrated manuscripts -- words accompanied by images -- depicting all 30 of the work's movements.  Conceived by the British composer in 1939, when Europe was on the brink of war, "A Child of Our Time" tells the story of a young Polish-Jewish boy who kills a German diplomat in frustration and spurs the Nazis to retaliate during the infamous Kristallnacht pogroms.  One of the Jews arrested without charge at that time was the grandfather of Santa Rosa Symphony Music Director Jeffrey Kahane, who is the driving force behind the project. The incident compelled his grandfather to immigrate with his family to America.  "Were it not for the very events that caused this piece to be written, my family might well never have left Germany, and I would never have been born," Kahane wrote in a personal program note.  At Santa Rosa High, students have also been studying the work's underlying theme of childhood innocence.  "We're all children, and we share that joy and wonder about the world," Sofie said. "If we kept that alive there wouldn't be racism and oppression ... when you're a child, you don't judge people by external things."  One group of students created large-scale paintings based on books about children -- everything from "Little Red Riding Hood" to "Great Expectations." Others found shoes from their childhood and created drawings, sculptures and stories about them.  Looking at the artwork displayed in the lobby, Nell Hergenrather of Sebastopol was impressed with the variety and scale of the exhibit.  "It's really inspiring to see so many mediums -- charcoal, assemblage and masks," said Hergenrather, who is studying to be an art teacher. "The teacher is obviously encouraging them to work large, and that's not easy."  Shadow act  Drama students like freshman Sara Kramer were asked to develop characters based on a child their age or younger, then try to understand life from that person's perspective.  Kramer chose choir member Jonathan Kendall as her "shadow partner," and her monologue revolves around his childhood fear of cats. The students, who didn't even know each other, have become fast friends.  "I thought he was going to be a crazy, punk guy," she said. "But he's an awesome, happy guy."  Choir member Lydia Smith said that during rehearsals, Kahane urged the singers to get into the words so they could feel the emotional contrasts and sing with their hearts.  "He made us get louder and louder during the terror, so everyone could feel what it's like to be on the side of evil," she said. "In the spirituals, we felt the longing of the oppressed to escape."  Sharing inspiration  The project is estimated to cost upward of $400,000, making it the biggest project ever for the Santa Rosa Symphony. More than half of that money will go toward making a documentary film. The symphony needs to raise an additional $150,000 to complete the project.  "When we did the 'War Requiem,' we didn't really document it enough," Sofie said. "This time, we'll be able to show people what it was like to do a project like this."  The documentary, made by local award-winning filmmaker Tommie Dell Smith, will be distributed to schools, public TV and other organizations.  "The real purpose of making the documentary is to inspire other communities to do similar projects, exploring social issues through the arts," Smith said.  At Saturday's open dress rehearsal, about 600 people watched Kahane rehearse the 70-minute piece. Many came because they couldn't get into the sold-out concerts.  "I wanted my daughter to hear this piece of music," Caroline McRae Butler said. "It's good exposure for her to hear a live concert."  Framing the oratorio is a brief slide show featuring photography by Santa Rosa High students. More photography is exhibited on the second floor of the lobby.