Bill Blankenship

When it comes to trying to get children interested in classical music, Topeka Symphony Orchestra music director Kyle Wiley Pickett is willing to act silly.Pickett wears a powdered wig, sings, struts and acts the fool in a video to promote Phineas McBoof Crashes the Symphony, a recording of a two-act opera that uses the adventures of McBoof, a musically gifted monkey, to introduce kids to classical music and the symphony.And when it comes to acting silly on the video, Pickett is in good company.He clowns around with two Grammy-winning opera stars, mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard and baritone Nathan Gunn.Also seen in the video is Cory Cullinan, composer of the music, the voice of Phineas McBoof and performing as Doctor Noize, his alter-ego who has a large following in the world of children’s music.