Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Morgan Neville’s 2018 documentary film about Fred Rogers, “owes part of its success to Memphis musician Jonathan Kirkscey,” a cellist in the Memphis Symphony, writes John Beifuss in Friday’s (7/6) Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN). “Kirkscey composed the almost wall-to-wall score that seems to levitate Fred Rogers and his human and puppet co-stars on sonic clouds of piano, cello, celeste, vibraphone, flute, Mellotron, mandolin and other instruments, mostly played and recorded by Kirkscey in his Midtown home studio…. Kirkscey, 43… began playing cello at age 6…. ‘Of course, I grew up watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.’ … A cellist in the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and a longtime contributor to local records and rock bands, Kirkscey has been a go-to musician for Bluff City filmmakers for close to two decades…. The new documentary … showcases a man who was himself a musician and songwriter, as evidenced over the hundreds of episodes of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood produced for PBS from 1968 to 2001…. ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’ opens with black-and-white footage of Fred Rogers at the piano, applying music theory to his notion that a properly planned program could ‘help children through some of the difficult modulations of life.’ ”
Posted July 11, 2018
