TINA MARKOE KINSLOW/Courier-Post Violinists (from left) Gabriela Mandescu, Heather Zimmerman, Ion Buinovsky and Margaret Kwon perform with the Haddonfield Symphony during a children's concert Friday morning. At right, music director Rossen Milanov got Vineland second-graders (from left) Cassandra Clifford, Kaelin Coccaro and Temia Bickholtz and other children involved with the `Wild Wild West' theme.

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Arts education plays a crucial role in the future of South Jersey. The Haddonfield Symphony played that tune over and over in a children's concert Friday morning during the Third Annual Regional Business/Arts Summit at the South Jersey Performing Arts Center on Camden's Waterfront.

Dressed in jeans and cowboy boots, a kerchief tied around his neck, music director Rossen Milanov led the Haddonfield Symphony through Wild Wild West, a program of music with western themes by Aaron Copland, John Williams and Ferde Grofe. The premiere of Daniel Dorff's Sunburst rounded out the program that featured young dancers from the Creative and Performing Arts High School of Philadelphia.

Before the concert got under way in the Walter Rand Theater, Wendy Owen, vice president of communications of Martin Technology Services, underlined the value of arts education.

"We did an informal study of the engineers on our staff in Baltimore," noted Owens. "The engineers who worked most creatively had studied music when they were younger or were involved in the arts in some way. That's a testimonial to the value of arts education."

Between John Williams' Cowboys and a selection from Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite, Milanov introduced the various instrumental groups to the children from Camden City and other South Jersey communities. He even sang the refrain from "Oh, Susannah" in his native Bulgarian.

Hands shot up in the air as the conductor asked the school children to identify a bass clarinet or a tuba. The children broke into applause for the dancers who added some colorful movement to Hoedown from Copland's Rodeo.

"It was beautiful!" said Jose Ramos of Camden, who chaperoned students from the St. Cecilia's School in Pennsauken to the concert. Beaming agreement was Ramos' 7- year-old daughter, Marie Angelica. Asked what she liked, the first-grader replied, "The dancing."