Educational Orchestra Concert!

We were invited to an educational concert (featuring the awesome Philadelphia Orchestra) by a dear friend, Lisa, whose enthusiasm for the event overshadowed my own fears about what my 3 little crazies would be like in a concert hall (Thanks Lisa!).  We signed up for tickets and were delighted to receive lots of helpful information in the mail about the event and also some lesson plans to use in preparing the kids for the experience. Loved it!

The morning was a little rougher than I had hoped, with a semi-sick baby M and a wrong turn or two, but we made it in the nick of time!

The performing hall is beautiful, and well, huge! It was filled with excited kids and semi-frazzled teachers trying to keep everyone together. Usually concert halls are filled with polite adult conversations before a concert. It was really neat to see it filled with excited, amazed chatter by hundreds of kids anticipating what was going to happen next and pointing excitedly to their favorite instruments. K and J were taking it all in... a little unsure of what was going to happen, I think. :-)

The concert was based on the story by Classical Kids,  "Beethoven Lives Upstairs". The orchestra performed a medley of Beethoven's music that was all orchestrated around 2 actors going through the story of what it was like having Beethoven live above you - expressively dialoging about his habits, his parties, his moods, how many pianos he had, his difficulty with becoming deaf, and even how he played his music with the pianos flat on the floor so he could feel the vibrations to help him hear what he was writing.

It was very well done - the actors were engaging, the lights were enhancing and the music.... well, it's the Philadelphia Orchestra... need I say more?

Although most of the information was way above where my kids are as far as retaining facts about Beethoven, they listened and were engaged throughout the performance (which was the perfect length for kids, by the way). It was exciting for them to be listening to such great music, hear and see enthusiastic actors, and participate in the experience with friends and hundreds of other kids as well.
On the way home we talked about the actors, the music, what it means to be deaf and why Beethoven wrote both loud and quiet music. :-)

And.... what fun experience is complete without a special treat to end the day? Makes it all the better, I think!

So, may I highly recommend checking out your local symphony orchestra and getting your kids to an educational performance?! Worth the effort for the amazing exposure and wonderful music!