This post on Melbourne Symphony Orchestra – Classic Kids is part of my 21 Challenge. I am taking The 21 Challenge to raise money to support homeless and at-risk young people in Australia. There are more than 32,000 young people who sleep on our streets every night and I blogging a kids activity daily to raise funds to go to Open Family Australia who support these youths.
My challenge is to blog daily an activity I do each day with my kids, using only things we have at home or use what we have on hand when we are out. You can see all the children’s activities I have posted as part of the 21 Challenge by clicking on the tag 21 Challenge here.
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Description:
The PWK family was invited along to attend the Classic Kids 1: I Can Play Anything with Jay Laga’aia, which was part of their Education Week program. Lucky for us all our kids had a day off school today, so we caught a train into the city to see the performance with the 2, 5 and 8 year old.
I had seen one other Classic Kids performance a few years ago and enjoyed it so was looking forward to seeing this one and wasn’t disappointed!
The performance ran for about 45 minutes, which is just the right length for the age group when it comes to this type of performance. All three kids enjoyed it, but I had made the right call not bringing along the older boys as it is definitely aimed at the younger kids.
The performance is structured to increase children’s awareness of the instruments in the orchestra, how they make their sounds and encourage them to listen carefully to the sounds they hear when the music is played.
Between pieces, Jay Laga’aia would explain concepts to the kids through humour and story telling. The orchestra is clearly set up so the kids can see the different sections:
- String wear blue – use a bow to make sound
- Woodwind wear green – make sound with the air from the musician’s body
- Brass wear red – make sound with the air from the musician’s body
- Percussion family wear yellow – makes a sound by hitting something with something else!
There was also some tapping and waving of arms, getting the kids warmed up.
The six year old was on the edge of his seat listening to Jay’s explanation of what the William Tell overture was about.
Jay explained that Swan Lake was not indeed written by Barbie but by Pyotr Tchaikovsky!
And the highlight for the 8 year old was when Ben Northey the conductor, was given Voldemort’s wand and the orchestra played Hedwig’s theme from Harry Potter.
The Classic Kids program is a great way to introduce the orchestra and classical music to kids. We chatted on the train about what instrument sounds we liked the best and it was fab to hear the six year old say he liked the “percussion family best”.
Future dates for Melbourne Symphony Orchestra – Classic Kids :
Classic Kids 2: Maximus Musicus Visits the Orchestra with Noni Hazlehurst
Brett Kelly conductor
Noni Hazlehurst narrator
School Bookings
Wednesday 7 November at 1pm
Thursday 8 November at 10am, 11:15am and 1pm
Friday 9 November at 10am, 11:15am and 1pm
Family Classic Kids
Saturday 10 November at 10am, 11:30am, 1:30pm and 3pm
Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Southbank
Recommended for Grades K-2
Further info and bookings here.
Classic Kids 3: SING! with singers from Victorian Opera and Richard Gill
Richard Gill conductor and presenter
School Bookings
Wednesday 28 November at 1pm
Thursday 29 November at 10am, 11:15am and 1pm
Friday 30 November at 10am, 11:15am and 1pm
Family Classic Kids
Saturday 1 December at 10am, 11:30am, 1:30pm and 3pm
Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Southbank
Further info and bookings here.
Additional resources – MSO App:
This MSO also have their own app, which is not a game as such but allows preschoolers to explore:
- what is an orchestra
- what are the different instruments in the orchestra
- more about the musicians who play these instruments
Older children will be able to navigate this app with ease, but preschoolers will need a guided tour first. The sound of the app is impressive and the graphics are professional and enticing. There is a lot of text describing sections like those on the musicians. While older kids could read this themselves, it would be great to have an audio reading of this info for younger kids.
And you get to hear in fabulous audio the sound each instrument makes, we talked about the families of instruments, the type of sounds they made (high/low) and how you play them (blow, strum, etc)
Download iPhone App from iTunes
Link: MSO Learn on iTunes
Cost: Free
Have you introduced your kids to classical music?
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