Thursday, April 3, 2014

Concerts for Kids

We were blessed today with the opportunity to attend a free concert for school aged children, put on by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO), which is NZ's national orchestra owned and funded by the NZ government.
 
Apologies, this was the best photo I could get with the kids camera.

The concert was specifically tailored towards children. The theme was nature and seasons and there was an announcer, Nigel, who explained things to the group as we went along. He introduced the sections of the orchestra, had the members stand up to show everyone each instrument to the children when he mentioned them and in turn each section played a piece of music. It was very well done. He was dressed as some kind of green garden nymph and made a lot of bad jokes which the kids (and OK me) really enjoyed and at times had the kids yelling back in response, as though they were at a footy game rather than a concert.
 
I personally loved watching the conductor, Australian born, Jessica Cottis. She's a tiny slip of a girl who just bounced on her feet the whole time she conducted.
 
We heard works from Vivaldi, Beethoven, Strauss amongst others but one of my favourite parts of the concert was listening to Nigel read the wonderful novel by Margaret Mahy, The Lion in the Meadow, with the orchestra playing a composition by Christchurch composer, Phillip Norman, which he had written specifically to accompany the book.
 
This concert tied in perfectly with the work we have being doing with the book, The Story of the Orchestra by Robert Levine.
This is a great book for anyone who would like to educate their children on what makes an orchestra, some composers and musical instruments.
 
The first half of the book begins with types of music through the ages and has some famous composers in each section. You play the accompanying track on the CD (it says when to in the book) and you hear some of that composers music. The music alone is worth the purchase of the book. The second half of the books talks about the different types of instruments and once again has music to accompany that instrument. It's a very easy to read and an engaging book with appealing pictures.
 
 
I think working on this book helped my children enjoy their first orchestra experience so much more than they would have, as they recognised composers names, some of the music and all the instruments etc. They enjoyed it so much they have expressed an interest to go back and see one again, so a very successful introduction to classical orchestral music.
 
 
 

14 comments :

  1. Theresa wrote an excellent series on classical music resources here
    http://ordinarylovely.blogspot.com.au/search/label/music
    brilliant
    also Danny Kaye conducting the Philharmonic orchestra is brilliant, looked for it for years at my husband's request but note youtube has it
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV1MM6zfG4s

    and well done on keeping up with the a-z challenge, I chickened out.

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    1. Thanks for those links Erin. The Danny Kaye bit with Flight of the Bumblebee had the girls in stitches.

      I wondered about your A-Z Challenge. Maybe we should put our thinking caps on and come up with one for ourselves.

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  2. Very cool! What a fun and unique concert. :D

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    1. We were really fortunate to get to see something like it. I was pretty impressed and I loved seeing all the kids so engaged.

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  3. That's a great way to get kinds interested in classical music! I think I'd like to read the book / listen to the CD myself!

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    1. My children don't play instruments but they adore listening to classical music. Their dad likes hard metal, punk etc and finds them so weird ... lol

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  4. I love whatever gets kids to engage with music.

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    1. It's great the way museums, gallery's, etc all put on things to cater to children to introduce them to the arts these days. To be frank I often learn more at one of those events than I knew about the subject before.

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  5. Lisa,

    What a wonderful experience! We've never been to a concert where a whole orchestra has played. This sounds like a great way to get kids interested in classical music. I can't remember listening to this type of music as a child and I think I missed out. I've been learning alongside my children.

    I think it was Benjamin Britten who composed 'A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra'. I've been meaning to buy that for the girls. I just googled that title and discovered there's some videos of that music on Youtube. We shall watch them tomorrow! I'll also investigate the book you mentioned. It looks good!

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    1. We never listened to classical when I was a child but I really started to enjoy it when I started working. I used to play Ravel, Bach etc as I got ready for work in the morning. I found it very soothing.

      I will have to look up that on Youtube too. The book is very good but I think it better suited to younger children than yours. It was more for Agent Smelly than The Fashionista.

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  6. The concert sounds great! And how excellent that you'd been working with the orchestra book, so that your girls already had some background.

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    1. The organisers very kindly provided a link to information that they had put together so that children attending could "brush up" before attending. We were too busy to get to it but a lot was similar to what we had already covered ... whew!

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  7. The government organizing concerts for kids.. that is really cool .. :)

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    1. I am not sure if the government organises the concerts but the orchestra is funded by them, so yes it is nice to say good job government for a change. ;)

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