Shhh! Concerts For Kids by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Last Saturday Young C and I took our first solo trip (without L’il I). We took one bus and two subways all the way downtown to Roy Thompson Hall to go see a symphony concert. It was his first symphony and mine (I’m pretty sure). The Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) schedules a handful of concerts aimed at children aged 5 through 12 each season as part of their Concerts for Young People Series. Even though Young C is only just 3, he is really way into music, and we were offered a complementary pair of seats at the last concert of this season, so I decided to check it out anyway. (This particular concert was also the only one performed by the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra in place of the TSO.)

I knew that the half hour before the concert would feature intimate pre-concert performances in the lobby, and planned to arrive in plenty of time. A truly amazing sequence of slips, spills, and falls just as we were getting ready to leave set us back, of course. (You can never allot too much time for travel with kids. Never.) We did see the last five minutes of an Africa-inspired drum performance that Young C absolutely loved. We then found our seats as I reminded him again that he really needed to be on his best behaviour. Sit still and listen to the music, this is the symphony.

About three quarters through the first song, Young C started to flop around in his seat. “I’ve had enough Mommy.” Oh dear. I pulled him up on my lap, so he could have a better view of the stage and whispered about the different kinds of instruments we could see and how the music sounded. There was a bit of audience participation between numbers as the kids were asked to guess the different instruments. (Young C knew them all. That’s my boy.) We liked Haydn’s “Surprise” because, well, it was fun to listen for the surprise notes. Then there were a couple of dance performances by the Ballet Creole that were wonderful to watch. “Mommy . . . those guys aren’t wearing any socks!” Young C also flipped through some picture books his dad had the foresight to pack and the TSO included an activity book in the program that most of the kids seemed to be reading during much of the performace. Then, as the hour was drawing to a close, I promised donuts if he could just get up off the floor and make it through the rest of the concert. “Hey! Where are the cymbals coming from? ” He was drawn back into the performance again.

Remember that Young C is a full two years younger than the minimum recommended age. And while the kids were certainly not dancing in the aisles, they were sitting nicely and watching for the most part. This isn’t the Wiggles or Hannah Montana, after all, and you want an entirely different experience at the symphony anyway.

File this under the its-good-for-you category. That doesn’t mean that most kids will hate it; in fact, some will probably learn to love it. But you don’t learn to love it if you don’t go. The Concerts for Young People make that possible. Sure, the children still need to be reasonably well-behaved, but it is an audience of families. So you can whisper and point, the program is geared at children, and it’s only an hour long.

At $18 – $28 a ticket, they aren’t exactly cheap, but they are on par with an afternoon at the museum or the amusement park. If you want your children to appreciate more sophisticated music, or if they already do, or if they are taking music lessons, then take them.

“I’m writing about how we went to the symphony, C. Did you like that concert?” I ask. “Yeah,” he answers, “And [are you writing] about Tim Hortons, too?” “Sure. Did you like going to Tim Hortons?” BIG smile. “Yes!” It’s about the whole experience, after all.

(Image courtesy of ivanx at Flickr.)