Update, Oct. 2016: The Toronto Symphony Orchestra still runs Young People’s Concerts for children aged five to 12. They also offer fantastic content (for people of any age) available for streaming from YouTube, SoundCloud, Spotify, and iTunes. The podcast reported on below does not seem to be available any longer.
This recently came across my desk (and when I say desk I mean dining room table because I’ve given my desk over the teetering stacks of “important papers”): the Toronto Symphony Orchestra puts out podcasts to accompany their Young People’s Concerts which are geared toward the 5 – 12 years set.
The podcasts are hosted by the orchestra’s educator Roberta Smith and run about ten minutes apiece. File these under educational, though, because they are pretty lean on the fun. I do give the TSO points for not kowtowing to the latest trends in child marketing and bending over backwards to engage the kiddies, though.
Earnest as they are, I can imagine an attentive child learning from these and even enjoying them. My three-year-old son loves educational TV shows and his favourite instrument is the double bass. So naturally he was quite happy to listen to the most recent podcast, “The Melodic Life,” over breakfast. He says, “It was good, Mom. Because it had lots of music. Now can we listen to trumpet music?” At free, these are certainly worth a try — especially if your kids are into serious music.