The programme includes The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Dukas, Danse Macabre by Saint-Saëns and the overture from Mozart’s The Magic Flute as well as some well-known arias from the same opera sung by Scottish-born baritone Richard Craddock and soprano Bridget Peirson Davis. All the music has been chosen for its appeal to the younger, as well as older, members of the audience.
“It’s always a challenge to find pieces of music that are not too simple, not too long and yet still interesting and beautiful enough to really captivate an audience,” said the orchestra’s conductor, Jan Steenbrugge.
Children’s concerts have become an annual fixture for the international amateur orchestra, with earlier performances featuring Prokoviev’s Peter and the Wolf and Stravinsky’s The Firebird. As in previous years, a narrator will explain the story behind the music so that the children understand what is going on. There will be three concerts – one with narration in Dutch, another in English and a third in French.
“The aim is to increase young people’s awareness of music and of how it fits together with other art forms, such as dance and visual art,” says the orchestra’s president, Mary Wiklander-Williams.
During the interval, children can try out the orchestral instruments to see what it’s like to hold, hit or blow into their instrument of choice. While there’s no minimum (or maximum) age for concert goers, Wiklander-Williams said that the performances generally appeal most to kids between five and 12 years – just the age when they start to consider playing an instrument.
21 November, 15.00 (Dutch narration)
22 November, 14.00 (English narration)
22 November, 16.30 (French narration)
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