This is an extract from our full blog on classical concerts for children:
It’s one of the perennial questions asked by those involved in promoting classical concerts: how do we get more young people (and indeed children) coming to hear how wonderful classical music is live, and to instil in them a real love for concerts and music in general?
There are, of course, several works written specifically for children (most based around a story), but to this writer, they seem very much to be an adults idea of what they think children want to hear, and after a performance, most children can be heard referring to part of the story as their ‘favourite bit’, rather than being that excited by the music itself.
So the idea of Mini Messiah came to us – how about picking out 10-12 varied numbers and squeezing them into an afternoon concert lasting under an hour, to make a family-friendly introduction to Messiah capable of exciting and holding the attention of all?
On Saturday 18 December 2010 at 4:30pm, our Mini Messiah was born: Would anyone be there to hear it? Would they stay past the first 10 minutes? Would anyone be able to hear anything over the protestations of bored and restless children?
Well, we are pleased to report nearly a thousand people turned up, including hundreds of children, and despite a few bathroom visits during proceedings, all stayed until the end. Even more surprising was the level of quiet in the auditorium once the music started (it wasn’t quite library hush, but the atmosphere was very much that of enthralment and wonder – I have to say, unlike performances of, say, Babar the Elephant that I have attended where a lot of the children were bored, restless, and noisy). The biggest source of gratification, however, was the obvious joy that it brought to this almost entirely new audience – this was evident in the genuine warmth of reception that the performance received, and seeing the pleasure of the children expressed in such ways as dancing on their seats throughout!
You can read more, including things to think about if you're thinking of staging your own concert, at our blog where this is discussed in full: http://bristolchoral.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/introducing-children-to-classical-concerts-less-doesnt-have-to-mean-lesser/
and you can read about the 2012 Mini Messiah family concert (on Saturday 22 Dec @ Colston Hall, Bristol at 4:30pm) at the choir's website:
and view the flyer for this year's concert here:
