Meet the orchestra

Yesterday Will and I went to the RiverCenter for a family concert – the Columbus Symphony Orchestra performed Lemony Snicket’s “The Composer is Dead” -- after we lucked up on some last-minute tickets. It was such a wonderful introduction to the orchestra for Will that I plan to make an annual event of it. The concert itself was a fun mystery-musical tour through the different sections and instruments of the orchestra, with a lively storyteller guiding the way and throwing in plenty of humor for the adults. And the prelude to it all was equally fun. The kids got their faces painted (here are Creight, Mary Margaret and Will as tiger, butterfly and dog, complete with permanently-hanging-out tongue).




And then they explored the instrument “petting zoo”

Here’s one “zoo keeper” letting Will try his hand at the violin

And another assisting him with the cello.

There were bells to play

And some up-close musical introductions to several brass-playing musicians. Here Will and a handful of kids meet the French horn.
The whole afternoon made me giddy just thinking about all the concerts and plays we’ll be able to take Will and Owen to as they get older and we feel less and less confined to places where babies and toddlers can be themselves -- as in: cry, run around, wreak havoc. (Until now, we've been limiting ourselves to outdoor concerts where Will can run around, dance and talk and laugh at full volume.)

Meanwhile Will has been reflecting on his favorite instruments – he especially liked “the big one and the other big one,” which we determined after some discussion were the saxophone and the trombone.