Music and Movement with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra!

“Mum! Mum!”

The girls were sitting on the floor, right up the front, and I was sitting with the boys in the seats a few rows behind. We were at the Iwaki Auditorium for Movement Makes Music, a special Children’s event by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra featuring dancers from the Australian Ballet’s education unit. The orchestra was beginning to tune up when Izzy stood up and yelled across the crowded room…

“Mum! Has it started yet? Cause this music is terrible!!!!”

I couldn’t help but laugh, despite cringing a little inside at how ‘un-cultured’ my heathen, country-hick, children were.

Before I even stood up to go over and explain, a lovely MSO usher had crouched down next to the girls and was explaining why the orchestra needed to tune their instruments and how they would know when it was about to begin because the conductor would come out and stand in his special place.

The usher smiled at me with an understanding look as she returned to helping people find seats and I hoped that my children were not the only ones to accuse the orchestra of ‘sounding terrible’.

Once the conductor arrived and the ‘real music’ started it was far from ‘terrible’. The music was fabulous and the dancing delightful. Both the conductor and the dancers all spoke about the music and the orchestra in clear, child friendly language.

My girls recognised some ballet steps from their lessons and loved the part when Patrick had a ‘tap off’ with the drummer! Morgan now has his heart set on playing the drums… or maybe the harp! And Noah, he loved it so much he fell asleep during the second last song!

This was such a lovely, family friendly event. It only went for 50 minutes, not too long for even a fidgety one year old! It was also in a smaller venue you could choose to sit close and could see all the orchestra easily.

After attending Movement Makes Music we are all very excited to be going to see Peter and the Wolf at Acme during the holidays, with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra playing the music live under a screen which is showing the movie! There are still tickets available to Peter and the Wolf so maybe we’ll see you there!

After the holidays the MSO is running a series of children’s concerts from October 19-22 – Clowning Around with Melvin Tix:

Melvin Tix is not only the conductor, but the master of ceremonies, the soloist, the balloon-making genius and the music arranger. Clowning Around with Melvin Tix will be an exciting performance for everyone. The 50-minute, interactive and highly engaging show is suitable for children aged between 3-8 years old.

Check out the MSO’s facebook page to keep in touch with up coming events, or follow them on twitter!

For some more reviews of the MSO’s Movement Makes Music check out Stuff With Thing and SuperRelish who also attended.

{Disclosure: Thanks to the lovely people at the MSO we received free tickets Movement Makes Music and Peter and The Wolf. No other payment was accepted for this post. All opinions expressed are purely my own.