In Praise of The New Phil

I'd already been playing the piano for a year by the time I was my daughter's age. I've resisted the ambitious mother's inevitable capitulation to the siren call of Suzuki, but that doesn't mean I haven't taken her to her fair share of "children's concerts". After four years of them, I've started to dread even the very term. There's been very little that's child-friendly about most of the ones we've attended: they're still in large, intimidating concert halls where the kids are preferred, if not expected, to be quiet and take what's good for them. But last Saturday, the little one and I ventured out to the Newton Cultural Center where we sat on the floor in a converted gym and listened to the New Philharmonia Orchestra play to fifty toddlers and their parents.

The last movement of Dvorak's 6th symphony was first on the program. Little E was sitting on my lap, and at the first crashing chords she looked up at me and said, "Wow!" Wow, it was loud! Wow it was cool to be sitting so close. Wow it was cool to be able to say wow and not have other (better) parents look at my kid and go "Shh." After that, there was a very coherent explanation by a first violinist of the term "ostinatto" and a selection from Holst in which the kids sang along with the ostinatto. Finally, a series of variations on Yankee Doodle showing off each instrument in the orchestra and with the vocal talents of a local 3rd grade. Little E was in awe.

The afternoon finished with an "instrument petting zoo" -- E tried a pint sized cello, violin, trumpet, horn, trombone, and snare drum. ("And triangle!" she reminded her dad.) Fabulous.