London Symphonia is taking kids on an adventure through music history and everyone’s invited | CBC News
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Colourful wigs, engaging music, laughter, smiles, and a lot of kids grooving to the music filled a room at a city library recently with the return of the London Symphonia’s Family Cushion Concerts.
The music series is back with professional musicians playing classical, rock, jazz and tango, drawing on the participation of a youthful audience to bring the show to life.
The next show is Saturday at the Beacock Branch of the London Public Library.
“I like what I saw today, and I like the country music,” said Emma Krische, a young girl who came to see last week’s concert with her mom and dad. “I really liked Let It Go and Baby Shark, too.”
Emma could be seen, like many of the children present, dancing along to the performances, striking poses, or shouting out guesses as to which genre of music they were hearing.
“I like that you can pretend you’re riding a horse [during the country music],” Emma said.
Back in business
Family Cushion Concerts were a well-loved tradition prior to the pandemic, and resuming them after the pause, is a thrill for the London Symphonia musicians.
“[Bringing music to kids] is really one of the most important things I think we can do, if not for our culture, just to sort of introduce them to music and not just one particular type of music,” said Kelvin Enns, one of the musicians behind the show.
“It’s helpful, I think, for them to see that musicians can break out of the mould and play different styles, even in orchestras.”
Enns and his co-star Lac-Hong Phi take on everything from Ozzy Osbourne, played on a violin and cello, to classical and country.
“It’s exciting for all of us to have real audiences again and to see people get excited about the music. That’s what we saw here tonight, so it was great,” said April Voth, London Symphonia’s executive director.
London Symphonia has three more free Family Cushion Concerts planned this summer at London Public Library brances:
- Saturday, July 29 – 10:30 am to 11:30 am at Beacock Branch
- Wednesday, Aug 9 – 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm at Sherwood Branch
- Saturday Aug 12 – 10:30 am to 11:30 am at Bostwick Branch
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