CBSO Myths and Legends Family Concert at Symphony Hall

CBSO Family Concerts give children the opportunity to see and hear a full orchestra in a relaxed setting. These popular performances attract many, many families and today's audience included babies, teenagers and grandparents. The shows are recommended for 7+ and I think this is about right. However, many multi-generational families, including my own, were enjoying the 'Myths and Legends' concert this afternoon.

Birmingham's Symphony Hall is an impressive venue and every seat gives a great view. Today though there were children peering over the rails and stretching their legs in the aisles. The show kicked off with Tom Redmond entering as Thor, complete with cape and hammer. He introduced each piece in a variety of creative ways which kept children engaged. Our favourite part was when he came on in a cowboy hat and we met mean Billy the Kid from the brass section. Billy kept playing his trumpet too loud but the conductor, Delyana Lazarova kept him in check.

The music was fantastic throughout. CBSO really is a world class orchestra and the pieces chosen today were great for a family audience. The grown-ups loved the Indiana Jones theme tune complete with trumpet blasts. Popular with my children was a piece from Harry Potter and another from How to Train Your Dragon.

One of the engaging things about watching a live orchestra is watching who is playing which part. CBSO where colour coded for families today. For instance, the percussion session wore green whilst the strings wore red. This is a simple but effective way of helping children learn about the organisation of the orchestra. Even my two year old decided that she was very keen on the green ones and noticed when they had disappeared off-stage.

There was also time for a bit of audience participation. Tom Redmond split the room into three and we all had a different percussion action. One section rubbed their hands together in rhythm, another slapped their cheeks and the final section rattled their keys. The whole audience took part and it was great fun. In past performances, I have seen the presenter use a screen to run a quiz or show a picture, I hope this comes back in future performances as we missed this visual element today.

So, when's the next show? It's not announced yet but I'd recommend signing up to CBSO's mailing list or following them on Insta to so you have advanced notice of these popular family shows.

https://account.cbso.co.uk/account/create/brief?_ga=2.82852822.1512328501.1645386359-554321163.1645386358

Special thanks to CBSO for inviting us along to review the show.

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