You Too Can Make Magic (Concert)

We signed up for this free concert for AJ to expose him to more orchestral instruments.  It was indeed a worthy one.



In the 1st 45mins, our ears were blessed with beautiful popular classical music pieces like  "Morning", "Anitra's Dance", "In the hall of the Mountain King", etc. Jason Lai, the Conservatory Orchestral's principal conductor, also made an effort to introduce the 4 major groups of orchestral musical instruments, namely, Strings, Percussion, Brass & Woodwinds.  The orchestra showed the audience their instruments (according to the group), the sound that they produced & the music that they could make.  We were given better understanding the capabilities & limitations of each instrument as such.


After the mini concert, we were given opportunity to sign up for the information sessions of each instrument group.  Everyone could only sign up for maximium 2, so we selected "Percussion" & "Strings". 



In these 2 Information Sessions, the faculty students & the dean gave the parents & the children an in-depth explanation on the different types of instrument in its group.  They also shared with us what is the ideal age to start learning that particular instrument, what is the foundation one needs to master that instrument, why the student him/herself chose this instrument, etc.  It really gave us (parents) an idea what other instruments our children could pick up as they grow older.  

The children were also given hands-on on some instruments (courtesy of Music Essentials & Yamaha). 


This mini concert cum information session was indeed very beneficial to the children who are already learning music or are considering about it.  In my opinion, the mini concert suit the age group of 5-8 well, but the 30-minute information session suit the parent better than the children of this age group.  The latter session was informative for the parents but was too heavy for the little ones.  The children have not reached that maturity level to digest the information given & thus I could see that many were restless.

Nonetheless, the father & I have gotten a better idea what kind of instrument AJ could pursue next time when he has gained stronger foundation in piano or when he goes to Secondary School when CCA is compulsory.

This is the Conservatory's 1st attempt on this concert & I think it was a success though some fine tuning is needed.  

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