Concerts for Kids

If, when you think of classical music, it’s of something steeped intimidatingly in tradition, in a cavernous venue, with an austere atmosphere and a predominantly grey-haired audience, two child-friendly shows at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe want to challenge your preconceptions.

In Paddington Bear’s First Concert, at Underbelly, Michael Bond’s eponymous, marmalade-loving creation finds himself at the Royal Albert Hall for his first concert. Meanwhile, Misha’s Gang’s Strings for Kids will pull back the curtain on instruments and orchestras at The Space’s Surgeon’s Hall venue.

These shows share an impulse: to show kids that classical music is as much for them as anyone.

Paddington is a passion project for its producer, Jimmy Jewell, who was a chorister in St Paul’s Cathedral Choir and worked as a musical director and composer after graduating from London’s Royal Academy of Music.

As a chorister, Jewell recorded the soundtrack for Spielberg-produced animated film The Land Before Time, at Abbey Road Studios. He recalls being “absolutely transfixed by hearing sounds from TV and film and working out, for example, that a particular sound was a trumpet and a glockenspiel together.”

Pulling back the curtain, making classical music “relatable and accessible”, in Jewell’s words, was behind the success of last year’s The Tales of Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle-Duck, which he also produced. And just as that show introduced children to the orchestra’s instruments—including playing the Harry Potter theme—so too will Paddington.

Engagement is also key to conductor Misha Rachlevsky’s Strings for Kids orchestra of 14 Moscow Conservatory-trained musicians, the majority of whom are under 30-years-old. Rachlevsky is challenging “our society’s perception of classical music as something dated and for old farts,” he says with a laugh.

The Strings for Kids musicians will explain their instruments, right down to how they’re made, and how different notes create different moods – “which is something you cannot do in a concert hall for 500 or 1,000 people,” says Rachlevsky. Kids will invent stories to accompany excerpts played by the orchestra.

“Some will want to touch the instruments,” says Rachlevsky. “And we invite them to.” He sees “absolutely no harm” in giving a child a violin bow, “guiding it with your hand and letting them make a sound. That way, they become the orchestra.”

Rachlevsky believes Strings for Kids is “making a dent in perceptions of classical music as something that is totally different to other forms of entertainment.” It’s not about chaining a child to a chair and ordering them to listen, he says. “It’s about playing a little piece of music—enough to convey an emotion—and then asking: ‘Okay, guys, was that happy or sad?’”

What is key, says Jewell, is to “make something engaging and accessible without being condescending. Children are clever, which people often forget.”

Paddington won’t be dumbed down. This production, reveals Jewell, is a reworking of an existing show. With a story by Michael Bond himself and a score by Herbert Chappell—responsible for the iconic theme of the 1970s animated TV show—it toured in concert format.  

This new version of Paddington is re-orchestrated for multi-instrumentalists. It’s also, says Jewell, longer and more challenging, in a fun way. “We’re engaging children to be part of the performance,” he says. “There are moments of interaction that wouldn’t necessarily happen in its conventional format.”

Jewell’s aim with Paddington is to avoid anything too pantomimic. “It’s a fantastic art form,” he says, “and I respect it hugely. But if you’re trying to provide something that’s both entertaining and educational, you need to engage children on their level – and understand that they’re like sponges. They just absorb information. It’s about tapping into that.”

Both Paddington and Strings for Kids are about demystifying classical music – making it tangible, approachable and embedding it in kids’ everyday lives. This is particularly important, says Jewell, as government cuts to the funding of music and drama in UK schools are “only getting worse.”

For Rachlevsky, Strings for Kids is about giving children entertainment that doesn’t drily educate, but pivots on “paying attention and enjoying it”. Depending on the age of the audience, he adds, “what’s fun for us is that it’s always improvisation, to some degree. It has to be adapted to the crowd.”

With Paddington, Jewell is also acutely conscious of the crowd watching the show. “For every child ticket you sell, there’s going to be at least one adult accompanying them. You want to make it accessible to an entire family,” he says. “We can’t assume that parents aren’t going to learn something new either.”