Some Symphony for Life kids and parents saw two fantastic orchestras in 2019.
Live. In person. They had free tickets to brilliant concerts by the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Our children are learning to play the instruments of the orchestra and they have their own beginning orchestras. But most of the children and their parents had never heard a live performance by a professional orchestra.
So in a way, they didn’t know where their own playing is headed.
Now, they most certainly do know.
The free tickets were first offered by the Brandenburg Orchestra, which is a string orchestra like our own. We set up little concert parties and we attended THREE Brandenburg concerts.
An extra thrill was to go to the beautiful City Recital Hall near Wynyard. Who knew that was there?! And it has great special ice creams at interval time. Whoever even heard of ginger ice cream?
Then we went to the Sydney Symphony at the Opera House! – and sat in the enormous Concert Hall just before it closed for two years for renovations.
This was a special concert, the last concert of the Chief Conductor David Robertson before he went back to New York. The orchestra had nearly 100 members and makes an enormous sound without any microphones. We could hear just how good it is – all those musicians playing exactly together. It is one of the best orchestras in the WORLD. At the end, the whole audience stood up and applauded for a long time.
The kids were amazed. They commented on the music and special things they could see the musicians doing as they played the same instruments as the kids play. One of the parents said she wanted our orchestras to get out in public more and play for bigger audiences.
Absolutely. But have patience. We’re getting there.
Thank you to the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for your generous support to Symphony for Life.
Hopefully there will be concerts again soon and we will be given more free tickets. Watch for the invitations from Chris. Any of the SFL kids can attend and take their parents.
Dr Richard Letts, Chair of Program Committee