Area kids visit Cohen for music and dance

It was a Sunday afternoon at Tufts filled with cheering and much applause, as the crowd grow more intense with each play. No, we are not talking about last week's Patriot's game.

The Tufts Symphony Orchestra presented its annual Children's Concert last Sunday along with the Tufts Dance Collective (TDC). Throngs of area children and their parents filed into Cohen Auditorium to be dazzled by the music of Bernstein, Bizet, McDonald, Tchaikovsky, and Grieg.

The annual concert is designed for children ten and under, but the audience varied in age. Throughout the afternoon, TDC lead the children in interpretive dances to songs from Carmen, Sleeping Beauty, and In the Hall of the Mountain King.

The orchestra organized the concert because they saw it as a way to get children excited about music.

"It was good to connect the school and the community, and everyone had a good time," junior Carolyn Abbott, a violinist, said.

Parents thought the event was an excellent way to get children excited about music. The concert was "very well designed, and [that] the movement was great...the kids were happy," one parent said.

The interactive aspect made it enjoyable for students who attended as well.

"I thought that it was a great idea to immerse children in that kind of culture," freshman Brett Baker said. "For children to experience something musical may trigger a desire to continue with something in that area."

The concert even included a performance by Adele Bacow, who read a poem composed by Conrad Aiken. Aiken wrote compilations of poems about various animals for children, including Cats and Bats and Things with Wings, and A Little Who's Zoo of Mild Animals.

This was Bacow's second year to take part in the Children's Concert.

"I really enjoy it," she said with a grin on her face.

Bacow's best performance was of Aiken's Animals, in which she captivated the crowd with descriptions of crocodiles, grasshoppers, frogs, bats, and lions.

After the concert, the children were allowed up on stage to explore the various instruments. Several members of the orchestra permitted the kids to touch and even play with their instruments.

"I like the fact that the kids are allowed to play with the instruments," one parent said, as she watched her daughter discover the viola. "It could pique her interest in music."

The children, as well as other parents, shared those sentiments. When asked what she thought of the concert, one child put it simply that the show was "A-ok!