The Symphony

My parents got my sister and me a subscription to the children's concert series of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra a couple years back. The concerts are lovely, with story telling, props, explanations, mimes/dancers/actors. We have 4 tickets for my sister, nephew, Samuel and men but really we've had every combination of 4 including friends.

Today was Wall-to-Wall-Percussion, Samuel, Matthew, Marc and I were set to go and Renee was going to hang out with Regi and Andy. But it was not to be. Renee insisted on coming with us, so we swapped the 4 3rd row seats for 5 in the mezzanine. And we had a great time. The kids liked the show, and loved, loved, couldn't contain themselves, smiling ear to ear, when they heard the main percussionist say "you'll want to listen carefully to this next piece because it's from a long time go, in a galaxy far far away".

They sat through the Children's Opera Chorus pre-performance, and most of the actual performance too. Matthew used the markers they gave him for the activity book on his face and hands, Samuel lost the helmet of one of his lego guys (it fell off the mezzanine balcony), Renee talked as little as she could have been expected to.

I remember taking Samuel to his first concert there when he was just over 3, he fell asleep on my lap and missed the marching drums playing Bolero. Now all 3 kids not only stayed awake but got something from the experience. We've passed another milestone. And I hope that now that I've written about it, I'll remember it.