Concerts for Young Audiences

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As well as introducing music to children, youth concerts develop their intellectual curiosity and artistic sense. Most of these performances are also a source of humour and wonder. As a family occasion, they are not to be missed! Here’s a look at the main youth concerts of this fall.

Montreal Symphony Orchestra

Two creatures from another planet visit the concert hall to wave a magic wand over Earth as part of the show Orchestre de la Planète X. Hear the strange effects these extraterrestrials have on symphony music with works by Copland, Gottschalk, Joplin and Williams. In French for children ages 5 to 12, the MSO is conducted by Mathieu Lussier with two actors from the Magic Circle Mime Company. October 4 at 1:30 pm. www.osm.ca.

You be the hero of this musical adventure

A quartet of musicians (viola, clarinet, piano and percussion) presents Exp!, a fantasy concert where the audience is the hero, inspired by the music, in a story invented by Valérie Arsenault and Arnaud Allary. A one-hour performance without intermession, for people aged 7 to 77. October 4 at 2 pm, Bourgie concert hall. www.artemusica.ca

Babar, Mozart and the Rythmobile

This fall, the Jeunesses musicales du Canada will be offering a variety of shows for young audiences in Montreal concert halls and Maisons de la culture, and on tour across Quebec. The Story of Babar, Jean de Brunhoff’s stories set to the music of Francis Poulenc and telling the adventures of the well-known elephant, will delight the 3-to-7-year-olds. Mozart’s Flights of Fancy introduces audiences of 3 to 12 years to the young Mozart, home alone with his big sister Maria Anna, as the boy unleashes his musical imagination without grownups there to stop him. Finally, in The Great Rythmobile Adventure, two percussionists astound audiences by creating music using the rythmobile, a high-powered all-terrain vehicle that’s out of gas. For youngsters aged 3 to 12. For the full calendar: www.jmcanada.ca

Orchestre symphonique de Québec

The OSQ presents Annabelle Canto, the story of a young opera singer who loses her voice on the morning of an important recital, with soprano Christina Tannous, pianist Dominic Boulianne and conductor Nicolas Ellis. One hour before the concert, children are invited to the “Zoo musical” to meet the musicians and try out the different instruments in the foyer of the Louis-Fréchette Hall. November 15 at 3 pm, Grand-Théâtre de Québec. www.osq.qc.ca.

Orchestre symphonique de l’Agora

The Montreal Bach Festival and Orchestre symphonique de l’Agora invite young audiences to their very first Bach concert in a program devised by conductor Nicolas Ellis. It features much-loved pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach and other composers. Profits from the concert will go to the organization Share the Warmth, which fights hunger and poverty. November 28 at 3 pm, Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul. www.bach-academie-montreal.com

Translation: Cecilia Grayson