We hope you and your child enjoyed your experience at Symphony Center! It is our hope that the sounds of courage of The Bremen Town Musicians created fond memories and that you will go home with newfound interest in and curiosity about the world of music. Below you will find ways to continue exploring the music and concepts from the concert.
Explore the Music
Three Ways Music is Beneficial for Young Children
What’s Next on my Journey with the CSO?
Coloring Pages
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Your Once Upon a Symphony experience is just the beginning of rich musical journey for you and your family!
- After you leave Symphony Center, we encourage you to continue exploring the music from the program. Sing the “Hello” or “Goodbye” songs that you learned during this program. Try playing a simple game with your child, in which you play a piece and ask him or her if they remember what part of the story it goes with, or what kind of movement it goes with.Visit the Symphony Store to purchase recordings or download playlists through Spotify of the works featured in this program:
- Symphony No. 6, Pastoral Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven
- The Old Castle from “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Modest Mussorgsky
- Concerto in E♭for Horn: Rondo, 417 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Symphony No. 41, Menuetto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Explore how composers use high and low sounds to create music. While listening to the excerpts above, follow the contour or motion of the musical line, using your hands in the air to show high and low sounds.
Three ways music is beneficial for young children:
- Singing and dancing with your baby helps to support the bond between child and parent.
- Music has the power to enhance early childhood development by integrating the mind, body, and emotions.
- Music can strengthen a child’s language, cognitive, emotional, social, and physical development, as well as their learning habits and dispositions. Music in early childhood creates a foundation upon which future music learning is built.
Are you interested in a group music class to extend the musical exploration? Is your child ready to discover the joy of playing an instrument? Visit our Making Music website to find a community music school located near you!
“Early childhood is an important time for musical development, as children learn to process sound and make musical sense of it. The earlier we begin to make the musical experience part of learning for young children, the sooner they begin to benefit from opportunities to use music to create, express, and share their thoughts and feelings.”
– Dr. Jacqueline Kelly-McHale, Director of Music Education, DePaul University School of Music
What’s next on my journey with the CSO?
Family Matinee Series Ages 5-9
The CSO Family Matinee Series, featuring the unforgettable sound of the full Chicago Symphony Orchestra, is a great next step for Once Upon a Symphony graduates. These fun and engaging performances that explore masterworks of the orchestral repertoire will take your family on incredible musical adventures and ignite your child’s imagination.
To reinforce your child’s memory of the instruments that you saw at The Bremen Town Musicians, we have included coloring pages at this link.