This past weekend was the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 2012 Hallowed Haunts concert and this year, my mom and I took Zuzu and JR, dressed as Cleopatra and a vampire bat, respectively. JR, at 5, was finally old enough to join in this family tradition and although he found some of the music too loud and scary, he mostly loved it. The Hallowed Haunts concert is only one of the CSO’s many family-friendly offerings and I applaud them for it. Children can learn to appreciate classical music if it is introduced to them in a way that is fun and engaging.This year’s concert was entitled “Dr. Metronome and the Orchestra of Doom” and the musicians were
all dressed as zombies. The story featured a bassoon-playing mime, who rebelled against Dr. Metronome’s program of scary music. The show ended in a riotous can-can that had the whole audience clapping along. It was utterly delightful.
This post was originally published in 2010, after the first time I took Zuzu to the Hallowed Haunts concert.
Doesn’t it feel like Halloween has gone from being a one-day holiday to a month-long death march of costumes, parties and candy? First, you have to take your kids to the pumpkin patch — and by the way, when did “pumpkin patch” become code for “dusty carnival with the occasional gourd thrown in for good measure?” Then, there’s the Halloween festivities at all the local landmarks, like the Brookfield Zoo’s “Creatures of the Night” and the Chicago Botanic Garden’s “Trains, Tricks and Treats.“ Add that to the school parades and parties; by the time Halloween rolls around, your kids’ costumes are torn and stained and you never want to see another candy corn as long as you live.
But there is one Chicago Halloween tradition that doesn’t make me grumpy: the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Hallowed Haunts concert. On a Saturday afternoon in October, the Chicago Civic Orchestra, which is the training orchestra for the CSO, performs a lively concert at Symphony Hall for kids ages 5 and up featuring some of the spookiest music in the classical canon. (Think Bach’s Toccata in D Minor and Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, which many of us know from Bugs Bunny cartoons. Yes, its the “Kill the Wabbit” song.) The kids and the musicians come in costume; the concert is preceded by activities and games in a wonderfully decorated “Haunted Ballroom” and the concert itself is full of fun and mischief.
We took this well-trained bat and the Queen of the Nile to the Hallowed Haunts concert.
This year, my mother-in-law, who is a very serious amateur pianist and classical music devotee, was in town visiting the weekend of the Hallowed Haunts concert and so she got to accompany Zuzu — dressed as Hogwarts’ own Hermione Granger — and I to the concert. We arrived early to enjoy the Halloween activities in the Haunted Ballroom and were just in time to see the Civic Orchestra’s young musicians arrive in their imaginative costumes. It was hard to decide whether we preferred the viola section, who had dressed as different-colored crayons or the Smurf double basses. (Of course, I had to explain to Zuzu what Smurfs were….)
As for the concert itself, it was impossible to resist the good humor of guest conductor Alistair Willis as he presided over a costume contest judged by the audience, led the orchestra through its bone-chilling program and bantered with the ghost of Romantic composer — and notorious show-off — Franz Liszt (aptly played by actor Alan Schmuckler). The highlight for the music-lovers in the audience was undoubtedly the virtuoso piano performance by Aurora native Brett Rowe. Rowe did a masterful job playing Liszt’s feverish Totentanz, a “dance of the dead,” which surely has slayed many a lesser pianist. Zuzu is now in her second year of piano lessons and it was great fun to watch her amazement as Rowe’s fingers flew over the keyboard.
The Hallowed Haunts concert is actually only one of many family-friendly offerings from the CSO. The Kraft Foods Family Matinee series offers three kid-friendly concerts a year — a performance of “Peter and the Wolf” in conjunction with the Lookinglass Theater is coming up on November 6 – and there is also a wonderful family holiday concert in December. I am more grateful than I can say to the CSO for doing so much to make classical music accessible and fun for kids. Our symphony is truly one of the great treasures of this city and by offering performances specifically geared to families with young kids, the CSO ensures that it is a treasure that we all can enjoy.
Happy Halloween!
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