Children and the Arts; An expert's perspective

I have something a little different than usual for you all today, and I’m so excited to share it with you!

Last month we decided to head up to Reno to take the kids to the Reno Pops Orchestra’s Superhero Concert. It was advertised as being very kid friendly and, as it was right before Halloween, they were even having a costume parade as part of the evening. The best part? It was going to be completely free! We haven’t been to a musical event like this for several years and couldn’t wait to take our kids to some fine art in a beautiful concert hall.

We had a marvelous time, and even the littlest of our kids enjoyed it. I thought that there might be other parents out there who would like to do things like this with their kids but find it to be a daunting prospect. So, I sought an expert’s point of view on the subject and you get to enjoy the results along with me.

Photo by Lukas from Pexels

I reached out to the Reno Pops orchestra for an insider’s take on bringing kids to formal concerts, and got to have a delightful chat with Mrs. Kathy Walton, President of the Board for the Reno Pops Orchestra. Here is what she had to say about music in general and the Reno Pops in particular.

Diedre Mower: Why is introducing children to fine art important?

Kathy Walton: I was a music minor, but I was always in choral music, never in the orchestra. Well I guess I was, I started out on the violin in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade but then ended it. I took an A period class in high school so I could be in choir. Then I was in a performing group, so that was 2 periods of music at school each day. Same thing in JR High. I just think it’s an outlet for everybody. My husband happened to be more into art than music when we met, so now we’ve got a whole bunch of History of Art books on the shelf. It’s such a release for people. Especially with music today. Concerts like this give a sense of what music can be like and how to know what quality is. So, exposing kids to art and music obviously from what I just said I think is very important.

Also, I think you can’t start too young. And it might stick! I’ve had people tell me in the past that, “Gee I kind of remember that!” Or some of my friends that have been professional musicians their whole lives talk about how they started when they were little like your kids. My mother took us to concerts and I always laugh when I think about the time when Elvis Presley was at the Oakland auditorium. My husband went to see Elvis, but I was there the next week hearing Clara May Turner in a concert. Of course, that’s about the time Clara May Turner was in Carousel, so that was neat for me! You know, we’d go see Spike Jones and things like that. Any music to me is great. And art to me is okay, but I was always a music person.

DM: I’m kind of the same way. I play the piano, and I’ve done a little bit of singing in choirs, and I love that. Art is fun, but music is more fun for me.

KW: Well, some people prefer music, but some people do not. When I was in school for a degree in Elementary Education I had to take Elementary School Art. I’d always tell the kids, when I taught 4^th grade for a year or two, that stick figures were my thing. I’m probably the only person that took a 5 day a week class for a whole year that got a C in it. I didn’t care! I loved the teacher and I said I’m just not that kind of artistic. So everybody has their own thing, but I just can’t imagine a world without music personally.

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DM: What can parents do before (and during) a concert with their children to make it a better experience for everyone?

KW: I think you can’t start too young. We actually have quite a few babies in the orchestra. Our first cello has a one year old and she was playing music for him before he was born.
As far as preparing children before attending the concert, if you know something about what you will be hearing before you go that helps. If you know a little bit about the songs, you can share that with your children before the concert. I have to confess that a couple of things they did last time, even the Disney’s The Incredibles, I didn’t know. I haven’t seen that movie. And so, if you know what’s coming up, you can really help your kids by familiarizing them with it a bit.

Make sure you talk to them about what behavior is expected. Obviously at the concert the other night you could tell there were a lot people who aren’t normally there because of all the whistling and yelling.

DM: Yes, we noticed that. Also, my parents often took us to things like this and I was always taught not to applaud until the conductor puts his/her arms down by their sides. But many in the audience the other night didn’t know that. The applause was kind of all over the place. Which, as you said, is fun because it let’s you know that people are coming who maybe haven’t had a chance to do things like this before.

KW: Exactly! I taught in middle school for 30 years and every time we had a concert or program, or I had a fashion show for the boys and girls who made things, I always told parents these things:

Please have your kids stay with you during the concert.

Please hold your applause till the end. This isn’t a rock concert. And that’s the hard part today, because no matter what you do you hear people yelling their appreciation and I find it very distressing.

Have the kids know that they’re expected to sit there. Sometimes kids have to go the bathroom and there’s nothing you can do, and that’s okay.

No running up and down the aisles and hanging on the center post like a nightingale and that kind of thing.

When I was over in Clear Lake, teaching, our community room was also our gym and it had a Coke machine in it. Every time we had a concert I would have to put an “Out Of Order” sign and/or unplug it because people would go up during a concert and then we’d all hear the “kachunk”. Even if you asked them not to they did, so I just got to where I unplugged it. I think it makes a better experience.

I would say the biggest pitfall is just letting the kids run.

Make sure that at intermission that they get up and move around a little bit. And we’ll have a 15-20 minute break at our Christmas concert.

And I think with kids, well how old are your kids?

DM: I have a 2-year-old, a 4-year-old, and a 7-year-old.

KW: Oh okay. So my thing for that for other people would be:

If they have smaller children try to sit on an aisle somewhere. People don’t think of that and then the kid wants to get up and you have to climb all over everyone else.

And when you applaud, well I think that’s the important thing I would like adults and kids to know. When you applaud at a concert like this you don’t whistle and yell. You just politely applaud as hard as you can if you want to show your enthusiasm for something.

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DM: What about seating? Is there somewhere that is better for families to sit?

KW: There is no better section. It is really a preference of where you prefer to sit. Personally, like at the Pioneer Center, as soon as I did my thing I walked clear up to the balcony because I like to sit up there where you can see everything. However we did tell a couple of people that came up there with small kids that they might want to sit down in the lower area. Not that we didn’t want them there, but they might prefer, when they were in a costume, to go downstairs for the costume parade. And many concerts, not every one, but many of the concerts (I don’t think the Christmas one) Jane Brown, our conductor, will invite the kids to come up on stage. Well, where allowed. You can’t have anybody go up on the stage at Pioneer. You have to have your name signed in blood practically to get up there. Ha, yeah you laugh! I mean the security guy stopped me and I said, “I’m President of the Board. I’m introducing the concert.” You know, my name WAS on the list. But, we do try a couple of concerts a year (or at least one) to have the kids come up on the stage and sit by their favorite instrument if there’s someone they know, (their parent in a lot of cases). So it’s pretty much just sit where you would like to sit.

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DM: Are all the Pops events family-friendly, or are some more/less fitting for children?

KM: We don’t ever have any concerts that are not kid friendly. Now we do have a fundraiser that’s not necessarily for kids at $80 a head. There’s nothing we do there that a child couldn’t do. Well the dinner includes a glass of wine but… they’re not going to want to come to a dance band and a silent auction type thing.

All of our concerts we try to make kid friendly. And Jane tries real hard to have 2 or 3 numbers at least that children will enjoy. We also always have one more sophisticated piece like Mozart.

We’re always happy to have younger kids and I’m sure the Carson City Symphony is too. All of our concerts are free, and one of the reasons we do that is to help people with young kids like you. We say you could be a millionaire, we don’t care, or somebody on a very low income. The whole idea is that you can afford to bring your kids to learn about music. Not everyone can afford 25-60 dollars a seat to bring little kids so we’re there and we hold open doors to music appreciation. As you saw, our youngest player in the orchestra is in middle school and the oldest one now I think is between 80-85 years old, so we’ve got quite a range there. As I said, right now we have about three members with young babies, and we’ve got a whole bunch with kids. I plan, some time between now and Christmas, I want to see if I can get all those players together and take a picture with their kids and just really emphasize just how kid-friendly we are. We have a lot of kids in our orchestra.

Photo by Daniel Reche from Pexels

DM: Can you tell me more about the Pops' next concert?

KW: Now I know that this time, in December, we’re doing Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, using the music from Scrooge, the Disney movie. Because it’s a Disney movie maybe some of the kids will know a little bit about the story of Scrooge before then. That will be a lot of the program next time and Jane’s sure that a lot of the kids will recognize it. I hope so!

DM: Can you tell me dates and times for that?

KW: Yes, the 14th and 15th of December. That should be Friday and Saturday. Friday night it will start at 7 in the evening, and Saturday will start at 2 in the afternoon. It will be at the South Reno Baptist Church. It is the same exact concert both days, and it will last about 2 hours.

You can also go to our website and sign up for our emails to learn about upcoming activities. We promise we only use it for Pops activities. 

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Isn't Mrs. Walton delightful! I had so much fun talking to her! Later this week you will get a bonus blog post with my own thoughts and tips on this subject, so you can also hear what a mom in the trenches has to say about it all.