Join the Middlesex Concert Band at the Galvin Middle School in Wakefield for our annual Children’s Concert — an afternoon of music written to delight young listeners and the grown-ups who bring them.

In this year’s Children’s Concert, the band will be playing Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. The audience will hear the story of the resourceful Peter, who, with the help of his friend the bird, outsmarts a dangerous wolf. Each animal in the story is represented by an instrument: the bird by the flute, the cat by the clarinet, the duck by the oboe, and the wolf by the French horns. The narration will be done by Reading resident Christopher West.

The audience will also enjoy Symphonic Highlights from Frozen, arranged by Stephen Bulla, featuring music from the popular Disney film in which a princess tries to save her kingdom from eternal winter. The concert will also include a lively piece by Philip Parker called Clowns.

Also included in the program is a piece by Robert Sheldon called Travelin’ Music, based on the American folk tune “The Arkansas Traveler,” as well as Light Cavalry Overture. Although the opera this overture was written for is rarely performed today, the overture from it has become an audience favorite.

Finally, the concert includes three movements from Gustav Holst’s The Planets. Holst wrote movements for each of the planets. The band will play the movements “Mars, the Bringer of War,” “Venus, the Bringer of Peace,” and “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity.”

A lucky child will win the chance to conduct the concert band in Stars and Stripes Forever. After the concert, instruments will be available for a Petting Zoo where the children can see and touch instruments used in the concert.

Location:
Veterans Memorial Auditorium
Galvin Middle School
525 Main St
Wakefield, MA 01880

Program:

• Peter and the Wolf (Sergei Prokofiev), narrated by Christopher West
• Symphonic Highlights from Frozen (arr. Stephen Bulla)
• Clowns (Philip Parker)
• Travelin’ Music (Robert Sheldon)
• Light Cavalry Overture (Franz von Suppé)
• “Mars, the Bringer of War,” “Venus, the Bringer of Peace,” and “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity” from The Planets (Gustav Holst)
• Stars and Stripes Forever (John Philip Sousa) — conducted by one lucky child from the audience