The Children’s Concert!

Wow! It’s hard to believe it is already October! Only a little over a week ago did Memorial Hall have a hoard of young children with their parents and grandparents, the Bethel forensics students, the Bethel education students, the Bethel Wind Ensemble, and the Women’s Association for the first ever “Tales and Tunes — Adventures with Aesop” children’s concert. The Women’s Association had the idea to try out a concert just for children. The Wind Ensemble played a piece that included four of Aesop’s Fables that had a narrative part as each movement was played. Before every movement one of the forensics students told the story dramatically to the children and after the movement the elementary education students led various movement and craft activities that connected to the fable. Timothy Shade, the Wind Ensemble conductor, also talked about parts of the songs with the kids. For example, for the story the Tortoise and the Hare, he pointed out the different instruments that played the part of the tortoise and the instruments that represented the hare.

The turn out ended up being excellent. Since I was in the Wind Ensemble I did not get the opportunity to work with any of the kids but it sure looked like they enjoyed their afternoon. One of the little boys even tried to direct the Wind Ensemble during one of their activities! Even though it was a pretty chaotic afternoon it ended up being just another one of the awesome experiences Bethel has to offer.