The AASO's family concerts

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We also remember how Lipsky, in a program of international dances, invited the audience to waltz to "The Blue Danube." "Shall we?" I asked my wife. She vigorously shook her head. I looked at our daughter. She was heading for the aisle. We waltzed, along with dozens of others.

My fondest memory, though, came after one of the concerts, when I caught my daughter in front of a full-length mirror conducting her own imaginary orchestra. I could tell it sounded like the Ann Arbor Symphony — very, very good.

We're looking forward to the 2004-2005 season of four family concerts, which opens Sunday, November 21, with the magical storytelling of The Arabian Nights. Don't forget to come early — one of the best parts of the family concerts, the instrument petting zoo, happens in the lobby of the Michigan Theater even before the orchestra tunes up. If your child has never held an instrument before, you may want to bring a camera. You'll want to record the expression on your son's face when he draws a bow across the strings of a cello three times his size. Or the look on your daughter's face the first time she gets a note out of a trumpet.   

[Originally published in November, 2004.]