Spooky Halloween concert grabs kids

by: jenna stevens
Features Editor

The deep purple curtain and glowing pink moon were the perfect backdrop to the spooky performance by the Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra’s Halloween Family Pops Concert.

This concert was designed to help introduce children to the magical world of classical music and show them how scary music is produced.

Before the beginning of the performance, the children were held in the lobby of Galvin Fine Arts Center.

Magicians and balloon animal artists were on hand to provide laughter and entertainment during the short fifteen minutes before the doors to the main theater were officially opened.

Once the doors opened, it was a sea of ghosts, goblins, ghouls and every other Halloween costume you could imagine. One little girl who was sitting a few chairs down even had a doll with the exact same costume as she had.

Even some of the adults got into the Halloween spirit by dressing up in a variety of costumes just as creative as the childrens'.

All of the members of the orchestra were also in Halloween costumes, making for a lively and very eye-appeasing concert. The first number selected by the symphony was called "The Witches Sabbath," from the longer number of The Fantastic Symphony. This spooky piece was even lead by a ghost conductor who managed to turn his own pages of music and everything.

The announcer for the pieces presented was none other than Mozart, in his afterlife form of course. The ghost of Mozart did an excellent job of keeping the audience members involved by telling a myriad of jokes and stories between numbers. This helped to keep the children entertained by breaking up some of the music.

In the "Funeral March of a Marionette," skeleton dancers descended into the audience stopping at various rows to scare the unsuspecting children. They then reconvened at the front of the stage where they preformed a dance in time to the music. As the set drew to a close, the skeletons returned to their closets for yet another year.

The "Danse Macabre" was probably the most recognized piece by the children in the audience as this is one of the most popular Halloween pieces ever written.

The "Pleasure Train Polka" provided a lively number to the somewhat slow progression and the guest conductor of this piece was very entertaining in her bright red floppy curls and long orange and black striped socks.

While the entertainers did a wonderful job, some of the children were beginning to grow restless by the time they finally reached their finale song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

After thanking everyone for coming, the patrons made there way out into the lobby where they had goody bags waiting for them. These bags were in the shape of a variety of different Halloween characters and consisted of candy, crayons, and some small toys.

Overall the children who attended seemed to have a wonderful time and hopefully they will not be so scared the next time they here spooky music playing in the background of a movie or television show.