Meo's First Symphony

Today my mom and I took Mattimeo to hear the symphony orchestra first time. The Portland Symphony Orchestra put on a special collection of music called the Carnival of Animals. This performance just happened to be sponsored by IDEXX (that is where Robbie works), so I was able to score free tickets for the three of us. I was very excited to bring Meo because he loves both animals and music.

Prior to the performance, their was a couple of activities we could engage in. The first was a small petting zoo they set up on Congress street. Meo was able to pat a bunny, a kid goat (which he chose just to admire), and even see a small alligator.

The other activity was an "instrument petting zoo". They set up a huge room full of the different instuments that would be played during the concert and had some musicians there to guide the children and let them try the instruments out. Meo got up close to a violin and tapped on a drum a little bit, but he was a little small and overwhelmed to really appreciate it. There was also coloring stations and even face-painting occurring.

But what really grasped Meo's attention was the free little foam animals that were stamped with the IDEXX logo on them. They were on metal rods so you could pretend like you were walking the animals around. Meo was obsessed with his little animals and they provided him with much joy and entertainment.

walking around with Mema before the concert

When it was time to go into the actual theater, I was a bit weary that Meo would be all over the place during the concert. He was very busy climbing up and down the stairs and chatting away. But once the actual concert began, thankfully he was content just to sit on my lap (he had his own chair but wasn't heavy enough to keep it pressed down and he didn't want to sit in it). He spent the entire concert nursing on and off and happily observing the musicians and the big pictures of animals they showed on the screen above the orchestra.

The pieces they played were:

Baby Elephant Walk by Henry Mancini
Circus Polka by Igor Stravinky
And God Created Great Whales by Alan Hovhannes
The Warthog by Michael Flanders and Donald Swann
Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens

Mattimeo's favorite piece was definitely And God Created Great Whales, as the orchestra mimicked the beautiful sounds and music of whales. They also showed pictures of all sorts of whale species which Meo loved and said "WHALE!" every time the photograph changed.

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the concert. Because the primary audience was children, their was a lot of background chatter which was unfortunate but expected. My poor mom had a little girl behind her who screamed throughout the performance and gave her a headache. She also kept calling all the whales "sharks" which kind of drove me crazy and I wished her mom would tell her they were whales. But they did lots of cool things like show live animals and the conductor was very animated and playful which made up for the chaotic audience. I am very glad Meo had this opportunity and I got to share it with him!