Concerts for babies

What motivated you to organize baby concerts?
Jakob Valentin Herzog: We're all too familiar with the situation of parents who face considerable difficulties in attending a concert. You have to find a babysitter and organize everything. Or if you go to a concert with a small child, you're never sure you'll be able to stay until the end. So the idea was to make it possible to attend a low-threshold concert. Ideally, this would encourage parents to get involved in cultural life again, independently of the children's performances. What's more, the Thurgau chapter is celebrating its tenth anniversary, which encouraged us to try something new and bigger.

At the first concert, you were in the audience with your granddaughter, and at the second, you played yourself. What did you experience on these occasions?
What did you experience on these occasions?
First, an armada of strollers arrives. Then begins a joyful, colorful hubbub. At the beginning of the concert, it's very quiet, but then the noise level increases continuously until the end of the concert. What's wonderful is the freshness with which children and parents experience the concert. The respect and caution we know from classical concerts are thankfully far away. It requires a great deal of concentration on the part of the musicians, but the children's reactions are very immediate and direct. The gratitude of children and parents is extremely enriching, and the greatest gift is to receive compliments on the concert later from unknown listeners in the street.

Why have you programmed a different style for each of the first four concerts?
This followed from the composition of the steering committee. Sarah Bächi is a jazz/pop musician, Barbara Hidber studied composition as well as violin, Wolfgang Pailer brought the idea of a romantic accordion concert and I myself have a background as a baroque cellist. So it offers a welcome variety for people who aren't used to attending concerts. And for audiences who are used to concerts, it's a way of arousing their curiosity about styles with which they are not familiar.

Do you feel that younger children react differently to different styles of music?
Not really. Of course, they react more strongly if they already know a jazzy Andrew Bond song, but Corelli's Follia also had a rousing effect. More interesting are the reactions of different age groups. While children under two or three tend to just watch, older children are more active - so the "wow" effect wears off faster.

What type of venue is suitable for such concerts, and how many people can it accommodate?
A large, bright room with carpet. Very reverberant rooms are not suitable - there's always a certain level of noise.
The ZKO (Zurich Chamber Orchestra) offers such concerts on a much larger scale - of course, in concert halls built to amplify the sound of the stage. Where this is not the case, 80 people is certainly a maximum.

Is it just a question of introducing youngsters to classical music and enabling their parents to attend concerts with them, or do the concerts already include musical mediation activities?
Thanks to the different ideas of the participants, a diversity of forms emerged. At the first concert, for example, children were encouraged to dance with scarves, while the second was conceived as a "normal" concert. The next concert of contemporary compositions, on the other hand, will again be highly interactive. The pure form of the concert may not be ideal for a heterogeneous audience like the one in Thurgau.

Can you describe the general reactions of the older and younger members of the audience?
They're very diverse! From children who are content to observe, to those who start dancing, crawling over the instruments or taking more interest in their peers than in the music. Some parents encourage their children to get moving, others simply enjoy the music. For some adults, it seems to be their first time at a concert, and the reactions are all very positive.

Do you plan to continue the series and what, if anything, would you like to change following the initial experiences?As far as I'm concerned, that's certain, but the Board of Directors has yet to make a decision on the matter.
For example, my wife and I would like to incorporate pictures - she paints beautifully and is already working on the first sketches. Sarah Bächi suggests perhaps making the "after" even more convivial, so that we can also get to know other families. But the most important thing is to be convinced of what you're presenting - children are incredibly sensitive about this.