Music, Previews, Kelly Apter

Family Fun Music Day

Programme of music events aimed at opening up the Glasgow Concert Halls to younger music-lovers

Mission Impossible-style light beams that play musical notes as you cross them, a giant labyrinth of music and light, and a dark room filled with scary sounds – hardly business as usual at Glasgow’s City Halls. Organised by Svend Brown, director of…

Christmas Carnival - Concert for children combines percussion with the orchestra

Children’s Classic Concerts strike balance between music and mirth

Faced with the sound and power of a full orchestra, it’s hard not to be impressed, whatever your age or musical persuasion. When you’re hovering between 4 and 14, however, you sometimes need a little spice in your sonata to stay occupied. For years…

Alonzo King Lines Ballet

Modern classical dance with an Indian beat

It’s part of our make-up to search for the meaning in things. So it’s no surprise that when an audience sits down in front of a piece of modern dance, the big question in most people’s heads is ‘what’s it all about?’. Bringing two works to this…

Festival collaboration unites Alonzo King Lines Ballet with Zakir Hussain

EIF show fuses Indian classical music and contemporary American ballet

Zakir Hussain was always destined for musical greatness: one look at his childhood bedtime routine will tell you that. For years he would come home from school and go straight to sleep, only to be awakened by his father at midnight to rehearse through…

The Songbook of Unsingable Songs

Nonsense and surrealism in this show of songs for children

The songs in Stephen Deazley and Matt Harvey’s new songbook may be many things — funny, sad, silly, quirky. One thing they most certainly are not, however, is unsingable. So, why the superb — but cheekily misleading — title? ‘We both wanted to create…

Auntie Janet Saves The Planet

Despite perceptions, young audiences can often be the toughest to entertain. But they’re also one of the most open, as writer Mark Robertson is gleefully aware. ‘It’s very liberating,’ he says. ‘Because there’s stuff you can do that you just wouldn’t…

Children’s Classic Concerts – The Wow Factor

Amiable hosts, Owen and Olly may not have the acerbic appeal of Simon Cowell, but they can still put on a show as entertaining as any episode of The X Factor. The latest Children’s Classic Concert features well-known tunes from the worlds of TV, film…

The Undersea World of Bubble McBea

CHILDREN’S OPERA Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Fri 20-Sun 22 Jun The words ‘children’ and ‘opera’ aren’t often found in the same sentence. But over the past few years, Scottish Opera has managed to make the artform not just accessible, but great fun.

Misterstourworm and the Kelpie’s Gift

ORCHESTRAL CD Circular Music, Mon 9 Jun Back in 2003, Billy Boyd was a well kent face in Scottish theatre but the world had yet to know his name. At that point, composer Savourna Stevenson and writer Stuart Paterson secured Boyd’s services to narrate…

Liza Minnelli

SHOWBIZ LEGEND SECC, Glasgow, Fri 6 Jun There aren’t many people for whom the word ‘legend’ is applicable, but Liza Minnelli is certainly one of them. Tales of marital woe and substance abuse may have dogged her personal life, but Minnelli’s career…

Children’s Classic Concerts

CLASSICAL CONCERT Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sat 1 Dec; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sun 16 Dec He’s more at home behind the shop counter in Still Game, but this Christmas Sanjeev Kohli is branching out. Instead of hanging out with old boys Jack and…

Farmer Jason

St Serf’s, Edinburgh, Sun 15 Apr

CHILDREN’S MUSIC With their infectious rhythms and catchy lyrics, Farmer Jason’s songs have a wide appeal. But even he was surprised by the interest his CDs generated. As the Farmer’s alter ego, Jason Ringenberg, explains. ‘It seems adults are into…

Zurich Ballet

Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Wed 4-Sat 7 Oct

MODERN BALLET Chocolate and watches may be their trademark, but it turns out the Swiss are pretty hot at dance too. Playing in Scotland for the first time in its history, Zurich Ballet is an undiscovered gem well worth checking out. A decade ago…