Austin Symphony Orchestra wows children

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Like a long yellow snake, a line of school buses slithers up Riverside Drive outside the Long Center for the Performing Arts.

The vehicles bear more than 2,000 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders from schools all over town. Some of them are dressed in the best "Sunday-go-to-meeting" clothes, others not so much. All of the, however, wear bright, excited looks on their faces.

Of course, it is not so much what they wrap around their bodies; it is what they wrap their minds around.

"Every film has a symphony orchestra behind it, if you think about it," said guest conductor Raffaele Ponti. "If you turned off the sound, it would be just a bunch of jumping around. Every opera, every ballet and everywhere we go, we hear the symphony. It's not just all classical; it's supposed to be fun."

To match the short attention span of folks this age, the concerts are mercifully short, but long on learning.

From an elaborate video camera system, to labels for the instruments, the idea is to draw kids in and apparently, it works. Emerging from the hall, one group of kids is gushing.

"Oh, it was awesome, awesome," they pronounce.

A young girl mulls over whether she’s a convert to classical music. She hesitates and then announces, "I think I might be writing my own songs and stuff like that."

A boy thinks back to his experience.

"The harp, it was beautiful and it made me think of my heart," he offers.

Ponti watches all this with satisfaction.

"Going to one symphony concert doesn't ensure a patron for life," he said. "But it can give a kid an opportunity to have that door, that window open to say of the possibility."

Before the week is over, more than 20,000 kids will have walked through that door.

Here is more information about the Young People's Concerts.