New music for young audiences

Some thoughts from Paul Rissmann about music for young people

"It baffles me how little classical music has been written for young audiences. The two greats - Peter and the Wolf and Carnival of the Animals – both of them unquestionably magnificent, date back to 1936 and 1886 respectively. Sadly, there seems to be a chronic lack of new repertoire designed to appeal to children. To bridge this gap, I started to explore the possibility of creating new musical adventures for young audiences. But in this digital age I questioned if there was a more modern way to present classical musicians. Given how saturated our lives are by new media, how challenging is it for a 5-year-old child to sit still for 60 minutes in a concert hall? And more importantly – why should we even expect them to do that?

Whenever I performed an orchestral concert for young people, I began experimenting with my own presentational style. Sometimes I’d insert a narrative into a classical work, telling the story behind the music over the music. I found fun ways to invite huge audiences to instantly participate with the musicians, and I projected visuals above the orchestra. None of these techniques were designed simply to entertain – my main goal was to take the children’s eyes and ears into the heart of the performance and to connect to the music.

But often this felt like a compromise. What was actually needed was a new, child-centred repertoire - that was rewarding (for both the audience and the players) and which balanced focused listening with meaningful participation. So I began to create my own. 

As Children's Composer for Music in the Round, I have written a whole series of works for award-winning Ensemble 360 and narrator Polly Ives. With their support, I have been motivated to explore and develop the potential of a truly interactive children’s concert. There is something quite magical when everyone in a concert hall comes together to make music. And most importantly, the huge divide between stage and stalls, audience and orchestra suddenly vanishes."