I never experienced classical music as an outsider. With two musicians for parents it was just a part of life. I went to a lot of concerts and tagged along to a number of rehearsals, and it never struck me that this was an unusual upbringing. Still, the better I got to know orchestral music, the more I enjoyed it. There’s a lot to listen to, and the more familiar I got with the different instruments and the roles they played the more fun it became to listen to how they worked together. There are a number of good resources for children, both books and CDs. Here’s a list of what I’ve found so far:
Animal Orchestra by Ilo Orleans, illustrated by Tibor Gergely
Carnival of the Animals: Classical Music for Kids by Camille Saint-Saens and Barrie C. Turner, illustrated by Sue Williams
Carnival of the Animals by John Lithgow, illustrated by Boris Kulikov
The Composer is Dead by Lemony Snicket, music composed by Nathaniel Stookey, illustrations by Carson Ellis
Jake the Philharmonic Dog by Karen LeFrak
Meet the Orchestra by Ann Hayes, illustrated by Karmen Thompson
Out and About at the Orchestra by Barbara J. Turner, illustrated by Anne McMullen
The Philharmonic Gets Dressed by Karla Kuskin, illustrated by Marc Simont
Those Amazing Musical Instruments! With CD: Your Guide to the Orchestra Through Sounds and Stories by Genevieve Helsby
Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and Wolf by Sergei Prokoviev, adapted by Janet Schulman, illustrated by Peter Malone
The Story of the Incredible Orchestra by Bruce Koscielniak
Story of the Orchestra: Listen While You Learn by Robert Levine
The Young Lutheran’s Guide to the Orchestra Garrison Keillor
Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra by Anita Ganeri, composed by Benjamin Britten, narrated by Ben Kingsley
