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Professor Simon Majaro with wife Pamela, right, and Emily Phillips who assists with Cavatina events |
It’s chamber made for younger ears
Special recitals for schools aim to introduce children to the world of classical music
PICTURE the scene: You’ve taken your seat in the small auditorium and are looking forward to an afternoon of chamber music – a piano duet from Brahms, perhaps, or a string quartet from Dvorák.
As you get settled and flick through the programme, you glance around the room and realise, with a slight sinking feeling, that something is not quite as you expected: the room is full of children – rustling, chatting, barreling, distracted children.
For many musical enthusiasts, especially those who are drawn to the quiet intimacy of chamber music, this is the nightmare scenario. Children get bored and make noise, and by extension ‘ruin’ classical recitals.
But then, as the performers are introduced and the music begins, something magical happens as each child, more used to being bombarded with beats and bling on music channels, becomes spellbound by the spectacle of live music unfolding before them.
This is the very special work that the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust carries out and since it was established in 1998, it has brought classical music to thousands of schoolchildren around Britain each year.
Professor Simon Majaro, who lives in Hampstead, set up Cavatina with his wife, Pamela.
He explained the motivation for arranging these recitals.
“We’ve loved chamber music all of our lives, and went to recitals as often as possible,” he says. “But what we noticed – and this seemed rather sad – was that we were meeting the same small group of people all the time, and that audiences were getting older. There was no new blood coming into the scene, so we thought, ‘what can we do to change this?’”
The Majaro’s solution was effectively to bring the mountain to Mohammed, establishing a scheme that introduced children to chamber music by arranging free recitals in schools and weekend concerts in libraries and churches.
The focus in these sessions is as much on interaction with the children as it is on the performance.
The musicians explain the history and workings of their instrument to the children, as well as the music.
“We never bring an ensemble to a school or library until we’ve seen how they interact with children,” Pamela explained. “It’s just as important that the musicians can communicate with their audience as it is that they can play their instrument well.”
The Trust now presents around 50 school concerts a year, mostly in state schools, and also has a subsidised ticket scheme that allows young people (aged 8-22) to attend free recitals in music venues from Cardiff to Canterbury.
Cavatina is currently hosting a series of family concerts at Swiss Cottage Library, which are free to children aged six and over when accompanied by an adult.
Like the schools programme, these recitals are presented in an informal, interactive style that aims to stimulate young musical minds.
“We’re not looking to create musicians,” Pamela explains. “Our aim is to develop audiences.”
Simon added: “We bring music to around 7,000 children a year, so if just 1 per cent of those children develop an interest in chamber music, then we’ll consider our work a success.”
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