Beethoven Lives Upstairs performance with The Cleveland Orchestra. Actor: Jeff Kuhl.
This series, which is designed to introduce children and their families to the extraordinary lives and musical masterpieces of the great classical music composers, consists of four programs; Beethoven Lives Upstairs, Tchaikovsky Discovers America, Mozart's Magnificent Voyage, and Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery. Each program utilizes professional actors in collaboration with distinguished symphony orchestras and is accompanied by award-winning curriculum guides and lesson plans that foster further learning in the classroom.
Each year nearly 100,000 children and their families, throughout North America and abroad, experience the Classical Kids symphony concerts, which continue to garner critical and commercial acclaim the world over. Notable appearances include productions with the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Kennedy Center's National Symphony, as well as in China at the Beijing Music Festival with The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Emphasis on outreach efforts to inner-city schools and communities ensure that a major portion of Classical Kids' audiences are made up of under-served and at-risk youth. Since launching the concert series, over 2,000,000 people have attended over 1,000 Classical Kids events with over 400 orchestras.
