Education ViVA

Beanbag Proms: March! Rattle! Vroom!
Saturday 6th September 2008

sinfonia ViVA, Julia Damassa as Beanie Bear and Alasdair Malloy all joined together once more in the Royal Concert Hall Foyer in Nottingham, with an audience of over 360 children under 6 and their families, for the latest in the popular Beanbag Proms series March! Rattle! Vroom!

This concert followed the theme of toys much to the delight of the audience! Maestro Alasdair Malloy set off the show with his Tuneful Toybox which saw each of the ViVA musicians entering the stage from different corners of the foyer whilst playing a toy tune. After this Beanie Bear made her traditional entrance with her special Beanie Bear Song as the children and their families all joined in singing along.

March! Rattle! Vroom! continued with the ViVA musicians performing some well-loved classical pieces relating to the theme of Toys. This began with 'March of The Toy Soldiers' from The Nutcracker by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, which saw all of the children and their families marching along to the music, and was followed by 'The Spinning Top' from Children's Games by Georges Bizet.

The favourite performance of the day was without doubt Thomas the Tank Engine to which the children all sang along. After a performance of 'Dolly's Lullaby' by Gabriel Faure, the audience was up on their feet and dancing again as they hand-jived to 'The Handel Hand Jive' which proved to be popular with both the children and their families!

Towards the end of the concert the musicians performed 'You've Got a Friend in Me' from the popular children's film Toy Story before ending the concert as the audience, Beanie Bear and Alasdair danced along to 'Soul Limbo'.

As always at the end of the performance, the children were encouraged to meet the musicians and have a go on some of their instruments. This was particularly popular as the children were able to see and in some cases play the instruments up close.

The Beanbag Proms will continue with Scuttle! Wriggle! Buzz! on Saturday 21st February 2009. Please see concert listings for further details.

This work has been generously supported by Arts Council England, Nottingham City Council, Orchestras Live and the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham. We would also like to acknowledge the generous support of John Lewis, Nottingham; The Whitaker Charitable Trust, Helen Jean Cope Trust, D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust and the JN Derbyshire Charitable Trust.

Images from the project...