Lawler + Fadoul spent part of the first week of December doing a record-breaking 16 shows in three days as part of our outreach work on behalf of the National Symphony Orchestra. Our in-school concerts are highly interactive, and it’s always fun to hear what the kids have to say about the instruments and the music. Below we share some of the best quotes from this three-day marathon.

From John Adams Elementary School where we performed Let’s Dance! for students in preschool, kindergarden and third grade:

“It’s a miracle!”
-kindergartner upon seeing the marimba for the first time

“There’s so many contraptions on it.”
-third grader upon seeing all the keys of the flute up close

As part of Let’s Dance!, we play Name that Tune, to demonstrate the flute’s melodic role in music. We had two really fun answers at John Adams. One was from a kindergartner in the Spanish immersion class, who carefully answered, perhaps translating in her head, “Mary had a little…sheep?” A more surprising answer came when I played the Star Wars theme song, and one kindergartner called it “Angry Birds!” I guess he was more familiar with the game than the movie!!

At Mosby Woods Elementary School, we did 10 performances of Can You Hear Me Now?, our interactive concert about preludes and fugues. At the beginning of each class, the music teacher asked the students what they thought of the instruments, and they had some interesting thoughts on the marimba:

“It’s the grandfather of the bells.”

“It’s like a giant xylophone.”

And a question about the flute:

“Is that flute made of bronze?” [actually, it’s gold!]

And at the end of our 10 shows, the music teacher exclaimed in a triumphant tone:

“This is the IT!”

I think that it was a subconscious combination of “This is it” and “This is the end!” but something about “the IT!” struck me as fitting considering how many shows we packed into those three days.