The sidewalk outside Orchestra Hall teemed with children who’d arrived early for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 12:30 family concert. The hour-long program featured “Beethoven Lives Upstairs,” a story about Beethoven’s life told against a backdrop of excerpts from his best-known works.
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The lobby was full of families emerging from the sold-out 11 AM performance–an in-crush and out-crush of children. Standing in the middle was the mailbox-size cough-drop dispenser, its opening turned to face a pillar.
“Do you want to go home right now?” asked another. “It can be arranged very easily.”
This performance was also nearly sold out, but at 12:30 it looked as if many of the seats were just piled with coats. When the stage lights brightened there was a rustling among the coats and little children straightened up in the seats. Many took up positions in their parents’ laps.
Fifty minutes into the concert many of the children were either slumping or stretching. One father-daughter combination had fallen asleep. In fact, many fathers were sleeping. No mothers were asleep.
Six-year-old Hayley Steinbarth said softly, “I thought Beethoven was a dog.”
