A New Season for Families

By Leilani Polk

It’s a whole new season, which means brand-new Family Concerts and Tiny Tots performances to enjoy. 

The fun kicks off on October 2 & 3 with the Tiny Tots program, The Percussion: Sounds from Home. Centered around everyday objects at home that you can strike, shake and scrape to create your own beats and structured noise, Sounds from Home focuses on new and exciting ways to experience rhythm with our friends in the Percussion section! These 30-minute concerts are a delightful way to introduce your youngest listeners (ages 0–5) to orchestral music. Get your tickets ASAP, as almost every Tiny Tots performance (10:30am on Fridays and 9:30, 10:30 and 11:30am on Saturdays) sells out. 

Our new Douglas F. King Assistant Conductor Tengku Irfan makes his Family Concerts debut in Halloween Spooktacular!, on Saturday, October 31, at 11am. Yusef Seevers serves as host of a performance that touches on the ominous, eerie, ghostly sounds from the classical canon, among them, J.S. Bach’s organ-only version of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, used often to illustrate horror and villainy, and performed by the Symphony’s own Resident Organist, Joseph Adam Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Suite for Orchestra by John Williams; highlights from Wickedby Stephen Schwartz; Mussorgsky's A Night on Bald Mountain; and Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre, as well as the Presto from his Second Piano Concerto, which will be performed by 2026/2027 Young Artist, Avery Pun. Costumes are encouraged, with trick-or-treating in the Samuel & Althea Stroum Grand Lobby before the concert!

As usual, both programs also include pre-concert activities (crafts and instrument discovery for Family Concerts, as well as an added reading station and percussion play opportunities for Tiny Tots). Visit the Leslie & Dale Chihuly Welcome Hub before entering the Grand Lobby to borrow fidgets, wobble cushions and noise-reducing headphones for all ages.