The Radcliffe Trust supported the Aurora Orchestra with the production costs for two performances of Martin Suckling’s The Wolf, the Duck and the Mouse at Kings Place in November 2024 – one for families, and one for local Camden primary schools. This production was aimed at 4-8 year-olds. They are very grateful for the grant awarded by The Radcliffe Trust.
Based on the popular children’s book, The Wolf, the Duck and the Mouse, is a 40-minute ‘fable in music’ for orchestral ensemble and narrator, aimed specifically at 4-8year-olds. The production gives a highly entertaining and interactive introduction to orchestral instruments, while telling Barnett and Klassen’s eccentric story of the duck and the mouse who are swallowed by a wolf. Suckling pairs each character with an instrument (duck and Cor Anglais; mouse and piccolo; wolf and trombone; hunter and bassoon), who help to drive the narrative with recurring themes and musical styles; the remaining instruments (clarinet, trumpet, three horns, string ensemble and percussion) make up the sounds of the forest, along with the audience members who are invited to join in at various moments with body percussion and singing. The production was very visually engaging, with lighting effects, projections of key illustrations from the book, and movement of players to support the storytelling, including utilising parts of the auditorium and balcony.
Teachers reported how beneficial the opportunity was for broadening children’s cultural worlds, particularly as many of the young people would not ordinarily visit a concert hall. One teacher said: “as part of a culture of concert-going at Rhyl it represents part of a broader aim across the school to give these children a bigger sense of the world that is all around them in London”.
As well as giving families an engaging and fun experience of orchestral music, the public performance played an important role in helping Aurora to build new family audiences at Kings Place: 75% of audience members who responded to a survey were attending an Aurora children’s show for the first time.