Musical Zoo: Fort Collins Symphony

The Fort Collins Symphony held a Musical Zoo Sunday, February 15th. It's theme was "Tyrannosaurus Sue: A Cretaceous Concerto." The variety of activities to choose from was phenomenal. They had hall entertainers, short 10-20 minute performances, the petting zoo where people could try out the instruments, and then the grand finale in the main auditorium. I was very impressed with the breadth of offerings, and we tried to do a little within each type of category. First, we went to the musical petting zoo. Lexi wanted to try the harp first. This particular instrument had a very long line. But, she really wanted to try get her fingers on the harp strings.

I thought it very brave and generous of the owners to allow the harps to be tipped to their appropriate positions on the kids' shoulders. One of the volunteers brought a harp she had made as part of a school music program. It had an Egyptian theme, and I thought a very nice addition to show kids what is possible in the harpist world.

The second petting zoo room we visited was the flute room. This one was close to my heart as I used to play the flute. I think it inspired my girls, because now they are constantly asking when I'm going to get my flute out so they can learn. Who knows? Maybe a new world for the girls and I to explore together.

We would have visited more of the petting zoo, but time was rushing by, and I wanted to make sure we saw the highlights. So, down to the small performance area we went. We had time to see two short performances. One performance was of young pianists playing a few pieces.

The second performance was very enjoyable with a guitar player and Spanish Flamenco Dancers.

It was a shame that the MC didn't use the microphone and ask the performers to use the microphone when they were describing the music. It would have been much more professional, and those who were in the back would have been able to hear. Since the theme this year was dinosaurs, the symphony invited the Dinosaur Ridge to have a display. I thought that was a very nice tie-in to the dinosaur theme, and I enjoy hearing about new places to travel.

And on to the Grand Finale! Unfortunately, I didn't really think the main performance was worth staying around for. The music and dance performance definitely fit the theme of a Cretaceous Concerto. Nonetheless, many of the dance costumes were crude and revealed too much through the tight fabric. The dancing was stiff and forced. This picture includes one of the better outfits - the others I could not make myself put in the memory bank.

Overall, I commend the symphony on a well-executed, multifaceted event. While I didn't care for the main performance, the petting zoo and short performances more than made up for it. It would be nice if they could logistically extend the time, so that we could see and do more of the musical zoo activities.