MICHIGAN CITY -- The circus was in town Saturday afternoon. Well, at least at the Elston Middle School Theater. Then again, it was a make-believe circus. There were clowns, acrobats, magicians, jugglers, musicians -- wait a minute -- musicians? Classical musicians even. Oh I see, it was a LaPorte County Symphony Orchestra concert for the entire family.

The concert was titled “Under the Big Top.” With Bobby Komendera as the ringmaster, it featured Matt Kalita, magician/extricationist; Michiana Clowns; Thomas Misch, Juggling Fanatic; Platinum Gymnastics; and the Trail Creek Dog Training Club. Oh, and of course the full Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Philip Bauman.

Familiar tunes were played by the orchestra while the various performers did their particular specialties in front of the musicians. The compositions included the “Finale from the William Tell Overture;” the “Overture to Candide;” several sections of “The Comedians;” sections of “Swan Lake;” “Flight of the Bumble Bee;” “Gayne Ballet;” “Night on Bare Mountain;” and “Le Cid.”

The idea behind the concert is a very good one: to introduce classical music to young children of the area. To me, it was similar to watching cartoons with classical music as the background. It was difficult to concentrate on the music when a magician was performing tricks, or acrobats were doing their flips and jumps across the stage. The action demanded your attention.

The orchestra played well, and it would have been good to maybe, let them play at least one piece without any action in front of them. All of the pieces were of a short duration and the total music played could not have exceeded one hour, but the total time of the entire concert was more than that.

The mayors of LaPorte and Michigan City, Leigh Morris and Chuck Oberlie respectively, were in attendance and participated by putting Matt Kalita in a straight jacket, from which he extricated himself in good fashion.

The children and their parents enjoyed themselves immensely.

As I stated, the orchestra played well, but the sound in the auditorium seemed dry. There was little “brightness” to the tone quality of the ensemble.

Before the concert started, the children were allowed to go to the petting zoo, where several players demonstrated their instruments to the children closeup and even allowed the children to try to play the instruments. This is a marvelous idea. How often do children get this kind of opportunity? There were also some face painting, and animal balloons to help create the circus atmosphere.

The next symphony concert will also be held at the Elston Auditorium March 25th, the “British Invasion.”