Photo Credit: Aleks Karjaka“My Bach Yard engages young people and their parents in a fun, interactive concert experience which I host. We combine live ensemble performances with storytelling, costumed musicians, and a slew of activities in which the children can take part.
Children develop lifelong loves before reaching adolescence, and the Bach Yard helps create future generations of passionate concertgoers. The Bach Yard also reaches parents, who are reminded how fun it is to attend a live classical concert. I look forward to seeing you and your little maestros in my Bach Yard!”
– Orli Shaham
Orli Shaham’s Bach Yard (OSBY) offers children age pre-K to early elementary and their parents an interactive concert experience featuring hands-on activities with musical instruments, age-appropriate introduction to musical concepts, and concert performances that promote good listening skills. Each performance of Orli Shaham’s Bach Yard is a unique concert experience developed around the four instrument families of the orchestra: strings, brass, woodwind, and percussion. A musical story time, narrated by Ms. Shaham, is part of the show, and there are pre-concert activities where children can get up close and interact with musical instruments and the musicians who play them.
Bach Yard performances feature chamber selections of classical repertoire - by composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, living composers, and of course Bach - specially adapted for children (pieces normally last no longer than 3-4 minutes). OSBY events include professional musicians performing with Orli Shaham as host and pianist. Orli Shaham’s Bach Yard has performed in association with Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, an ensemble of the finest young professional classical musicians who combine musical excellence with teaching, community engagement, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership, as well as with members of the St. Louis Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, and Pacific Symphony, and Aspen Music Festival fellows.
OSBY was founded in 2010 as Baby Got Bach by the internationally renowned concert pianist Orli Shaham who was inspired by her own young sons’ experiences with music. OSBY has commissioned new pieces specifically for the program by composers including Steve Mackey, Beata Moon, and Bruce Adolphe. The program has been presented by the 92nd Street Y, Le Poisson Rouge, and WQXR's The Greene Space in New York City, Princeton University Concerts, Aspen Music Festival, The American Friends of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, and Centene Center in St. Louis. Guest artists have included violinist Gil Shaham, Sō Percussion, Escher String Quartet, Rolston String Quartet, WindSync, The Westerlies, and musicians from the St. Louis Symphony, Pacific Symphony, and Aspen Music Festival.
“We've featured Orli Shaham's Bach Yard at our Family Music Day several times. Each of these interactive programs has thoroughly delighted the children, and engaged their parents as well. Orli is not only a fantastic pianist and a warm and congenial host, she is a master at demonstrating musical concepts in a way that is both entertaining and impactful." – Danielle Ames Spivak, Executive Director, American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic
The program has been praised in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and New York Family Magazine and was listed in New York Magazine's “Best of New York.” OSBY has also been recognized by parents and the music community as a significant force in music education and entertainment for early elementary school-aged children.
Ensemble Connect is the fellowship program created by Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education.
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