For fourteen years, Classical Is Fantastic: How To Understand Music has brought thousands of children to the Grand Auditorium of the Romanian Athenaeum, opening to them the doors of a whole world of classical music, jazz, and the performing arts. Organized by the Classical Is Fantastic Association in partnership with the George Enescu Philharmonic, every month from October to June the project offers captivating lessons about music, in which the masterpieces of universal music are presented alongside the foremost works of Romanian music in terms that the very young can understand. Musicians of outstanding merit appear on stage, alternating with orchestras and children’s choirs.
This project is aimed at educating children over seven through music and for the sake of music and tackles various topics, from the simple ‘How to understand music’ to ‘How to understand music and theatre,’ ‘Music and Dance,’ ‘Music and Film,’ ‘Music and Literature,’ and ‘Music and Cartoons.’ Each concert is broadcast live on the Facebook pages of the Philharmonic, the Classical is Fantastic Association, and Radio Romania Music, thereby extending the experience to children all over the country.
The year 2024 also saw the inauguration of Classical Is Fantastic Days, a festival where music, film, theatre, and dance are combined using original concepts, to offer youngsters all the beauty and complexity of the act of performance in an attractive format suited to their age group.
The Classical is Fantastic program has two main areas:
1. How To Understand Music – aimed at children over seven, held in the Grand Auditorium of the Romanian Athenaeum. Many schools from Bucharest and all over the country have joined the project, and large groups of schoolchildren regularly take part in the concerts alongside their teachers.
2. The Childhood of the Great Musicians – aimed at children between three and eight, these theatre performances with musical accompaniment have been held in the Main Auditorium of the Odeon Theatre since 2012.
In 2002, the Classical Is Fantastic - Childhood of the Great Musicians won the UNITER Award for its educational work.
The Digital Archive – the web page of the Classical Is Fantastic Association provides free access to a vast audio-video archive of concert recordings and also makes available for download the thirteen books in the Childhood of the Great Musicians series, whose texts are inspired by the theatre shows, but which are developed in a highly attractive way, with wonderful illustrations by professional artists. Also available to those interested is the book Classical Is Fantastic: 10 Years.
Programme of Classical Is Fantastic concerts during the 2024-25 Season
