Music Box Concert: Connecting with kids
Music educator Ewa Wilczynski founded the Music Box Concert Series with the help of Professor Emeritus Leslie Timmons in 2016. The program’s more than 20 concerts have featured USU music students while teaching and performing for young audiences.
These concerts are designed for young children and families to experience live music and learn about different instruments. The casual environment allows children to sit on the floor and move, dance or march as music is played.
The concert is free, completely volunteer-led and has an audience ranging from infants to grandparents.
This edition, which featured the tuba and euphonium, was performed by music students Caleb Vineyard and Michael Shipley. They played music ranging from “Theme from ‘Jaws’” and “The Imperial March” to classical pieces.
As Vineyard and Shipley played, children and parents marched and danced along to the music. Spectators also had the opportunity to touch the instruments as Vineyard displayed the tuba and sousaphone while Shipley showed the euphonium and marching baritone.
Vineyard is studying tuba performance and music education and said he would gladly participate again.
“It was so much fun just to see the kids dance around while we were playing,” Vineyard said.
Shipley agreed, saying “To play the fun songs like ‘Jaws’ and ‘Star Wars’ and see them dance around, then after to have them come and press the valves and slides and when they change sound they go ‘Oh my gosh, I’m doing something,’ it’s really cool.”
Wilczynski said her goal with the series is for the children to enjoy music, learn about it, spend quality time with family and expand an audience for live music. She noted the concert’s focus is primarily on classical music. She wants to show kids “it’s not something difficult to listen, it can also be a lot of fun.”
Wilczynski, native of Poland, has been residing in Utah for the past 27 years. She initially had the idea for the concerts after attending a similar event in Europe. With assistance from Timmons, Wilczynski turned her vision into a reality for the past nine years.
USU studio faculty member and professor Sasha Kasman Laude has become heavily involved with the concerts since 2023.
“We’re really lucky in Logan to have this specific format where kids that are not yet old enough to go to concerts — to you know, sit through something,” Kasman Laude said. “How else are they going to be exposed to music?”
Kasman Laude said the series focuses on entertaining and engaging young minds while being mindful of short attention spans.
“We make sure we don’t play for longer than two and a half minutes at a time,” Kasman Laude said.
She loves the unique environment, noting that “everyone is a little bit in their own world, but at the same time you are experiencing the same music with other people.”
The next event in the Music Box Concert Series is set for March 1 at 11 a.m., featuring a woodwind quintet.
“I would honestly tell people with kids to come,” Shipley said. “I think it would be a really cool experience.”