Did You Know That You Can Take Your Baby To ‘Crying Out Loud’ Concert?

Note to all parents: Crying Out Loud concerts at Wigmore Hall can be an hour of your parenting time best spent.

If you have not introduced your baby to the world of classical music it is time to visit Wigmore Hall’s Crying Out Loud concert series for babies of up to one-year-old. These concerts are performed in collaboration with the Royal Academy and their students, and they are a true creative playground.

The first time I took Blake-Perun to the Crying Out Loud concert at Wigmore Hall, he was close to four months old. I parked the buggy outside the concert hall in the corridor with the rest of the parents and I entered a concert hall full of babies not knowing what to expect. Blake-Perun never had any interaction with other infants before so he was mesmerised seeing other babies around him.

Creative music playground

The first Crying Out Loud concert my son attended at Wigmore Hall was an early music concert with a classical singer and it really interested me back then how he would react to someone else’s singing. Up to that point, he was used to only me singing to him, from the moment he was born. When I was six months pregnant, I performed on stage singing the famous Madam Butterfly’s aria so he was certainly familiar with the music and the classical singing style.

At Crying Out Loud, Blake-Perun was engaging with the music nicely, making sounds in response to the singer, which made other babies follow his lead. There he was, the loudest baby in the Wigmore concert hall, why was I not surprised? The moment he was born my son was the loudest baby on the floor of Thomas and Gay’s hospital.

Crying Out Loud concerts are just under an hour, and the overall setting is rather informal. The parents are moving around, babies are crawling and communicating in their language, feeding, it is a really joyful creative playground.

Two little boys enthusiastically playing with various musical instruments
Photo: Adobe stock

Crying Out Loud concert helps early childhood development

This week I took Blake-Perun for a classical guitar concert. Royal Academy students Saki Kato and Hugh Millington formed the duo Miyabi and they played Rossini and Gnattali.

The second time around, my baby was more mature and already a serious crawler, he had more fun interacting with other babies. He was partially engaged with the music, crawling on stage, and dancing, but I think if it was not the guitar concert that he would be more interested.

There is something about singing or voice that really gets a baby’s attention. We had a lovely time, enjoying the wonderful music and playtime with other parents and their babies.

Crying Out Loud concerts are free for children, and a ticket for an adult is only 8 pounds. It’s a perfect opportunity to show support for young artists while exposing your little ones to different instruments and classical music.

After the concert, I was thrilled to see that I could change my baby at the changing stations that Wigmore Hall provides especially for this event. Crying Out Loud concert turned out to be a perfect little getaway for my family after which I felt great knowing that I did something good for my baby’s early childhood development.

Nevena Bridgen

Founder

Nevena Bridgen is the Founder of The Wives of Westminster. She is an opera singer and a wife of MP Andrew Bridgen.

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