Can Learning Classical Music be Interesting?

Sometimes children cringe when they hear the word classical music.  Usually when classical comes up people think of dead composers and the long pieces that last more than 10 minutes.  People can not relate to the piece or composer, because there is such an enormous gap between when the piece was written and to present day.  It's sometimes difficult for young children to listen to concerts, because they cannot talk, remain still, and it can be long.  If a child faces this at a young age it's challenging for them to take any interest in learning an instrument or learning anything else about classical music. 

So how do we solve this?  Well, my first suggestion is for children to listen to pieces on CDs first, but listen to a piece that tells a story.  Two known pieces for this are the Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint Saens and Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev.  Carnival of the Animals contains movements portraying a different animal(s) by instrument(s).  Sounds great?  Peter and the Wolf is a children's story with both music and text.  Each instrument portrays a character or animal to tell the story.  Prokofiev's purpose was to cultivate "musical tastes in children from the first years of school".  Music telling stories and portraying animals sounds a lot better than just learning math or science doesn't it?

Another suggestion for children to get interested in classical music is to play something with speed and gives thrills.  Such as Leonard Bernstein's Mambo from West Side Story, Rimsky Korsakov's Flight of the Bumble Bee, or Aaron Copland's Hoe Down from Rodeo.   I think these 2 ways will get children more interested in classical music.  That's all I got for today.  Hope everyone is having a great vacation!