This August, children will be enthralled by The Tales of Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle-Duck, performed by award-winning soprano and actress Michelle Todd and the Children’s Classic Concerts Festival Ensemble. Escape to Beatrix Potter’s wonderful world and enjoy her timeless tales of our favourite characters, Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle-Duck.
Stephen McNeff’s musical settings of The Tales of Beatrix Potter have enchanted children and adult audiences in the UK, America and Canada. With brand new orchestrations, Jimmy Jewell and Children’s Classic Concerts bring this enduring classic to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
For twenty-three years Children’s Classic Concerts have been delighting children, their families and teachers with their unique, fun-filled introduction to live orchestral music. In that time, their concerts have featured not only classical music, but also jazz, traditional Celtic and world music – all in a lively mix of entertainment and education that regularly sells out at concert halls across Scotland.
Helen Beatrix Potter, known as Beatrix, was always encouraged to draw, and she spent many hours making intricate sketches of animals and plants, revealing an early fascination for the natural world that would continue throughout her life. Two of Beatrix’s earliest artist models were her pet rabbits.
Her first rabbit, Benjamin Bouncer, enjoyed buttered toast and joined the Potter family on holiday in Scotland where he went for walks on a lead. Benjamin’s successor was Peter Piper, who had a talent for performing tricks, and he accompanied Beatrix everywhere.
Beatrix died in 1943, leaving fifteen farms and over four thousand acres of land to the National Trust. Today, more than two million Beatrix Potter books are sold across the world every year – four books a minute. The charming stories have a timeless quality, passed down from generation to generation and discovered anew by more readers each year.
Producer Jimmy Jewell was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2015 for his ‘outstanding contribution to the UK music industry’. He comments, I loved Peter and Jemima, my parents and grandparents loved them, and now my children love them too.
The creations of Beatrix Potter consistently withstand the tests of time to remain some of the most recognised and loved characters across the globe.
We all know them, we all watch them, we all read them, and we all adore them. To bring these fascinating and wonderful stories to the stage with Michelle and Children’s Classic Concerts is a joy and a pleasure, and I can’t wait to spend my summer with them.
Underbelly Circus Hub (Beauty) | The Meadows | EH9 9EX Saturday 5 – Saturday 26 August 2017 (not 14)| 12:00
