Tony nominee Dorian Harewood narrates a musical menagerie at the Arboretum

What happens when a three-year-old hears a piece of music and decides it is “too sad”?

Or when the deep, rumbling sound of a double bass becomes an elephant lumbering across the room? When a few shimmering notes suddenly become an aquarium filled with mysterious creatures?

Perhaps that is one of the most wonderful things about music: It doesn’t always tell us what to think. Sometimes it simply opens a door and lets our imaginations walk through it.

On October 4, Melodia Mariposa will open that door for audiences of all ages with Camille Saint-Saëns’ delightful Carnival of the Animals, a free family concert at Ayres Hall at the Los Angeles County Arboretum.

For one child in particular, the concert will be a bit of a family affair.

A family that listens together

This child’s maternal grandmother, Tina Soule, is a well-established professional cellist and with Irina Voloshina, is one of the founders of Melodia Mariposa. She will perform in the October 4 concert and play “The Swan” cello solo. His paternal grandfather, Dorian Harewood, an accomplished singer, actor and voice actor, will narrate the Carnival of the Animals story. Mr. Harewood’s rich performing career includes Broadway, film and television, and in 2024 he received a Tony nomination for his role as older Noah in The Notebook. Harewood has recently been performing a celebration of Nat King Cole in several Los Angeles venues.

That may help explain why music has become part of this child’s imaginative world. His grandmother plays for him, his grandfather sings for him, and he listens. He reacts. He forms opinions.

When he has heard his grandmother playing “The Swan,” he has, in fact, deemed the piece “too sad”- a reminder that children don’t need to understand music theory to understand music.They feel it.

David Cubek, a Venezuelan-born conductor and professor at the Claremont Colleges, will conduct the October 4 concert, where he directs the Joint Music Program. He also directs the Peninsula Symphony.

Cubek first met Voloshina when he was assistant conductor of the Pasadena Symphony, a position he held for six years. Their shared philosophy about music has kept their collaboration going.

For Cubek, music has a remarkable ability to bring people together.

“Music is a wonderful thing, in and of itself,” he says, “but what is incredible is its ability to bring communities together. It is a language that can express emotions and become a vehicle to bond people. It can be truly magical.”

Cubek knows the importance of introducing children to music from personal experience. His wife, Emily Kubitskey, runs Global Arts, a nonprofit that brings free music programs and opportunities to children in the Pico-Union district.

Their own 11-month-old had already attended his first concert at the Arboretum last year, when Melodia Mariposa presented Peter and the Wolf.

The music that becomes an animal

Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals is almost perfectly designed to awaken a child’s imagination.

Written in 1886, the approximately 25-minute suite was originally intended as musical fun. Saint-Saëns created an entire menagerie through sound -lions, hens and roosters, wild donkeys, tortoises, elephants, kangaroos, birds and even fossils.

The lion receives a grand and majestic march. The pianos (two of them) race up and down to suggest wild donkeys. The elephant lumbers along to the deep voice of the double bass. Kangaroos seem to bounce through the music.

In Aquarium, shimmering sounds create an underwater world—the flute flutters like a bird in Aviary. The xylophone rattles through Fossils. And in The Swan, the cello creates one of the most recognizable and beautiful melodies in the entire work.

There is even a movement called Pianists, in which Saint-Saëns pokes fun at musicians practicing their scales. The two extraordinary (Canadian) pianists performing this piece are Bernadene Blaha and Kevin Fitz-Gerald, internationally recognized as gifted recitalists, orchestra soloists and chamber musicians.

For a child, listening to these orchestral pieces can become a game:

What do you hear? What do you see? What does that sound make you think of?

There are no wrong answers.

Bringing people closer to the music

Melodia Mariposa’s mission is to create “intimate and unpretentious classical music events” that engage diverse individuals and communities while fostering appreciation and education for all ages.

As Irina Voloshina puts it, “Music moves, soothes, and excites at the same time and, for just a while, the audience unplugs, deleting the stress of the day.”

Her goal, she says, is “to create appealing and accessible music for those who enjoy being closer to the musicians.”

The mission takes on an especially poignant meaning for the Melodia Mariposa family after the Eaton Fire.

Voloshina, Soule and Harewood’s daughter lost their homes in the devastating fire. Yet despite such profound personal losses, they have continued to give their time and talents to an organization devoted to creating beauty and connection through music.

Melodia Mariposa concerts are concerts free. Those who want to help sustain the organization can join as members for $100 a year, with membership providing access to special members-only events and other benefits.

A concert for every imagination

On October 4, some children may come because they love animals, because they have never heard a chamber orchestra perform live, or they may simply need a little time away from the noise and stress of everyday life.

DEETS

• Melodia Mariposa Chamber Orchestra presents Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 and other chamber music works.
• Sunday, October 4, 2026
• Ayres Hall, Los Angeles County Arboretum, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia
• Free. Donations are welcome.
• Reservations: Concertgoers should enter through Gate 2 in the Arboretum parking area. Standard Arboretum garden admission is not required for the concert in Ayres Hall.
• To learn more about the programs bringing music to children in the Pico-Union community, visit Global Arts.