The Carmel Bach Festival went and did a Saturday matinee for kids.

Little Leonard is too little to go too far from home, though he's got the wanderer's spirit. So instead he uses a charming combination of maps, his stuffed horse Rasmus and his imagination to "travel" in his mind to all the far-flung locales that he would like. 

That was the premise devised by trombonist and Tower Music director Suzanne Mudge that transported kids and families at last Saturday morning's first-ever Carmel Bach Festival Family Concert at Sunset Center.

It was a savvy addition to the more refined concert programming, drawing a hefty audience, comprised of more kids than had been seen at the Bach Festival in recent memory. 

Conductor Paul Goodwin and a paired down orchestra of 15 musicians lead the audience (which felt like an old-fashioned Saturday matinee) along the story of Leonard and Rasmus, who travel and peak in on the people of various countries. Goodwin read (animatedly) from Mudge's script and donned different hats and wigs, projections of illustrations hovered above the stage on a screen, while the orchestra struck up music from different regions.

Goodwin wore a sombrero for the traditional folk song "Mexican Hat Dance"; a cowboy hat for a visit to America's California Rodeo Salinas, scored to Aaron Copland's "Hoedown" from Rodeo; a blond wig for Frenchman Claude Debussy's "Girl with Flaxen Hair." While Leonard and Rasmus "flew" to various continents, the orchestra played Gioachino Rossini's "Overture to William Tell."

It was a shortish program, brief, playful and inexpensive (some festival patrons donated tickets to families who may otherwise not have come). Afterwards, a reception in the courtyard offered up foods, crafts and artifacts from each of the different countries that had been visited in the musical program. The concert was a solid success, achieving many of the festival's stated aims: inclusion, cultivating young people, creating a community around the music. Executive Director Debbie Chinn confirmed that yes, they will be doing the family concert again next year. A well-deserved encore.