When my two young daughter’s received a book as a gift from friends, I was delighted to be introduced to Dan Brown’s musical talents. Wild Symphony was written by the author of The Da Vinci Code, and is quite frankly, beautiful and extremely different to his adult fiction! As a harpist, I have to point you in the direction of  ‘Spider on a Web’; which focuses on the harp. Each piece in the book relates to a different animal or insect, and the app enables children to listen to the classical music which accompanies the poem and detailed illustrations. Although all of the pieces are written for orchestra, I am challenging myself to arrange ‘Spider on a Web’ for harp solo, since it is mesmerizingly delicate and alluring. I am however, very pleased to see that orchestras across the world are performing this ‘book’ this year! I may try and encourage a local orchestra to give this a go; so many children I know would enjoy it, opening their eyes and ears up to classical music through creatures around us; something other than ‘The Carnival of Animals’ by Saint Saens!

Right, I better get weaving… (or rather arranging!)