- Yeah, Belk Theater here at Blumenthal is a concert hall, but for one week every year, well, it doesn't look or sound like that at all.

(dramatic music) When CMS is in the house, well, it's more like Symphony 101 as Charlotte's fifth graders line up to meet "Beethoven's 5th."

(dramatic music) - Let's go.

There we go.

(dramatic music) - Good morning.

- [Jeff] That's Ruth Petersen greeting them at the door.

She's a project manager for the arts department at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, partnering with the Charlotte Symphony for four days of kids' concerts.

Every CMS fifth grader at every school, 12,000 5th graders in all, getting an opportunity to see and hear, and maybe even dream a little about what it's like up on that symphony stage.

- It gives the the students, some, their very first chance to come to the symphony and see the different instruments, to see people who hopefully look like them that are playing these instruments.

- [Jeff] Most of them have never seen a concert like this before.

- [Ruth] Most of them haven't.

And if you look at their faces when they're walking in, you can see the delight at looking at Blumenthal for the first time.

- [Jeff] And this first time fifth grade field trip concert often sounds less like a day at the symphony.

(dramatic music) (audience clapping) (dramatic music) And more like a night at the movies.

(dramatic music) - We have Star Wars, we have Harry Potter happening.

And so, even- - [Jeff] Peyton Wulff is the Charlotte Symphony's learning manager and she says these small symphony concerts started long ago in a decade, far, far away.

The 1950s actually, when the plan was to bus school kids to the old Charlotte Armory.

But, then the Armory burned down so the orchestra went to plan B, which was a series of symphony road trips instead.

For a while you were bringing the concerts into the schools.

- Correct.

- It's a different experience when the schools come to the concert.

- It is.

It gets the kids out of the classroom to kind of give them a different environment to learn.

- [Jeff] Later the school concerts moved to Ovens Auditorium and when CMS didn't have enough bus drivers to transport all those students, well volunteers from Charlotte's Women's Association and the Junior League took bus driving classes and got behind the wheel.

And today, well the buses line up for blocks along the curb outside the Blumenthal as the kids inside the Blumenthal enjoy a hand clapping, sing along, nearly 70 year symphony tradition.

(students singing) - We build a curriculum around the pieces that they're performing today, so they get to know it before they come to the orchestra to see it performed.

And so, it gives them a bowl of, oh, I can do this someday or I wanna learn this instrument.

- The energy of children is something unique.

- [Jeff] Taylor Marino is the principal clarinetist for the Charlotte Symphony and he still remembers his CMS field trip concert.

- So, I started clarinet in fifth grade at Elizabeth Lane Elementary School and then joined the band program at South Charlotte Middle School.

(upbeat music) Funny story, I actually lost my clarinet that I was renting.

So, my mom's punishment was to force me to take private lessons when she got me a new instrument.

And that was maybe the first time I realized, okay, maybe this is something I really like to do.

(clarinet playing) It's a magical thing to have your family and to play in your hometown.

You know, watching, playing in the orchestra I watched growing up and that gave me so much when I was young.

(dramatic music) And knowing at the end of the day, regardless of what anybody tells you, if you really wanna do something, you can do it.

(dramatic music) - [Jeff] That's the message Marino wants today's fifth graders to remember long after these concerts are over.

- It's one of the most important things as the symphony is being involved in education and sharing what we do with young people 'cause if that wasn't shared with me when I was young, I wouldn't be doing this today.

- How many of you get overwhelmed with big feelings sometimes?

Yeah, you're human, so it happens.

- [Jeff] The same message that all these symphony musicians wanna share (dramatic music) with Charlotte's Musicians of the future.

- I think musicians love it 'cause like I said, it's one of the most important things we'll do because without that there is no future of music.

(dramatic music) (audience clapping) - Local charter school students were also in the audience for the symphony's week of field trip concerts, which it calls One Musical Family and much like your annual family reunion, well, the schools in the symphony already planning for next year's week of concerts as well.