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Maestro Classics {Swan Lake}: A Review

We love to study the composers at our house!  We try to study a composer each month, listening to their music, reading about their life and time that they lived.  Tchaikovsky is one of our favorites because we are big fans of The Nutcracker here.  So we were happy to receive Maestro Classics The Story of Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky to review.

Maestro Classics is a company committed to sharing the great composers and classic music of our world with children and their families.  Their website is chock-full of great resources, links, free downloads, home projects and more--even a Kids' Club your child can join.  They also offer homeschool music curriculum guides to go along with their cd's which are essentially a complete unit study!  I really enjoyed browsing through it and seeing what they have available.
The cd that we received tells The Story of Swan Lake featuring the London Philharmonic Orchestra.  The first track is the actual composition in abbreviated form, complete with some narration so that you can follow the story in the music.  It was very beautiful!  We all enjoyed listening to it very much.

There are other tracks which tell about Tchaikovsky's life, about the music, an original little song and sing-along about the story and also a performance by guitarist Joe Stump called Speed Metal Swan.  The speed metal performance was really amazing (I love the guitar anyway) and inspired some impressive air guitar at our house.

Also included in with the cd is a 24-page booklet that has activities, facts about Tchaikovsky, sheet music, information on acoustic and electric guitars and more.  The kiddos had fun doing the puzzles and activities!


While I would absolutely love to be able to take my family to the orchestra in person and often, living in small-town America doesn't always allow for that.  We jump at the opportunities we find, but more often than not we are listening to the music at home.  So I am thrilled when I find great resources such as Maestro Classics that help me share classic composers and their music with my children.
Maestro Classics has a selection of nine cds in English and also one in Spanish.  They are available in the cd form ($16.98) or also as mp3 downloads ($9.98).  You can listen to bits of each cd and even browse through the included activity booklets on their website.
 I would encourage you to look and see what they offer.  If you are looking for a way to introduce some music appreciation into your homeschool (or classroom) this would be a wonderful way to do that.

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See what other homeschool parents thought about Maestro Classics here.


Disclaimer:  I received this cd and activity booklet through The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew and Maestro Classics free of charge in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.  

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Steven W Farrell said…
yea I don't understand how you do what you do, raise 2 kids, one big kid in Vince, and also teach those kids and take care of a puppy!? wow, don't be to hard on yourself! I bet enrolling the kiddos in a christian or private charter school come Jr. High looks good right now huh? lol. that pepperoni bread looks good too. I'm enjoying learning how to cook with Molly too. I've learned how to cook good steaks, chicken, and now lamb. We rarely eat bread. which is hard, but healthy for you. basically atkins diet plan. You have a good recipe for pork chops?
January 15, 2012 at 1:08 PM
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