Whatever the scientific grounding of The Mozart Effect, you're never gonna find anyone to say, "Stop playing that dadburn classical music for that helpless infant!"
You will, however, find the concert halls surrounded with roadspikes, specifically designed to keep out strollers, and if you try and smuggle a baby or a kid into a concert or recital, the shushing old harpies around you will throw him into a kettle drum full of boiling oil so fast, you'll think you're in a Grimm fairytale.
So. The Kindersleys (yes, of the Dorling Kindersleys) started Sound Beginnings concert series, basically a Reel Moms for classical music.
Says the BBC: "Beanbags will be provided to make the setting more relaxed and the pieces - including compositions by Mozart, Schumann and Ravel - have been selected to benefit the wellbeing of babies, toddlers and parents." Although they'll have a hard time getting up from the beanbag chair, pregnant women are also encouraged to attend, to expose their "foetuses" to the music. And to the babbling of a chorus of their slightly older peers. Sorry, Yanks, this one's only for the British at the moment.
Does classical music make babies smarter? [bbc.co.uk]
Sound Beginnings, the next concert is the London Symphony Orchestra, 26 June [healingpowerofmozart.com]
Oh, this whole thing might just be a promo for some hack's CD. Do studies show that infants only benefit from the Mozart CD's you don't have yet?
