Piccolo in Switzerland
Classical music concerts for children 3 - 12 years old in Switzerland: Bern, Zurich, Basel, Lucerne, Lausanne, Geneva and in other cities of Europe

The Piccolo Music Academy opened its concert season

with concerts in Bern and Zurich!


German and Russian-speaking children in Switzerland welcomed the new format with enthusiasm - despite its novelty, the young listeners were extremely attentive throughout the concerts.

The concert in Bern on September 1st and two concerts in Zurich on September 3d and 8th were just the beginning.

Stay tuned for the upadtes!

Upcoming concerts

INSTRUMENT, DATE and TIME
CITY and ADDRESS
Stay tuned for the updates
Stay tuned for the updates
Our concerts are characterized by their chamber-like atmosphere: 30 children and their parents are invited to the concert.

Children become participants of interactive fairy tales-concerts, help to lead the concert with words and movement improvisation, play musical instruments and become artists.

Children come to the concert-lessons with special diaries and folders, receive programs and dictionaries, do their homework and receive musical evaluations.

The Piccolo Interactive Chamber Concerts consist of 50 sessions designed to be attended regularly by children over a period of three to four years.

The child's parents are the children's primary teachers and have the greatest influence on them. "Piccolo" considers parents as its partners who play a crucial role in the child's learning process.
Our method
Piccolo's interactive concerts are based on the pedagogical principles of Janusz Korczak, Carl Orff, Jacques Dalcroze and Maria Montessori.

The storytelling concerts use some elements of music therapy. The inclusiveness of the concerts allows them to be attended not only by ordinary children, but also by young listeners with sensory disorders, autistic and hyperactive children.
Our concert cycles
for 3-8 years old
"In the Kingdom of Musical Instruments"
The series "In the Kingdom of Musical Instruments" is dedicated to musical instruments, a topic that always resonates with children. Seeing an instrument up close, trying to play it after a concert, understanding how it works and what it can do - all this is extremely exciting not only for children but also for their parents.

At Olga Piccolo's concerts, children feel like witnesses and participants in a miracle: music is born right before their eyes. World-class performers play just a few steps away from them. Talented children - pupils of the city's music schools - muse alongside the masters. The concerts are interactive, include a lot of movement exercises, elements of improvisation and joint music-making in a children's Orf orchestra: thid does not let even the youngest, two- and three-year-old listeners get bored.

With regular attendance, the Piccolo program lasts for three years and contributes to the harmonious, free and subtle musical education of children.

The duration of the performances is 25-30 minutes.
The queen violin in the music of P.I. Tchaikovsky
The merry saxophone in the music of D. Gershwin and the fairy tales of R. Kipling
for 4-10 years old
"Music of Sandy Fairy Tales"
It's a series of musical interactive fairy tale performances combining live musical performance, actor's reading and sand painting (sand animation). All performances are created by Olga Piccolo, both for children from four years old and for children of primary school age.

The plays are based on fascinating plots: either familiar works by Pushkin, Hoffman, Exupery, Shakespeare, Maeterlinck, or Olga Piccolo's author's plots about composers, children and their search for happiness. The performances include masterpieces of classical music performed by a variety of musical instruments, including instruments from Japan, ancient instruments. Depending on the plot of the performance, the sand animation artist draws each time in a certain style, both in monochrome and colored sand, and also introduces elements of shadow theater and origami into the audience.

Thanks to the story and stylistic diversity of music, instrumentation and visuals, the author Olga Piccolo's cycle "Music of Sand Tales" becomes an unforgettable experience not only for kids and schoolchildren, but also for their parents.

The duration of the performances is 35-45 minutes.
The mystery of the baked cricket. The Tale of Little Mozart
Bluebird. A traveling fairy tale
for 5-12 years old
"Musical Tales about Composers"
Musical Tales about Composers - author Olga Piccolo's series for children aged 5-12. Children get acquainted with the childhood of famous composers, traveling through Salzburg, St. Petersburg, the canals of Venice and the streets of Germany.

Little Wolfgang Mozart, Petya Tchaikovsky, Antonio Vivaldi, the children of Johann Sebastian Bach - each of them is destined to meet some marvelous wizard. And then miracles will happen to them, which can happen to every little listener of the performance. After all, if you believe in a miracle, it will definitely come true! Isn't it true?

In Olga Piccolo's musical author's fairy tales children learn, together with little composers, fortitude, fearlessness, patience. Surely some of them will want to try to become composers and compose music themselves after the magical stories!

And in the performances "Peter and the Wolf" and "Carnival of Animals" children will learn about different instruments of the symphony orchestra through masterpieces of classical music!

Not only orchestra artists, winners of international competitions, take part in the performances. Students of music schools also become artists in each performance.

The interactivity of each performance helps children to become active participants.

The duration of the performances is 45-60 minutes.
The legend of Johann Sebastian Bach
Petya and the wolf
Concert presenter in Switzerland
Alla Belova

Alla is a concert pianist - she held recitals in Europe: Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Estonia, Netherlands, Finland, France, Slovenia, Hungary; in USA and in Russia, including Weil recital hall Carnegie hall in New York, KKL in Lucerne, Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, Saint-Petersburg Philarmonic Hall in St. Petersburg and Auditorium Pedrotti in Pesaro.


She is taking part in festivals: Schubert-Woche Festival (Berlin, 2023), Schaffhausen Klassik (Switzerland, 2022), Pulsion Winter Festival (Switzerland, 2022), Talent Music Summer Festival (Italy, 2021), Oltmar Schoeck Festival (Switzerland, 2021),

Holland Music Sessions (Netherlands, 2017, 2018,

2019), The International Conservatory week

(Russia, 2016, 2017, 2018) and others.


In the season 2022\2023 she is a pianist

of Thomas Hampson Lied Academy.

Founder
Olga Piccolo
"What is Piccolo? Piccolo means "small." Piccolo is a musical fairyland for children ages 3-12. What I create overwhelms me with love and happiness.

My happiness does not become less when I share it: happiness, like a boomerang, comes back to me through the eyes and smiles of children and adults. We find in life what we put into it."


Olga Piccolo graduated from the St Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov College of Music and the Petrozavodsk Branch of the Rimsky-Korsakov St Petersburg State Conservatory as a musicologist. In 1993 she started working as an MC at concerts for children at the Karelian State Philharmonic (Petrozavodsk). Since 1999 Olga has been Artistic and General Director of Piccolo Music Academy for Children.

Olga is a member of the Association of Music Psychologists and Psychotherapists. She has written the books of poetry My Spirals and As if I’m Drinking from Heaven. Olga is Director of Piccolo private musical school in St Petersburg and the Piccolo international family musical camp for children. Since 2020 she has been a trustee of the foundation for orphans Orthodox Children’s Mission.
FAQ
Olga Piccolo have tried to collect answers to common questions from parents. To ask a question, you can e-mail us at julnab@mail.ru .
  • Question:
    Piccolo Concerts. What are they?
    Olga:
    The concert-lesson format came to my mind in 1999, when the Piccolo was born. As a child, I was passionate about learning the timbres of musical instruments. This led to a cycle of 20 fairy tale stories about musical instruments, which has been delighting kids aged 3-6 ever since. From concert to concert, children learn in detail the secrets of all the instruments of the symphony and folk orchestras. The concert turns into a fascinating musical fairy tale-exercise.
  • Question:
    What is the ideal rhythm of concert attendance for a child age 3 and up?
    Olga:
    For a child of 3-6 years old it is worth starting with the first cycle of 20 concert-lessons "In the Kingdom of Musical Instruments" and attending them twice a month. From the age of 4-5, you can also start attending the second cycle of 20 performances with sand animation "Music of Sandy Fairy Tales" every month.