Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Tom Thumb, and more inhabitants of fairy tales will come alive in music and dance at the Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra’s annual free “family and friends” concert at 2pm, Saturday, Jan. 22, in the RCU Theater of the Pablo Center at the Confluence.

While ECCO, under the direction of Dr. Frank Watkins, plays French composer Maurice Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, the Eau Claire School of Dance will perform the suite’s ballet. Ravel originally composed the piece in 1910 as a piano duet for the twin children of a friend. The next year, he orchestrated it into a five-movement suite, with prelude, interludes, and postludes. Soon after, a ballet to accompany the piece was created, which debuted at the Theatre des Arts in Paris in 1912.

A musical instrument petting zoo will follow the concert and give children a chance to experience different instruments. Memorial High School Orchestra Director Soma Pierce-Smit and her Eau Claire School District Orchestra students are hosting the petting zoo.

Pablo Center COVID-19 protocol will be in effect at the concert. Attendees 12 or older must provide either proof of vaccination or a negative test result taken within 72 hours. Everyone attending must wear a mask. Admission is complimentary, but seats must be reserved on the Pablo Center website.