By Aline Nassif

aline.nassif@essnmedia.co.uk

The head of Croydon's most celebrated orchestra has come up with an innovative plan to encourage children to open their ears to classical music.

Simon Funnell, managing director of the London Mozart Players (LMP), hopes to attract a younger audience by giving away four free tickets for kids under 18 - every time an adult pays to see one of its concerts.

The LMP, which has a residency at Fairfield Halls, is one of the country's best orchestras.

Its audiences usually fill two-thirds of the complex's 1,500-seat concert hall - but are made up predominantly of older people and professional musicians.

Mr Funnell said: "I don't see why there's any reason why children shouldn't be going to concerts and deriving pleasure from listening to classical music.

"I feel so passionately about this, because I had the good fortune to be taken to a lot of concerts as a child and my life has been vastly enriched as a result.

"There is this stigma attached to classical music - people say it's the preserve of the upper classes and something for the older generations to relax to.

"But nothing could be further from the truth. Classical music has the ability to inspire an incredibly wide range of emotions, from fear to anger to excitement."

Mr Funnell believes that "the world would be a dull place" without classical music.

He added: "Youngsters and their parents in Croydon may think classical music is not for them but I think they'd be surprised if they gave it a chance.

"Consider any feature film and what brings it to life is the soundtrack, which more often than not is classical music.

"I want to give people the ultimate incentive to sample and hopefully fall for the intoxicating soundworld of classical composers like Mozart and Beethoven."

Mr Funnell is disappointed by the dwindling number of school concert outings.

He said: "It is crucial to expose kids to high culture, like music, drama and the arts, because they are the building blocks of a civil and intelligent society.

"These days we are all too easily seduced by forms of entertainment and study that require little to no attention span."

The next opportunity to see the LMP in action at Fairfield - and take advantage of the free ticket offer - will be on November 4.

The orchestra will be performing Mozart's Clarinet Concerto and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony.

Mr Funnell said: "The LMP isn't just any orchestra - it is a world class orchestra playing some of the greatest music of all time.

"It is on our doorstep and now it will cost next to nothing. What more reason could there be to ditch the Xbox for a night and try something new?"