Christmas concert: “Merry QUIZmas!”

Calling all lateral thinkers, puzzle lovers and quiz masters – young and old! That’s because under the motto Merry QUIZmas! the Berliner Philharmoniker will ring in Christmas season in the scope of their education programme. To this end, the emceeing French horn player (or the horn-playing emcee?) Sarah Willis and the wind players of the orchestra have invited Malte Arkona, who has already made for high spirits several times in Berlin’s Philharmonic Hall. Besides hosting the TV show “Die beste Klasse Deutschlands” (on KiKA since 2009), the multi-talent has made a name for himself as a voice actor (most recently as Turbo in the German version of the movie Turbo), and as a singer, and has already won three “ECHO Classic” prizes (2013, 2014 and 2015) in the “Classical Music for Children” category. His motto is: “You don’t need to persuade or coax people when communicating about music. The music itself can do that.”

At this pre-Christmas family concert, Sarah Willis and Malte Arkona will transform the Philharmonie into a quiz show with the “best Berlin Philharmonic audience in Germany”. While the orchestra’s wind players play themselves into a Christmas mood, the two ideally matched quiz masters will put the audience through their paces with interesting questions about music, instruments, the orchestra and of course Christmas. Who knows, for instance, why the flute is considered a woodwind instrument, or what a flexatone is? And when, in fact, can children in Spain look forward to their presents? Whether Sarah Willis and Malte Arkona will be able for their part to answer a question less musical than meteorological in nature, namely whether it will snow this year, remains to be seen …