The 'Organ Day for kids' took place on Friday, June 17, as the kick-off of the Organ Festival. That was a great success! 85 Haarlem primary school children from groups 5 and 6 from the Sint Bernadus school in Haarlem-Oost played the organ all day. The students immersed themselves in the Haarlem organ world. They were welcomed in the morning by the 18th century City Organist with music played on the Cavaillé Coll organ in the Great Hall of the Philharmonie.

The story 'Mozart seeks Müller', written by the Haarlem writer Bies van Ede, also started there. Then, based on this story, the kids went on a treasure hunt along five beautiful Haarlem organs. The nice story was about the young Mozart who played the Müller organ in the Grote or St. Bavokerk in Haarlem during one of his travels about 350 years ago. Mozart, so the legend goes, returns to Haarlem at the end of his life to hear the sound of the Müller organ again. But… where was that organ again?

Nice and hard
The 'Mugjes' went on a treasure hunt and visited five of the many organs in Haarlem. They did workshops with music in the Mennonite Church, dance in the Nieuwe Kerk, singing in the Frans Hals Museum and of course they finally admired the Müller organ. The kids were even allowed to take a look at the organist. In this way they learned a lot about organs: not only how they sound, but also how they work. Neeltje Doppen (from group 6) put it this way: 'Organs are very beautiful and very loud!'.