Making music fit for a future king (or two)
PRINCE George and Princess Charlotte proved they are musical youth as they helped their parents get the Jubilee party started in Cardiff yesterday.
On their first official engagement in Wales, George, eight, and Charlotte, seven, took centre stage at Cardiff Castle as they joined the concert preparations, trying out a sound-mixing desk and conducting an orchestra.
Encouraged by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the children took temporary charge of the sound and light for the main stage, looking thrilled as they changed the levels while a choir sang live before them.
Kate, 40, showed her support for Wales by wearing a vivid red Eponine dress, and earrings from Caerphilly-based Spells of Love.
She also shared snippets about the children’s musical talents, revealing that George is learning the electric guitar, Charlotte is practising the piano, and the family are all big fans of the Disney film Encanto and its catchy song We Don’t Talk About Bruno.
Prince Louis was not at the 90-minute engagement despite his star turn at Trooping the Colour onthursday.william joked that he could have done “anything” in the excitement, including laying down on the floor for fun.
His two elder siblings at times
appeared shy during the event. Both politely shook hands with dignitaries and countless members of the public.
Charlotte appeared absorbed in admiring a bunch of yellow and red tulips she was handed and both coped faultlessly with camera phones pointing at them, cries of “Prince George, can I shake your hand?” and “look at Princess Charlotte, isn’t she so pretty!”.
As the Welsh Pops Orchestra struck up with a refrain of We
Don’t Talk About Bruno, Kate started dancing on the spot while in a small tech tent, George and Charlotte were fascinated by the array of buttons before them and a clearly thrilled George tried his hand at sound mixing.
At one point, the family laughed as someone caused a screech of feedback, with George jumping slightly and giggling.
“What does this do?” he asked Chris Hewitt, the front-of-house sound engineer. Afterwards, Mr
Hewitt said of George’s efforts: “He was doing a bigger gig than I was at his age.”
Over at the lighting deck, Charlotte joined in with the questions, watching how she could turn stage lights on and off.
And when it was time to move on,william reminded his children: “Say ‘Thank you’. We’ll go before we break anything.”
They were next introduced to the Wales Youth Choir for Good and to the orchestra. The Duchess
spoke to the string musicians, telling them she would have loved to have learned a string instrument but played the flute instead.
The family were then invited to try conducting the orchestra, with John Quirk handing over a baton which appeared to be a pencil.
William led the way with an enthusiastic flourish, joking that it proved the orchestra – which didn’t miss a beat – quite rightly “don’t listen to me anyway”.
Enticed by a medley from
Encanto, Charlotte had a turn and giggled joyously as the orchestra played under her baton.
The family were also introduced to last night’s concert star turn Bonnie Tyler, who later rehearsed her big hit Total Eclipse of the Heart as the family chatted with representatives of homelessness charity Shelter Cymru.
“I’ve never had to shout over Bonnie Tyler before,” William joked afterwards. “She’s a bit of a hero.”