ON WEDNESDAY evening, I attended a concert featuring three excellent pianists in the rarely heard Mozart Triple Concerto, K.242.

What I had hoped to be an evening of grace and charm eventually descended into a most disappointing experience. Seated right behind me in the auditorium, three children and a woman started chatting as the concert began, and it soon became apparent they were more engrossed in their verbal exchange than the music.

Despite several requests from my partner and me, the conversation among the party of four persisted, accompanied intermittently by much fidgeting. After a certain point during the concert, we stopped any more attempts to ask for peace as we did not want to affect the people around us any further.

During the intermission, I told the woman that children who have not developed an appreciation of classical music and an awareness of concert etiquette should not be made to attend such events. Instead of offering an apology, she accused me of overreacting, all the while reminding me she had three children under her charge.

While I am not writing this letter to seek redress in any way, I am still appalled by the moral high ground the woman imagined she had just because three children were under her charge for the evening. The sad truth is that the noise they made during the concert affected the audience seated around them and the performers on stage.

Through this letter, I make a plea to all eager parents not to shove their young children into the concert hall to attend concerts before they are ready. Forcing children to sit through a concert in which they have zero interest is not only a mild form of cruelty, but also torture for other members of the audience.

Some children may even develop a sense of resentment toward all things associated with classical music. Worse still, the hard work of the performers could be wasted and that is sad scenario for any professional musician.

Instead, there are alternatives if one desires to cultivate a love of classical music in young children. Attending an open-air concert by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and spinning a CD in the comfort of one's home are two that spring to mind.

Timothy Ku Chee Chong