The Orchestra Is Coming To Your Kids, And They Brought Star Wars
Built around a transport-themed journey from Scotland to Kuala Lumpur, the MPO’s latest family concert weaves Grieg, Rossini and Saint-Saëns alongside Star Wars, Harry Potter and Moana — all held together by BBC Concert Orchestra percussionist Alasdair Malloy’s signature storytelling, in what amounts to a masterclass in making classical music feel inevitable.
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Every great concert has that one moment where even the most restless kid in the room goes quiet.
For a hall full of children, that moment usually arrives somewhere between A Whole New World and The Imperial March — and the MPO knows exactly what it’s doing.
On Saturday (23 May), the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) returns to Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS with The Incredible Voyage of Alasdair Malloy, a one-hour, no-intermission journey that travels — narratively, musically, geographically — from Scotland to Kuala Lumpur.
The hook is deceptively simple: every piece on the programme connects to a mode of transport.
A frantic morning rush, a landscape rolling past a train window, the unmistakable chug of a steam engine, and a gallop so famous you’ve heard it a hundred times without knowing its name — each piece on the programme is a transport moment you can feel before anyone tells you what it is.
Who Is Alasdair Malloy, Exactly?
That’s the question worth asking, because the press release treats him as a known quantity — and in certain circles, he absolutely is.
Malloy is a Principal Percussionist with the BBC Concert Orchestra, a position he has held for over twenty years.
He made his BBC Proms solo debut in 1998 and has since become one of the UK’s most respected and prolific family concert presenters — having created and presented over 150 concerts with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra alone, including their Phil Power series, which Julian Lloyd Webber (British solo cellist, conductor and broadcaster) singled out in the Daily Telegraph as Reason Number One to be optimistic about the future of classical music in Britain.
He is also, somewhat remarkably, one of only a handful of Glass Harmonica specialists in the world — an instrument so rare and ethereal it once fascinated Mozart — and has performed with artists ranging from the English symphony orchestra Hallé to, improbably, Icelandic singer-songwriter and composer Björk.
His relationship with the MPO is ongoing and well-established.
Conductor Jebat Arjuna Kee, who leads the orchestra for this concert, put it plainly on Instagram: “Alasdair always enjoys travelling to Malaysia to be with us.”
That’s not promotional copy; that’s a collaborator who’s done this before and wants to do it again.
The Programme Does the Heavy Lifting
What makes this concert structurally smart is the balance between the familiar and the formally educational.
Film excerpts — Harry Potter, Star Wars, Aladdin, Moana, Yellow Submarine — serve as anchors for younger audiences who may be sitting in a concert hall for the first time.
The classical works, meanwhile, aren’t decorative.
Carnival of the Animals, Peer Gynt, and William Tell — these are canonical pieces with genuine dramatic weight, and they’re introduced through the transport narrative rather than dropped in as obligatory repertoire.
There’s also a piece listed simply as Malloy: Morning Routine — an original composition by the man himself.
That’s not a footnote.
That’s a composer presenting his own work alongside two giants of classical music — Rossini, the Italian maestro behind the most famous gallop ever written, and Saint-Saëns, the French composer who gave the world Carnival of the Animals — in a hall under the PETRONAS Twin Towers.
The Practical Details
The concert runs approximately one hour without intermission — the right call for its audience.
Tickets start at RM99 (C Reserve) and go up to RM249 (Premium), with Suite seats at RM299–349 inclusive of light refreshments.
A 10% MyKad discount and 15% senior citizen discount are available, and student tickets are priced at RM74.50; children aged 4 and above are admitted.
Wheelchair users receive a complimentary companion ticket — a detail worth noting and worth applauding.
Tickets and enquiries: 03-2331 7007 or boxoffice@dfp.com.my.
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