Last night I attended the Halloween Concert put on by the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. As usual a wonderful time was had by all. The musicians were dressed in costumes; the percussion section were crash dummies, the violas were Crayola crayons, each a different color. Oboe players dressed as characters in Alice in Wonderland. There was a butterfly and a bee, ghosts and devils, a couple of rabbits, one with a tire print up the front of his white teeshirt. A few farmers played violins, a male geisha girl played the cello, and five assorted princesses played the piccolo part of the Sousa march “Stars and Stripes.”

In the audience were costumed people as well. Adults as well as children of all ages were dressed for trick or treat. The couple who sponsored this concert were dressed as bacon and eggs; he was the bacon, she was the eggs. Just down our row of seats was the most adorable baby skunk, and up ahead of us was a child dressed as a remote control. Really. Throughout the concert parents dressed as witches and pirates carried sleeping monkeys and princesses out of the auditorium. It was a delightful scene.

And I wondered absently as I watched the performance if it was more difficult to play a violin if you’re in a giant cookie monster costume. One of the first chair violinists was ensconced in a bright blue furry suit, with the giant bulbous eyes of cookie monster lodged above her forehead. It had to be hot. And certainly not as easy to hold the violin under your chin. I saw other members of the orchestra adjust costumes as they played. I wondered if they had practiced at home in their outfits, just to make sure it all worked together. Probably not!

But my wonderings came to an end during the last piece, “The Great Gate of Kiev” by Modeste Mussorgsky. The cookie monster played a beautiful solo, low and deep and melodic at the beginning of the piece, answered in kind by the Mad Hatter’s oboe. Apparently it doesn’t matter what a person looks like on the outside. It’s what’s on the inside that counts.