Young Voices & Imagination: When My Son Discovered the Opera

They say a child’s first brush with wonder can change everything. That a moment—unexpected, unplanned—can split open the world and pour in light. I used to believe those moments came in books or bedtime stories. Now I know, sometimes, they arrive dressed in velvet, under chandeliers, with voices that shake the soul.

Young Voices: A program of the Santa Fe Opera

It all began with the Santa Fe Opera.

I hadn’t expected my son to sit still for more than fifteen minutes. He's nine, charmingly restless, raised in a world of quick swipes and digital loops. But there he was—eyes wide, mouth parted slightly, transfixed—as the soprano opened her mouth and summoned the heavens.

I watched him as much as the stage that night. He leaned forward, perched on the edge of that velvet chair like he might fall right into the music. Something was happening. Something I couldn’t name.

And in that second act, somewhere between the crescendo and the heartbreak, I realized he was dreaming out loud, with his ears.

What if storytelling wasn’t just read—but felt?

What if language had wings?

What if our children’s first true voyage was through sound?

That’s the heart of the Little Listener’s Crate—a concept born from a desire to slow the world down for young minds, to let them experience books not just as narratives but as symphonies. Every curated selection in the crate—like Germaine the Beetle or A Journey for Felix—comes with an audio pairing, a melodic door into the story’s soul. Vinyl meets verse. Story meets score.

And now, thanks to a velvet night in Santa Fe, my son knows what an opera feels like. He knows that music can hold grief, hope, and laughter. That it can build a stage in his mind where anything can happen.

In many ways, this isn’t just about him. It’s about all our children—what they deserve. The soft plush beetle in book may be a story to some, but to him, it’s a passport. To wonder. To imagination. To self.

Because when a child learns to listen—really listen—not just to words, but to the music behind them, something opens.

And suddenly, the world isn’t just something they live in.

It’s something they can compose.

April Sheris

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Explore the Little Listener’s Crate

Limited pre-orders now open. Because your child’s imagination deserves a soundtrack.