A motley collection of ghosts, ghouls, pirates and prisoners roamed the auditorium at the Cypress Bay High School recently. The costumed characters showed up four days before Halloween for the fourth annual Jack-o’-Lantern Jamboree, featuring the Symphony of the Americas under the baton of Artistic Director James Brooks-Bruzzese.

”It’s such a wonderful opportunity for kids to be exposed to classical music in a format they will relate to and enjoy,” Chairwoman Mona Bentz said of the event, presented by the Weston Philharmonic Society and the Arts Council of Greater Weston. Not only was the entire orchestra dressed in costume, but most of the youngsters in the audience as well.

The symphony played a collection of ‘’spooky” selections, including music from Pirates of the Caribbean by Klaus Badelt, Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky, The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Weber, In the Hall of the Mountain King from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite , and the Harry Potter Symphonic Suite. Brooks-Bruzzese joked with the kids that Harry Potter himself had phoned him that very morning.

”He told me I must play the symphonic suite,” said the conductor, who was dressed as a pirate. Brooks-Bruzzese also singled out each instrument in his orchestra so the youngsters could hear the sound each one makes individually. Between the orchestra’s two shows, children were invited to visit a ”playing patch” where they could try playing real instruments and meet the musicians.