Ballet is art on tiptoes, and Tchaikovsky, who composed the three most known ballets--The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, is the prince of this art. “Dear Little Ones” is NSO’s annual concert designed for children which takes place every year in the festive and magical month of December. Our resident conductor Yin-fang Chang and violinist I-ching Li will lead the audience of children and adults into Tchaikovsky’s dreamy world of ballet music: the encounter between the Nutcracker prince and Clara, the princess in the tower who was woken up by the kiss of true love by the prince after one hundred years of slumber, and the beautiful Swan princess in the tragic Swan Lake. Apart from these, the concert also features other well-known music written by the composer that are diverse in style, such as the shimmering summerly Barcarolle, and Andante Cantabile, whose sweet melody moved Tolstoy to tears; the program also includes Pathetique, which the composer termed as his finest achievement, and the vehement 1812 overture.