Hancock’s Music on Norway Pond may be the only concert series in the country offering a free ticket for any adult bringing a child to a performance.

“It is normal for children get in free, but rewarding the parents is totally different. They sign in with a child, and they are free,” said Artistic Director Jody Simpson. “I have not found anyone else who is doing this.”

Simpson and the Norway Pond board had been trying to think of ways to get more children to attend concerts, and decided to try the “free adult” concept.

“We want to emphasize how much fun it is to bring a child and start a trend where you see families really enjoying excellent and fun music. So far, we really think it has been a success,” Simpson said. “One of the things we love is to make everyone who walks in the door to feel special, like they are part of a happening. It’s something that happens when music is done well – you feel like you are part of it. You’re not just watching a concert.”

Simpson believes giving parents a reason to bring children to live performances is essential.

“Parents want children to have live experiences; they want to get them away from the screen, and that’s so important,” she said. “It’s so exciting to see the children connect with the performers.”

Music on Norway Pond has a long tradition of engagement with children and youth, including through the Junior Mints, an audition-free performing arts ensemble for young people ages 6 to 15.

“I call it the Von Trapp Family on steroids. You can just do lot artistically with that range of age, from little children to the teenagers,” Simpson said.

Upcoming children’s events include a singalong on the Hancock Common with singer-songwriter Ethan MacBrien in June. In 2024, O’Brien led young singers in a selection of Beatles songs.

“This year, we are doing a lot hopeful, upbeat songs. In the past we have focused on one band, but we’re doing new music this year that the kids can relate to. We’re doing a Miley Cyrus song, things like that,” Simpson said.

Simpson and her husband, Rick, who moved to Hancock in 2006, founded the Norway Pond Festival Singers, the Norway Pond Junior Mints and the Music on Norway Pond Concert Series in 2008. Simpson says the couple has a true partnership running Norway Pond, with Jody as artistic director and Rick as executive director.

“Rick runs the finances and does the paperwork. He does the taxes. He runs the business. We would not be there without him,” Jody said. “I always get us into trouble, and he gets us out of trouble.”

Simpson credits Norway Pond’s accompanist, Mary Ann Fleming, the board of directors and community support, particularly parents of young singers, for the success of Music on Norway Pond over the past 17 years.

Simpson says the Music on Norway Pond formula, “exactly a one-hour concert,” has been key to the success of the organization.

“We have always had one-hour concerts with no intermission; that’s it. We start at 4, and you get out by 5:10. It is kind of a like a church service; people know it is just one hour, at kind of a dead time of the weekend, so it’s a perfect time to go do something. It also forces the artists to choose what is their absolute best work, so they make it more fun for the audience,” Simpson said.

This spring, the Norway Pond Women’s Choir will return with performances at Scott-Farrar and other locations.

“I wasn’t sure we would do the women’s choir again, and we had 40 women respond,” Simpson said.

The Norway Pond Concert Series features young and upcoming performers from the New England Conservatory of Music. On April 13, Music on Norway Pond presents “The Stunningly Lyrical Piano of Evren Ozel.” Ozel has been performing professionally since the age of 11 and has been a featured solo performer at symphonies around the United States. His first album, “Mozart Concertos with the ORF Radio Symphony of Vienna,” will be released this month from Alpha Classics.

“Concert-going is such a happy, healthy thing to do,” Simpson said. “There is no arguing, no politics. You just listen; you get to connect with to the experience, and you get to escape for an hour.”

For information go to https://www.musiconnorwaypond.org/upcoming-events/evren-ozel.