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the neuropsychological level (Barbot & Lubart, 2012). The multidimensional
glasbenopedagoški zbornik ◆ letnik/volume 20 ◆ številka/number 41
nature of aesthetic experience processes employs several brain areas and inclu-
des perceptual, emotional/affective and cognitive response. An aesthetic emo-
tional response to music could be seen also in children. By the age of 6 or 7 ye-
ars, familiar tonal music is preferred and considered to sound “prettier” than
unfamiliar, atonal music. These findings propose that music preferences are
affected by familiarity and prototypicality.
An investigation by Koelsch (2006) gives further support showing that si-
milar brain structures were activated in 10 year-olds and adults by violations of
harmony and tonality. The pleasure that children felt during Mojca’s song cle-
arly shows that children from 7 years onward have a certain preference for to-
nal music and clear musical line (Hargreaves et al., 2006). Studies indicate that
children aged 6 to 9 perceive music as beautiful, suggesting that the concept
of beauty is significant in music judgments for both children and adults. This
appreciation for beauty in music appears to develop around the age of 6, po-
tentially linked to the acquisition of culture-specific knowledge about tonali-
ty (Nieminen et al., 2011).
Our findings are also in line with Kuzmina’s research (2022) where she di-
scovered that:
The modern practice of the existence of the opera for children-listeners,
which takes various forms and touches on a wide range of topics, testifies to
its relevance, plasticity and versatility … The presence of performances of this
kind helps to conduct continuous training of new generations of young liste-
ners, to foster their artistic taste and to form aesthetic guidelines … Children
engage in live communication, which promotes the formation of their own
judgments and emotional experience, thus contributing to the growth and
strengthening of the individual as a whole. (Kuzmina, 2022, p. 434)

Conclusion

The opera Kekec in škrat Skovik has clearly demonstrated how valuable it is
for children to experience a high-quality, complex piece of musical and perfor-
ming art. They were able to empathize very strongly with their peers singing
on stage and quickly identified with the characters they were playing. They
enjoyed it when their peers managed to conquer the villain and helped each
other. The children clearly perceived a quality musical stage experience, spon-
taneously evaluating the quality of the performance, the clear, crisp tone of the
singing, the accuracy and tunefulness of the performance, the balance betwe-
en the lead voice and the accompaniment, the rhythmic and melodic clarity,
and even noticed the little slips that distracted them. It is also interesting to
note that they were very good at identifying inappropriate behaviour in the
auditorium, that they were also attentive and able to perceive the underlying

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