Chris Lam Sam; in the pink with his NZSO job. Photo: NZSO
The word comes from the French, meaning 'leader' or 'compare'.
According to Webster's Dictionary, in English it describes "someone who leads and encourages participation in a particular activity, especially a cultural or artistic activity".
2023, Chris Lam Sam has been the first full-time Music Education Animateur to work for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
In 2025, that involved 13 weeks on the road, visiting 67 schools, and running over 180 workshops for more than four thousand students.
Lam Sam is no stranger to education - he trained as a teacher.
He also has a background in entertainment for kids of all ages, having been one of the brains behind New Zealand's answer to Australia's Wiggles: The Funky Monkeys.
Lam Sam says his Animateur role is much more than being an MC.
The aim is not to bring kids into a hall, tell them to be quiet and play music at them, but get them involved in the creative process.
For example, if he's introducing children to Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, he'll be encouraging the audience to produce its own sounds of babbling brooks, birdsong and storms, as well as listening to Beethoven's creation.
And the programme won't be limited to the great classics - there's also music from computer games, especially when that music has been recorded by the national orchestra.
"I'll say' "Has anyone heard the NZSO play?...Zero hands....But then I say, "who's seen the Minecraft Movie?...Every single hand goes up, and then I say, "Well, then you have heard your national orchestra."
"And then their eyes get wide and their mouths drop and they start singing bits and pieces of the movie."
Lam Sam says he's loving working with the NZSO, something he couldn't have imagined happening just a few years ago - he thought he wasn't good enough to work with such a classy band.
Two years and 67 schools later, he can't get enough of it.
