For our Mid-Winter Ball, the theme was “an evening of serious music – experience the masterpieces of yesteryear composed by world famous musicians.” Each student played a classical piece and shared a biographical sketch of their composer. The games centered around the composers represented in the performances. Here’s a game that was a favorite!

Composer Trading Game
1. Print and cut out out 8 copies of the Composer Trading Cards
2. Separate each of the composers into his own stack. (There are 20 different composers.)
3. Select as many composers as you have students playing the game and mix them into one deck. (e.g. If you have 10 students, select 10 of the composers and include all 8 cards with that composer in the final deck of cards.)
4. Pass out 8 cards to each player or pair. (I paired students up at the beginning of the evening and they played this game in pairs.)
5. When you give the signal to begin, every player has to try to trade cards with the other players in an effort to collect all of the same composer. This is accomplished by holding out the cards they desire to trade face down and calling out the number of cards they are trading. (If you’re familiar with the game, Pit, that’s what this is patterned after.) Only cards picturing the same composer may be traded in a single trade. (e.g. A player may hold out a set of 3 cards with Schubert, but not 3 cards with Schubert, Grieg and Mozart.)
6. Players may change the number of cards they are trading at any time in order to complete a trade with another player.
7. Once a player has collected all 8 cards for one composer, they must ding a bell (or, I had them run to the piano and play the middle C).
8. Check to be sure they have collected all 8 cards!

Here’s a video of the Composer Trading Game in action!