My goodness, what a weekend we had. It was filled with great performances from my musical children.
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Saturday afternoon, John and Peter performed with their respective bands at the FMI All-State Band Concert. I've written about this event before; FMI runs the bands for parochial schools in Connecticut. John was in the All-State Gala Band last year on clarinet, and again this year on oboe (one of only two oboe players in the whole FMI system of about 300 advanced kinds). Peter played in the All-State Symphonic band for the fourth year; he was third chair in alto sax. He also played in the All-State Jazz Band, the most prestigious of the four All-State bands; he was first chair for alto sax, and played two solos when the band performed "Hey Jude."
Both boys did an awesome job. I have video of their performances, which I will do my best to post soon, but my computer has been crashing when I try to upload video, and I'm still trying to figure out what the problem is there.
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On Sunday, we were just as busy.
John had rehearsal for his role as Mr. McAfee in Bye Bye Birdie; the show will run in April. Mr. McAfee is a great role for John, and was originated on Broadway by Paul Lynd, who also played him in the orginal movie version.
As that was happening, Peter was at the Harbor Yards Arena in Bridgeport. The Fairfield University men's basketball team had won their opening round game in the NIT, and were playing at home for the second round. Unfortunately, Fairfield is on spring break, so their pep band was short a few members. Fortunately, their band director is also Peter's band director, and he asked Peter to fill in on alto sax. So, my eighth grade boy played with a college band during a nationally-televised basketball game (and managed to get on TV a couple of times when they showed the band playing as they returned from commercials). It was awesome -- a perfect combination of Peter's loves, and an incredible opportunity for him.
At the same time both of those things were going on, Catherine was on the Fairfield campus, performing on piano at the Connecticut Young Musicians Festival. The festival is judged but non-competative; kids perform two pieces for two judges, who score them from 1 to 5. When the kids build up to 15 points (over at least three years), they are awarded a gold cup. Peter and John have earned theirs; Catherine should get hers this year, based on her strong performances. Here she is playing "The Night Horseman":
She did a great job. (And fortunately, I forgot the video camera that crashes when I try to upload, so we managed to get video with our regular digital camera).
************************
All three kids did a great job this weekend. We are incredibly proud of them -- their natural musical talent, but more importantly, all of the hard work they put into it.
***************************
Saturday afternoon, John and Peter performed with their respective bands at the FMI All-State Band Concert. I've written about this event before; FMI runs the bands for parochial schools in Connecticut. John was in the All-State Gala Band last year on clarinet, and again this year on oboe (one of only two oboe players in the whole FMI system of about 300 advanced kinds). Peter played in the All-State Symphonic band for the fourth year; he was third chair in alto sax. He also played in the All-State Jazz Band, the most prestigious of the four All-State bands; he was first chair for alto sax, and played two solos when the band performed "Hey Jude."
Both boys did an awesome job. I have video of their performances, which I will do my best to post soon, but my computer has been crashing when I try to upload video, and I'm still trying to figure out what the problem is there.
********************
On Sunday, we were just as busy.
John had rehearsal for his role as Mr. McAfee in Bye Bye Birdie; the show will run in April. Mr. McAfee is a great role for John, and was originated on Broadway by Paul Lynd, who also played him in the orginal movie version.
As that was happening, Peter was at the Harbor Yards Arena in Bridgeport. The Fairfield University men's basketball team had won their opening round game in the NIT, and were playing at home for the second round. Unfortunately, Fairfield is on spring break, so their pep band was short a few members. Fortunately, their band director is also Peter's band director, and he asked Peter to fill in on alto sax. So, my eighth grade boy played with a college band during a nationally-televised basketball game (and managed to get on TV a couple of times when they showed the band playing as they returned from commercials). It was awesome -- a perfect combination of Peter's loves, and an incredible opportunity for him.
At the same time both of those things were going on, Catherine was on the Fairfield campus, performing on piano at the Connecticut Young Musicians Festival. The festival is judged but non-competative; kids perform two pieces for two judges, who score them from 1 to 5. When the kids build up to 15 points (over at least three years), they are awarded a gold cup. Peter and John have earned theirs; Catherine should get hers this year, based on her strong performances. Here she is playing "The Night Horseman":
And this is her performance of "The Pagoda Tree"
She did a great job. (And fortunately, I forgot the video camera that crashes when I try to upload, so we managed to get video with our regular digital camera).
************************
All three kids did a great job this weekend. We are incredibly proud of them -- their natural musical talent, but more importantly, all of the hard work they put into it.
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