A Musical Week In May

Well, so far I was correct in my prediction that April would be a more busy month than May. The sudden rush of blog posts you've seen recently is evidence of that. I've actually had a couple of days that were relatively peaceful and stress-free; such a unique experience this spring! This is probably the calm before the storm; the next couple of weeks will be hectic, what with Nathan's birthday, the girl's dance recital, Memorial Day weekend, and the end of school all approaching in a huge rush. But it's been a blessing having these couple of weeks to catch my breath.

Last week wasn't totally uneventful, though...I got to spend some quality time with my daughter Lorelai, and have some music appreciation time as well! Her third-grade class announced several weeks ago that they'd be taking a field trip to see a special "concert for kids," put on by the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. I haven't gone to many of my daughters' field trips; the school doesn't allow younger siblings to accompany parent chaperones, and I am always reluctant to ask someone to watch Aurora all day. But an opportunity to see the symphony orchestra was too good to pass up! Luckily, a good friend with a daughter Aurora's age volunteered to watch Aurora for the day, so I was able to sign on.

Even though I've never played in a symphony orchestra before, I really love listening to live symphonies. It's probably because I am a classical music buff in general; I was classically trained on piano, and that experience bled out to include a love of all classical music, not just piano music. I attended symphonies as often as I could in high school and especially college (my alma mater, BYU, has an intense, hyper-competitive music program that results in spectacular performances). But in my ten years and counting as a Tucson resident, I had not yet had the chance to see the Tucson Symphony Orchestra...an oversight I planned to rectify by chaperoning Lorelai's class!

As a chaperone, I had the "honor" of riding in the charter school's bus with all the kids. Great Expectations Academy's bus is actually a former tour bus, so it's quite comfortable, especially for short trips. It was quite noisy with all the third-graders talking to each other the whole time, though! It gave me some flashbacks to field trips in my school days.

It was great to see all the kids dressed up in their "Sunday best" to attend the concert. Even though it was mid-morning, it felt like we were out for a fancy night on the town. We arrived in downtown Tucson a little bit early, so Mark (our school director/bus driver) took us on a slight detour...

...a quick jaunt across the Rattlesnake Pedestrian Bridge! It runs over Broadway just at the edge of downtown Tucson, and marks the point where the Aviation Parkway turns into Euclid Avenue. Some may call it a tacky eyesore; I call it AWESOME, and I always get a smile on my face looking at it. I must have driven under this bridge hundreds of times since moving to Arizona, but I had never yet walked across the bridge. It was to be a day of many "firsts," apparently!

The kids loved looking over the edge at the cars passing beneath their feet. My favorite part of the walk was reaching the south side of the bridge, and finding the rattlesnake's "tail." When you walk out of the bridge, there is a speaker that plays a loud "rattling" sound. Awesome!

After our little constitutional, we headed back to the Tucson Convention Center to watch the show...

It ran just under an hour long, but was a lot of fun (for me and Lorelai anyway; I'm not sure how all the other kids liked it). The conductor was a very enthusiastic guy who took frequent breaks to speak to the audience about the power of music; how it can shape moods and feelings, how it can inspire action and change; and so on. He also encouraged audience participation; there was a lot of hand-raising, clapping, and "anvil-pounding" (for Verdi's Anvil Chorus, of course!). Some of the other songs played by the orchestra included (I may be missing one or two numbers):

-Lizt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (the audience had to raise their hands every time the "mood" of the song changed; this song has been in all sorts of cartoons and TV shows over the years)
-John Williams' Olympic Fanfare, the piece that was composed originally for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, and has since been played ad nauseum by NBC at every one of their Olympic broadcasts. Williams is a national treasure, I tell you!
-Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, also known as the "sad but beautiful music people like to play at funerals." The conductor used it as an example of how music can set a specific mood.
-The University of Arizona fight song, which...okay. It made all the Wildcat fans in the audience happy, that was for sure!
-"We Shall Overcome" (a fully orchestrated version, of course!) This was the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States in the 1960s. They had a soloist come out, and he did a pretty darn good job!
-There was also a new composition, called "Waltz," which was written by a young woman who lives in Arizona. And it even had a choreographed dance number attached, performed by members of Ballet Tucson. Not too shabby! After the number was over, the conductor invited the composer herself up on stage to say a few words about the experience. Pretty neat.

The concert concluded with the "Ode To Joy," from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. One of my all-time favorite pieces of music; it's triumphant, powerful, emotional, joyous, inspiring, you name it. I love it. It amazes me to this day that Beethoven composed this when he was totally deaf; he never actually heard his masterpiece performed. I hope he has listened to it a lot on playback in heaven! The conductor didn't have time to teach the audience all the lyrics, so we hummed along when the chorus came around. Even just humming, there was so much positive energy in the room that it made me tear up a little. I am a total sap. Luckily I managed to brush away the tears before any of the kids saw me; nevertheless, it was a great way to finish the program and send me out the door with a positive buzz.

I was so glad I got to share that neat experience with Lorelai; I don't know if any of my girls will have the same deep love for music that I do as they grow up, but I am glad they tolerate my obsession with ease! For her part, Lorelai seemed to really enjoy the experience; she recognized the music when I played it back to her later on the computer and fondly remembered hearing it live. Maybe there will be other trips to the symphony in our future!

Later that week, we attended another musical performance...but this time, Lorelai was playing music, not just listening to it!

 It was the spring recital for all my piano students. It had been a while since I had the kids perform in the springtime; last year, I used our LDS ward's talent show as their performance opportunity. This was also the first time I used the public library as a site for a piano recital...I thought it might be easier to fit all my students and their families into the larger conference room.

All things considered, the recital went very well (despite the piano being somewhat out of tune). Everybody was able to come (I was missing a student at the Christmas recital); everyone played well, and the set-up and clean-up of the room went smoothly. The only thing I forgot was to get a group picture of everyone, aargh! That's why I have a bunch of individual shots...and I even missed photographing one of my students this way! I'll have to do better next time.

Never having used the library as a recital venue before, I deviated from tradition a bit and didn't have anyone bring refreshments (usually, I have every family bring a plate of treats to share). As it turns out, refreshments would have been allowed...if I'd thought to ask the library staff. Oops. To make up for that, I volunteered to take all my students down the street and treat them to some ice cream or a cupcake at Cayley Cakes, a locally owned sweet shop. That seemed to go over well with everybody; however, next time I might revert to tradition and do the pot-luck, so no one will feel left out.

Three of my students were performing for the very first time; I was so proud of all of them! They stayed very cool under pressure and did quite well.

This recital was also somewhat bittersweet, as it was the final recital with Hyrum, the student who's studied longer with me than anyone else. Hyrum's family are friends of ours, but last winter they moved to Vail, a small town many miles east of Sahuarita. We'll still see them from time to time, of course, but they no longer attend church in the same place as us, and once the school year's done, Lorelai won't have Hyrum as a classmate any more. She and Hyrum have been good friends for several years now, and it will be hard on her not to have him as a classmate this fall. Hopefully our families will keep in touch regularly, so she will be able to see her buddy once in a while.

I am so happy to be a piano teacher. It can be time-consuming sometimes, but mostly it is fun, and I love working with the kids. It is so rewarding to see kids learn this skill and gain a new talent that they can share with their family and friends. I hope I can keep my current group of students for a while; they have a lot of potential! Now to keep them playing throughout the summer; it should be fun! Just a few more weeks until school's out.