End-of-Summer Recital

On Saturday night, the children played in an end-of-summer recital.

Margaret (5), Mary (7), John (9)

The real John

I was so pleased last night to be able to attend this recital! You see, when I'm pregnant, I'm too sick and tired to stay up for a seven o'clock recital, and that whole first year I have a baby, the baby is too loud to come into a recital, yet I won't be separated from him, so I miss a lot of recitals and send Chris in my stead. You know how sweet my husband is? Even at 13 months, I still will barely separate from my baby, so we took separate cars, allowing Chris to sit outside in the van with the baby and three-year-old while I sat inside with the older kids. Then, when our children were done playing, I slipped out, drove away in my van with the littles, and Chris stayed with the olders for the remainder of the recital (many of which concertos were 20 minutes long) and for the socializing potluck afterward. This is a common method we do (it's how I ever go to a dentist or doctor's appointment in my first year postpartum) and I'm very grateful for my service-oriented husband.

Mama at the recital

This was Margaret's second-ever recital and I was tickled pink to see her more relaxed in anticipation of it than she was the first one.


Margaret playing "Chimichanga Cha Cha" by Jennifer Linn

(You can't know this from the above video, but when Margaret forgot the name "Linn," every parent in the audience, not just me, whispered "LINN.")



 
Margaret playing "Village Dance" by Randy Jones


This was our studio's "Concerto Recital," meaning that any students who want to enter the November concerto competition must have been able to successfully perform their concertos by September 1, thus there were a whole lot of students performing concertos last night.

I was amazed sitting there at how the children begin playing a 30-second song, and two years later are playing a four-minute concerto: how did that happen? Well, blood, sweat, and tears is how it happened, but still the metamorphosis amazes me and makes me smile.

The children have now learned the notes of their concertos, but now begins intense practice for the next two months to improve the technique (how each note and rest is played--faster, slower, louder, softer, with what emotion) and to improve timing with the accompanist. For the writers amongst us, the below is like a rough draft concerto, and the final draft is yet to be written.


 
John playing "Concerto in Classical Style" by Martha Mier


 
Mary playing "Concerto in d Minor" by Walter and Carol Noona


Mary playing Minuet No. 2 by J.S. Bach


I had promised Joseph (3) that I would be taking him out to ice cream after the recital, which was basically a bold bribe to get him to sit in the van with Daddy and miss out on going inside to hear the music or stay for the potluck. It ended up being an unusual and very dear time for me to take just my wee boys out to ice cream (and really go into a restaurant instead of the drive-through).

Good ice cream, Mama!

How blessed is this Mama, I ask you?!

Postscript: The night of the recital was also the 11-year anniversary of my entrance into the Catholic Church (conditional Baptism, first Confession, first Holy Eucharist, and Confirmation) and that of our marital engagement (which happened later that same day). Who can ever imagine where eleven years will bring us?