Recitals Ate My Weekend
This past Sunday, with tremendous patience and forbearance and love of our children, my family (me, Jason and my parents) sat through not one but two music recitals -- one for piano students, one for violin students -- in which our precious darlings performed. That's two solid hours of children's music recitals, plus an hour of downtime waiting in between when it wasn't worth going back home -- for the total two minutes or so that our kids were onstage.
Yes, it was worth it. It was Emma's first-ever recital and she did a great job. Christopher also did well on the violin, accompanied by his Grampa. Christopher's greatest accomplishment, however, was to keep me laughing (quietly) throughout the whole of the piano recital. It's a requirement for me that in any potentially boring situation (classes, meetings, workshops, etc) I have to have someone sitting next to me who can send and receive sarcastic remarks to keep me amused. I am so pleased my son is growing up to be one such person.
I'll just give you a couple of samples of his commentary. There's a little girl who takes music from his teacher, a couple of years older than Chris, named Jasmine. Besides being amazingly talented on both violin and piano, Jasmine is also poised, self-assured and charming. When she got up to announce her first piano piece, she informed us all that the piece was by "Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsy," with lovely enunciation.
Christopher looked at me. "THE Tchaikovsky?" he said. I nodded.
"Nutcracker?" he asked. Again I nodded.
He rolled his eyes. "Well, she may know how to say his name, but I know everything about him," he commented as Jasmine began to play.
Later in the concert, this same Jasmine got up to announce her last piece, and again spoke with tremendous clarity and poise. Christopher gave me another sideways glance. "You think she's awfully clever, don't you?" he asked.
For those of you who are into this sort of thing, here are videos of the kids' two performances.
Yes, it was worth it. It was Emma's first-ever recital and she did a great job. Christopher also did well on the violin, accompanied by his Grampa. Christopher's greatest accomplishment, however, was to keep me laughing (quietly) throughout the whole of the piano recital. It's a requirement for me that in any potentially boring situation (classes, meetings, workshops, etc) I have to have someone sitting next to me who can send and receive sarcastic remarks to keep me amused. I am so pleased my son is growing up to be one such person.
I'll just give you a couple of samples of his commentary. There's a little girl who takes music from his teacher, a couple of years older than Chris, named Jasmine. Besides being amazingly talented on both violin and piano, Jasmine is also poised, self-assured and charming. When she got up to announce her first piano piece, she informed us all that the piece was by "Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsy," with lovely enunciation.
Christopher looked at me. "THE Tchaikovsky?" he said. I nodded.
"Nutcracker?" he asked. Again I nodded.
He rolled his eyes. "Well, she may know how to say his name, but I know everything about him," he commented as Jasmine began to play.
Later in the concert, this same Jasmine got up to announce her last piece, and again spoke with tremendous clarity and poise. Christopher gave me another sideways glance. "You think she's awfully clever, don't you?" he asked.
For those of you who are into this sort of thing, here are videos of the kids' two performances.
posted by TrudyJ | 9:20 PM
1 Comments:
Tatiana's first piano teacher was based on the sole qualification that she came to our house to teach (instead of us having to DRIVE somewhere). Most of what Tatiana learned that year she learned herself (or from me, in the case of "The Entertainer).
At the recital, the teacher thought it would be a good idea to play Fuhr Elise. Well, she played it badly, stumbling in more than one spot.
I still wonder how many piano students she lost that day. I know we never hired her back. I felt sorry for her, because she was painfully shy and it must have just about killed her to get up in front of people. As it turns out, it may have also killed her business.
After a brief detour with a ukele, The Tat is back at the piano this year with a MUCH more qualified teacher...
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