life of seven

Cinderella

I had to run to the music store this morning and spied the music to the live action Cinderella movie, one of my all time favorite movies. I couldn't resist picking up a copy to surprise the kids. You see, our beautiful, crystal Cinderella resides on our baby grand piano in the living room and she, and the piano, are the most precious possessions we own. My kids and I loved every moment of the movie so much, especially the moment when Cinderella enters the ballroom and walks down the stairs in the loveliest, swishiest gown imaginable, with the song that her mother sang to her as a little girl, "Lavender Blue," playing in the background by the orchestra. Excuse me a moment while I brush away a tear.

It's hard to have very nice things in a house full of so many kids. I'm used to broken dishes and mugs and dirty floors and walls. Ahem, and dusty pianos. I hide most of the precious stuff away, but the lovely Cinderella figurine I leave out on top of the piano, to inspire all of us to "Have courage and be kind," our favorite motto around here. I can't wait to see the kids' reaction when they walk into the living room and spy the book on the piano. Hopefully it will inspire more courage and kindness to abound than ever before. At the very least, there will be some beautiful music making!

The Original Score

An ongoing conversation at my kids' piano lessons lately has gotten me thinking about spiritual things.

Grace was just assigned a Beethoven sonata by her teacher, and an interesting exchange took place. She questioned him about the little arrow-like marks under the notes. "Those are supposed to be like staccatos, right?"

"Actually, there's a huge debate about that, believe it or not. That's called a 'staccatissimo', and  Beethoven used both those and the little dots that are traditionally called staccatos. Many people believe they should be played exactly the same way and are interchangeable. But the truth is we actually don't know what the difference is, if any, between the two marks. Some editions of Beethoven exclusively use the dots, others only those lines."

The question was interjected: "So maybe the lines were him just writing in a hurry and the pen just slipped?"

"Exactly. This is a subject of great interest for many  people, as a matter of fact. Entire books have been written on the subject, if you can imagine."

Cate and Grace exchanged amused glances at this that made me determine they probably wouldn't be among those to reading such books.

"You see, Beethoven often wrote music very, very quickly and of course he used a quill pen, which makes it more challenging to write small, precise dots."

Now he learned forward, and his eyes sparkled with excitement, like he had just unearthed the Dead Sea Scrolls. "With the internet, you can actually go online and see original Beethoven manuscripts and try to play from them. So much information is at our fingertips now! You can find the exact edition you want that closest resembles Beethoven's original ideas, none of this stuff with slurs and pedal added in later by someone else..."This was followed by a look resembling disgust and a shaking of his head.

This reminded me of a mistake I made a few weeks back- I had been told to bring an edition of Bach's inventions for Gideon to learn.

The teacher opened it and began to shake her head. "No, no, no...this is just not right!"

"What's wrong?" I asked, feeling horrified.

"This edition is not correct at all- do you see all this extra stuff in here?" She leaned forward to show me. "All these slurs added in- none of those were original! Someone put them in after! All these staccatos- Bach never wrote those! Look, they even write in the notes in the turns and the ornaments. Look, I want Gideon to know that this is not what the original Bach compositions looked like. The person that put together this edition is adding in his own ideas, but none of them are original to Bach! Why must people add in their own ideas to the music? They think it is for clarity, I suppose, or maybe to make it simpler to read, but when these slurs are added, you are not able to truly see what Bach wanted it to sound like- you are limited by that person's ideas now, not free to see what Bach original meant!"

I blushed, feeling ashamed that I had the audacity to purchase such a ridiculous edition of Bach Inventions.

These sort of incidents come up regularly in the kid's piano lessons.

"The original title to this duet is actually different from what's written here- the newspaper that originally published it misread it. Faure titled it 'Ketty Valse,' after his dog, Ketty, not 'Kitty Valse.' It has nothing to do with cats." 

"Most composers wrote their notations in Italian, but Debussy mainly wrote in French. Make certain you look up each French word so you know exactly what he intended."

"Bartok wrote the exact fingering you should use for a reason- make sure you follow it perfectly!"

It can be startling to hear someone talk with such reverence about the original manuscripts of the composers they love and admire. Both teachers clearly did not care about making something easier or simpler to play if doing so meant deviating from the composer's original intent.

All I could think of during these incidents was the Bible.

I feel like it would do us well as Christians to care about the faithfulness and accuracy of our Bible editions and translations half as much as Cate and Grace's teacher cares about original Beethoven scores. I'm not trying to start a "King James only" debate or something, I'm only suggesting that perhaps trying to remain as close to the original source as possible might be an idea worth entertaining. I don't usually hear this debate brought up anymore, which may mean that it's no longer even debated. It seems to be a given these days that you should just read whatever version of the Bible you find easiest to read with no thought given as to how true the version stays to the actual, original words which were penned by apostles and prophets under the guidance of God himself.

On the infrequent occasion when the topic of Bible versions is brought up, I generally hear that older word for word translations are "too hard" to read, as opposed to more modern paraphrased ones, such as The Message which just try to get the general idea accross. Granted, the language of certain versions can be challenging and some of the words are archaic, but the language of legal and medical books can be challenging, and yet no one would ever dream of sacrificing the accuracy of these texts  just to make them easier or more fun to read. The highest goal of Cate and Grace's piano teacher, and of every legal and medical textbook ever published, is accuracy, not ease of use. Shouldn't we as Christians care at least as much for the accuracy of our Bibles upon which we claim to base our lives? 

I do not declare myself to be an expert, by any means, but you don't have to be an expert to know that the two passages below are not saying the same things.

Ps 25:10 KJV

All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

Ps 25:10 The Message

From now on every road you travel will take you to God. Follow the Covenant signs; read the charted directions.

 

While the author of The Message may have had good intentions in paraphrasing what he believes David was saying, it is clear that the first translation says that only the, "paths of the Lord", will lead you to mercy and truth, while the Message promises that, "every road you travel will lead you to God" which is the exact opposite meaning. In one you have to follow God's paths while in the other you can follow any path. If you can imagine two versions of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata performed with similar disparity, you would clearly be hearing two very different pieces of music.

When it comes to music, we can choose to be a stickler about staying true to Beethoven's original compositions, but no one's life is hanging in the balance if we stray from his original intent and add in a few slurs here and there. However, when it come to the Bible we are talking about matters of life and death. Psalm 119: 105 says, "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." And if this is the case, and I happen to believe that it is with all my heart, then I want that lamp to be gleaming as bright as it possibly can. I don't want its light dimmed or diminished by the added grime of the thoughts, opinions and prejudices of men.

It certainly is amazing to have piano teachers who try with all their ability and energy to teach my kids how to play music that is hundreds of years old as closely as possible to the way the composer intended it to be played. The musical genius of the composer stands unquestioned by these teachers. The attitude is, "If only someone today could play piano like Liszt, or channel Bach himself (such as Glenn Gould, who came so very close!), or get into the mind of Chopin and perform his brilliant works the way they were meant to be played!" Such reverence for the original composition and its composer puts to shame much of our modern approach to the Bible and its author.

In general, I think many of us believe that the Bible is God's word. But we have become so comfortable with this well worn phrase that it has ceased to work its awe upon us. Think about it! The word of God. The words of a God! And these divine words were not just written - they written to us. To you. To me. Written by our creator for the sole purpose of enlightening our blindness as we navigate these tumultuous waters called life. How often do we take for granted the fact that we have the very words of God, written in a book that we likely own a half dozen copies of?

Let's not lose the wonder of the Bible. Its wonder lies in the fact that that among all the books that you can download with a click of a button or the tap of a finger on the information superhighway, it is the only one that honestly and truly and in fact was written by a God! in trying to make it easy to read, let's not loose this wonder by cluttering it up with the thoughts of common men.

If you will forgive me one more indulgence in my musical analogy - the little dots or lines under the notes of the Beethoven Sonata are fairly trivial in and of themselves. So whats the big deal? Why make an issue out of them? The big deal is that while they may only be small marks in a big Sonata they are small marks written by the brilliance and genius of Beethoven, and Beethoven put them there for a reason! That and that alone should be enough to not impose upon his compositions the supposed improvements and clarifications of lesser men. Every choice to include or exclude a specific staccato, or stacatissimo, was made by Beethoven himself to serve his vision for the much larger sonata, and each of those little seemingly insignificant marks plays a small part in the beauty of Bethoven's triumph. Majesty. Splendor. Glory. That was Beethoven's goal. And from what I gather from Cate and Grace - he wasn't terribly concerned with writing things that were easy to play!

Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law

Like Beethoven's staccatos, every jot and tittle that God has ever written to us in the holy scriptures is important for one reason and for one reason alone - because it is He who wrote them. He wrote them. And His genius towers far above that of Beethoven or any mortal man as the heavens stretch out above the sea. And because of this, and nothing more, we should tremble at the thought of removing a single word that He has included, or to add own words to His, or to read as His word any Bible that dares to do either of these things, lest the masterpiece of His word be lost to us altogether. We should instead approach the Bible as my children's music teachers approach Beethoven - with humility.

Every jot and tittle that God included in the Bible is important and indispensable because they each play their own little part, just like Beethoven's staccatos, to lend beauty and texture to the larger Sonata. And if the Bible can be thought of as a sonata, then its theme is Christ.

Jesus said, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." John 5:39

That's it. That's what its all about. The Bible is all about Jesus.

And we can't throw any of it away. Because all of it points to Him.

And we can't just alter it at will to suit our tastes or our culture because it's not about us, it's about Him.

He is the Living Word, the word made flesh who dwelt among us. And not one jot or tittle of God's word should be lost or cast carelessly aside in paraphrase or translation, because all of it - all of it - testifies of Christ.

***Thanks to my husband for helping to edit this for clarity***

Grace's Piano Competition

 

In case you couldn't tell by the pictures, Grace won a piano competition last weekend. Oh, she played so well. The second round of the competition was held in a beautiful hall with an amazing Steinway concert grand, and Grace says it was the best piano she has ever played on. She performed a piece by Liszt called "La Leggierezza", which roughly translates to "lightness", and that's exactly what it sounded like. Delicate, crystal clear finger work, impressive crescendoes and cadenzas, and gentle waterfall like passages. It's a lovely piece, and to me it really sounds like a "Grace" piece: lots of room for emotion and and gorgeous phrasing. It was such a privilege to listen to, and winning first place was the icing on the cake. She gets to perform the piece in a few weeks for the statewide piano teacher's convention. I think she will have a lot of fun with that performance, since the competition will be over and it will be only about performing, which she loves to do. Here is a link of her playing, should you be interested...

And, never fear, I have been knitting, and will soon show you pictures of a knitted Captain America Lego man for Jude's birthday. I'm not even kidding.

Kids on the Keys

Grace giving Jude piano lessons: I love it. Don't you love the photo where he's showing Grace how he can find the triplets with his eyes closed? Jude is really enjoying his lessons, and Grace is enjoying teaching him. Often, family shared teaching responsibilities don't work out well, I've discovered, for us and other families I know of, so I've tried to make this as professional as possible, paying Grace at the beginning of the month, picking the same time and day each week for the lesson, writing it on the calendar, getting Jude dressed into clothes I would actually feel comfortable leaving the house in (and actually he really likes to dress up and put on a bow tie or a suit coat), and having the living room clean for his lesson. All of this has seemed to have worked quite well, and both Grace and Jude take the lesson time very seriously.

I don't know how long Jude will continue with lessons with Grace, or whether Truman and Clementine will follow suit in a few years, but for now this is working really, really well for us. I'd like to see Grace doing more teaching over the years because she seems very gifted in that area. This initial teaching experience has been a very positive one for her, and she'd love to do more in the future.

As for Jude, he is doing so well and learning so much after just a handful of lessons. At first he seemed uncertain about learning to play piano, probably because of all the practicing he observes his siblings do and the occasional grumbling about it that he hears. But Grace made his first lesson so much fun that he quickly changed his mind about piano and has become a very enthusiastic learner. He has such a good time at it, that Truman, observing, and participating in a couple of activities at Jude's lesson, has begun asking when he can learn, too. In fact, Truman told me a couple of days ago that he wanted to be a piano teacher. Well, you may be jumping the gun there a little bit, buddy, but high praise for Grace!

Meanwhile, there is Clementine, who cannot resist walking by a piano with an open lid. Quickly she scurries up on the bench and begins the serious act of playing notes, occasionally turning pages of music so she can find the right one. It's next to impossible for me to help Jude practice without Clementine discovering us and straining to get up, so I usually have both Jude and Clementine on my lap while Jude finds A, F, D, G. 

Often I wonder why I ended up having so many piano players in the house, and no other instruments being learned to vary it up a bit. But my husband is adamant that each child learn piano before foraying into another type of instrument, and I do agree with him there. After a couple of years of lessons, it seems a little silly to quit piano to learn a different instrument, thus the four, or rather, five piano players in the house. I suppose the older ones know enough about music now that in many ways picking up another instrument wouldn't be too much of a challenge. But, meanwhile, I love the piano music I hear all day. Love it. And adding Jude's piano playing into that mix is nothing but pure joy.

About that piano...

Saturday, Cate, Grace Gideon, and Evie played in their piano studio's winter recital. I was so proud of them that I could have just burst. Having been gone for most of the fall lessons while we were in Denmark, with their teachers checking in now and then via Skype, and having lots of normal practice time interrupted due to the moving and traveling and sickness, in the last several weeks all four of them put some extra hard work into practice to get their pieces in shape for the recital. 

Evie may have put the most effort into practice out of all four of them. She performed her very first sonatina, a piece that was much more difficult and about four times longer than any she had learned prior to that. There was so much memory work, and new techniques to be learned, and much of it had to be done while we were on another continent! As little as three weeks beforehand she couldn't go from start to finish without getting lost or stuck in the middle, and her teachers were a bit concerned about her being able to perform it on stage. However, Evie kept practicing and practicing, breaking it down into smaller pieces, concentrating on the difficult parts, drilling, reviewing, working on hands separate, and then repeating all those steps. And then when she got up the next day, she did all of those things again. And the day after that. And the day after.

The evening of the recital, Evie played her piece, and it sounded so lovely. Her mistakes were minor, but best of all, she kept an incredible amount of concentration during the entire performance (probably her biggest struggle in practice) and she played the sonatina from start to finish with beautiful musical flow. I was, and am, so proud that I am close to tears just thinking about it. It was such a big accomplishment for her and she was extremely pleased afterwards. She told me that when she sat down before she played that her hands were trembling, but you would have never known it from the audience. She appeared calm and in control of the piece.  You know what they say, practice makes perfect, or, at least, almost perfect. Sometimes the improvement is close to imperceptible, but eventually it all adds up and turns those halted beginning attempts into something amazing.

The older kids played extremely well, also. During the time in Denmark, Gideon began to approach practicing with a lot more effort and purpose. He practices as much as the older girls but often he gets distracted. I think something clicked for him over the last few months and he discovered that he is close to being able to play all the music that he really loves. He learned how to do quite a bit of improvising and playing by ear, figuring most of it out on his own while playing around, and he also made some great headway on a Chopin piece that he loves, and is his first truly "professional" level piece. The Chopin wasn't ready to be performed at the recital, to his disappointment, but he got to perform a really exciting fun, fast piece by Khatchaturian. He did a really great job.

Cate and Grace each had Debussy pieces that they enjoy very much. Again, they have other pieces they've been practicing that just aren't ready for performance quite yet (I'm always amazed at how much work goes into a piano piece before it is ready to be performed) but they both really nailed the Debussy.

It was such a fun evening. I'm so proud of my piano players. I could, and do, listen to them practice all day...oh, how being a mother changes you and makes you love doing things you never thought you could before. I quit piano lessons at around age 12 because I just hated practicing for that hour or so a day. Now, between the four of them, our house has around 10-12 hours of practice a day (that fortunately gets divided between three pianos or we'd never be able to leave the house!!!) that I monitor faithfully to make sure it's all being done the way it should. Growing up I could care less about slurs, or phrasing, much less bothering to find a consistent fingering, and I memorized maybe one piece in all those years of piano. It's a different story over here. I often look back on the years of lessons I did, and the years when I did no lessons, and there's regret that I can't sit down at the piano and just play, anything that I want to, whether sight read or memorized or improvised. I think if someone had just told me back then that quitting just wasn't an option, I would have stuck to it and been very glad I'd done so. My kids don't want to quit, and absolutely love to play in recitals and competitions. Practicing, naturally, takes a huge amount of time and effort that they put in every day, and yes, some days my encouragement, or help, or cajoling, or bribery, or scolding is necessary to get through the day's practice, but in general they have each taken the responsibility on themselves to get it done.

Having wonderfully kind, encouraging, teachers, who at the same time have an extremely high standard of excellence, while never being for a moment the least bit harsh or negative, is wonderful as well. Week after week, they come to their lesson and play that piece that they've been working on, and are told, "Not bad at all," and are then given a long list of things to fix. However, once in a blue moon, they play the piece for their teachers and they finally hear the comment, "That was actually impressive," and I'll meet their eyes and see a look of immense pride on their face.

I know down the road they will always be thankful for their knowledge and understanding of music, no matter where it leads, even if it just means they are able to help their own children learn to practice piano one day, just as I do.

 

Aarhus DomKirke, Denmark

For our anniversary, my husband and I visited this amazing church in Aarhus. It is called Aarhus Domkirke; in English this means Aarhus Cathedral. Aarhus is right on the coast in Denmark, in the region of Jutland. To give you an idea, because I didn't know this, Copenhagen is in the part of Denmark called Zealand, which is where we are staying during our trip out here. To get to Jutland, it was necessary to take a ferry. That was an amazing experience in and of itself, particularly for this landlocked Colorado native. I'm sure for many people, riding a ferry is not exactly a noteworthy experience. Nobody else on the ship seemed to think so, or at least I didn't hear them exclaiming as audibly as I was over the incredible experience of traveling over the water in such a huge ship at such a high speed. I couldn't believe how many cars it transported, or the fact that it contained both restaurant and a coffee shop, several lounges, and if all that weren't enough, even a room filled with toys for children, thus Clementine, to play in. Yes, another anniversary with the baby in tow. Believe me, I am more than used to this by now- I think we have had very few anniversary celebrations without the littlest Davenport coming along in arms. There are plenty of years ahead where there will be no babies to need me. This makes me both happy and sad.

Now to talk about the cathedral. Let me start by saying that I have been in a number of ancient churches and buildings. Not a huge number, no, but I have visited a few to have seen some grand architecture. I have visited Westminster Abbey. That was an incredible experience. Being in a building that size, let alone a church, and discovering the gravestones of hundreds of names of people I was familiar with in history, and having recently seen Prince William and Catherine's wedding on television taking place there- it was mind boggling. By mind boggling, I had the sensation of feeling  like I wasn't nearly smart or educated enough to fully appreciate the historical significance of the building I was in. To sum up my ignorance of such things, I am more familiar with the image of Elton John singing "Good-bye England's Rose" at Princess Diana's funeral that was held there than I am with many other older, likely more significant historical aspects of the building. That's okay- I have the rest of my life still to learn more about Westminster Abbey.

Anyway, I wondered if compared to visiting Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral (I haven't had the opportunity to go inside, but have walked around its perimeter), a few castles in Denmark and Sweden, touring both Washington D.C. and Williamsburg, Virginia, and even visiting the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City (again, only from the outside as we are not Mormon and thus were not permitted inside), whether Aarhus Cathedral would stand out in any special way. 

Which leads me to say, as you may expect (considering I'm writing a bog post about it), that, in short, yes, it was stunning and unique in its own right. Walking through the church was a breathtaking experience. I am annoyed that I couldn't get better pictures of it, or capture the feeling of hearing organ music fill the gargantuan hall, or describe the cool, clean feeling of the white, white walls decorated with Scandinavian art that went over our heads to form a dome of a ceiling. I was amazed that some of the art, carved into stone, was so worn down and smooth that it was difficult to make out the original picture. Forgive me for the ineloquent, inept description of, "Some of the artwork looked like something Indiana Jones would discover in an ancient tomb!"

Other elements appeared much newer, including an elaborately carved pulpit that stood in the middle of the room, or a thoroughly modern, seemingly brand new, trendy looking pipe organ, which leads me to now talk about the main pipe organ, one of the outstanding features of the church, and that originally dates back to 1730. Yes, that pipe organ is older than the country I come from.

It was the organ music that really made the church stand out to me. In the first minutes we walked in, I commented to Ben that the seemed to have an odd recording of organ music, because the same musical phrase kept being repeated every few moments. He laughed at me and pointed up into the balcony, where the organ was. The organ itself was blocked from view by the railing, however the hundreds and hundreds of pipes (okay, now I'm looking on Wikipedia because I'm curious; it says 89 voices? Does that mean pipes? If so, then "tens and tens") that reached dozens of feet up to the ceiling, in various sizes, naturally  were visible.  He told me, "I think somebody is giving an organ lesson up there."

Alright, wait a second, wow. Can you imagine telling someone, when asked what you do for a living, "Yes, I give organ lessons in Aarhus Cathedral, the tallest and largest church in Denmark, on the largest organ in Denmark. Here's my card." Yeah. That would be so awesome. 

After he said it, I strained to see better and saw a teacher instructing his student, who was playing on an instrument the size of a house.

So, yes, actually, that was live music we were hearing, and it filled the hall in such a way as to rival an entire orchestra. And, for me, as a mom who has sat through a LOT of piano lessons and practice, hearing the lesson proceed while we continued to tour the church was indescribable. Nevertheless, let me attempt to describe it. Listening to the little fragments of music begin to be pieced together, and played in ever increasing increments, by someone who was obviously an incredibly skilled organist, but was getting further instruction from someone who was most certainly a master, inside a church that was an ancient architectural masterpiece, was better than hearing the piece performed to perfection at a concert. It was one of the more amazing experiences of my life. I don't know if I should be embarrassed to admit it or not, but my eyes even began to tear up. I'm not a big crier, though I become more and more prone to getting choked up over things the older I get. This was one of those unexpected things.

Anyway, as we left the building, I told my husband, "I don't think I've ever gotten so emotional over a building before."

He told me, on our 17th wedding anniversary, "I always feel that way when I visit a building like that." 17 years of marriage and I learned something I never knew about him before. Fancy that.

The Concert

Saturday was pretty much close to perfect. You can probably tell from the pictures.

From her hair, which looked like an angel's, or maybe an elf out of Lord of the Rings, with the sparkly accessories in it that glittered just so from the stage;

 (The main concern for me during the week was how to get Grace's hair to hold some curl. It's long, very thick, and straight as it can possibly be. During the week, some friends, who were kind enough to fix her hair for the concert, gave it a dry run with the curling iron to see where we were at. Suffice it to say, when we practiced, the curl only lasted about 45 minutes. Not going to work for the concert evening, where she needed to attend a rehearsal at three and then perform at seven. On the morning of the concert, between teasing it, spraying it, pinning it up during the drive down, and hoping for the best, when we arrived at the concert hall and I took out the bobby pins, her hair was gorgeous.) 

...to her dress, which was the perfect shade of red- almost coral, but not quite, and the perfect style: floor length, sleeveless, and simple rhinestone detail on the side, with the matching silver sandals;

(I was very glad we took the advice of her teacher to wear a nice dress during the rehearsal- her black one-  since that's when I'd get to take photos, while still saving her fancy dress for the evening.)

...to the the rehearsal, that went quite smoothly despite my nerves and my concern that my heart wouldn't hold out for me to the end of the night;

(Being a mother is a stressful, stressful thing. I'm surprised any mom survives till her children reach adulthood. It's a wonder we don't die of worry or heart-aching love before our first child reaches age two)

...to the actual concert itself that evening, with quite a full house and cheers and a standing ovation after her performance, we couldn't have asked for a better night.

Grace looked so stunning when she walked out on the stage in front of a crowd of over a thousand people. After giving a few words of introduction to the piece, the conductor spoke about Grace, describing the competition she'd won, and ended with, "She'll be playing Bach, God bless her! Please welcome Grace Davenport."

Her given name was never more fitting than in that moment, when she gave a lovely smile and confident bow beside the piano. When she sat down at the piano I could see that she looked very relaxed, even more than during the rehearsal, and I began to feel confident that the performance would go well. I tried to stop worrying and just enjoy listening. The Bach concert in d minor is a very emotional, moving piece of music, and has some extremely exciting and dramatic sections. Grace knows the piece forward and backward, and has performed it numerous times. Because of this confidence, I think she was able to be free from worrying about the notes, or any difficult spots, and instead allow her musicality to really come through while playing. It's a perfect piece for her, and on she loves, and there are few things more enjoyable than watching someone perform music that they love.

Every moment was beautiful.

When Grace walked back onstage to take a second bow, (and as I said, the audience was on their feet) Evie walked out onstage behind her and then gave her a bouquet of flowers. I wish I could have captured the moment on camera. It was perfect.

After the concert, she received numerous additional bouquets of flowers, lots of congratulations, and even requests for an autograph and a photo.

Grace had a fabulous time, but also felt a little relieved that the waiting was over, and the practicing of the concerto (a piece she's had for two years now!) was done. The experience was exhilarating, a once in a lifetime type of opportunity, but a part of her is glad it's over and she can now think of it as a wonderful memory.

There is lots to look forward to in the coming days: a good-bye sort of camping trip this weekend with friends and then a three month stay in Denmark. There is something to be said about leaving the country on such a high note as the Saturday evening concert.

 

 

 

Concert morning

So, this is happening: my lovely 13 year old daughter Grace will be appearing in concert tonight with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Together they will perform the first movement of Bach Concerto in D Minor. There are no words to describe my excitement, nervousness, thrill, and anticipation at seeing my daughter on that big stage wearing a concert length red dress.

I will let you know how her performance goes, and will follow that post with one of Clementine's first birthday party, also taking place this weekend. Being a mama- the most heart wrenching job known to man. The pride, the worry, the sadness, the joy...so many emotions, each and every day, and some days, like today those emotions are even more poignant than usual.

 

Cate's recital

Somehow the two weeks before Disney World, both Cate and Grace ended up playing in two piano competitions. It's been a busy time leading up to a huge trip, but everyone had a great time. Both competitions the girls ended up competing against each other. For some reason this doesn't seem to bother either of them very much. They are really sweet, really. This weekend, Cate received honorable mention and got to play in the honors recital. Grace was so happy for Cate and was glad to support her from the audience. Next year the girls will be in different levels, since Cate will be in high school groups, and Grace, middle school. 

It was a fun recital- under an hour, which is the perfect length for a recital to be, I've discovered. I do enjoy live performances, but after an hour of listening to music I usually reach my limit. So last night was just about right. Cate did such a great job. She played her Ginastera piece, which is loud, modern, and makes for a very exciting performance. We were so proud of her.

Now I am doing laundry, cleaning, and packing. It's not easy to get nine people ready to leave town for two weeks, even with access to a washing machine while we're away. Which means I need to stop typing and get back to work.

Recital

Here are my beautiful girls at their honors recital last night. They played so well. I loved hearing them. Here are Jude and Truman, eating smarties, waiting for the recital to be over. Over all, they were quite patient. I'm sure the candy helped.

Now it is back to daily life as we know it for the week, until Friday, when the girls will be in another competition. Same two pieces, and another chance for a cash prize. After all the opportunities to perform their pieces over the weekend, they feel quite comfortable and relaxed for Friday. Maybe that means I will be, too.