Fall Piano Events

The kids have had a few piano performances in the last couple of months!  Their piano (duet) recital was in October, with the kids continuing to have the same partners as last year: Cat with her friend Aleah, Jack and Eliza together.  We were late working on duets this year but the kids still wanted to do pieces they were excited about, so they were pretty challenging.  They weren't really solid on their pieces when they performed at the studio recital, but they did a great job.

Practicing at home before going to the performance hall.
Since it was an October recital, the kids were allowed to perform in costume.
Eliza was heading straight to a Silks dress rehearsal after the recital, so we had to
have her hair ready for that.  We created a Marie Curie costume around the idea
of glowing hair, haha.  And Jack wore his Blue mask as Blue/Owen from Jurassic World.

(Jack ended up putting his mask on the floor during the performance.)

Luke finally started taking piano lessons in October!  I'd hoped for him to start at the beginning of 2nd grade last year but Sarah didn't have time in her schedule to teach him until the Spring.  By then Luke was beginning KoolMinds and I knew we wouldn't be able to do those exercises every day AND practice piano, so we put piano off until the other program was finished.  Luke verbally protested starting piano, but has been pretty cooperative with practicing and lessons, and he was excited about learning a Christmas piece to perform!

Oma was anxious for us to plan another performance at The Wellington, since Cat was sick and couldn't perform in August.  We scheduled this recital for the end of November, and Cat's duet partner came so that they could perform their duets for the residents.  Cat also played a few solos, Jack and Eliza played their duets, and Luke had his first performance!  He and Eliza played a lovely arrangement of "Angels We Have Heard on High."  (There was a fair amount of overlap from this performance to the next, so I included videos of The Wellington performance from the pieces that were not included in our family Christmas concert the next day.)

The residents were thrilled with the performance, very kind and complimentary afterward, and several stuck around to talk to the kids.  This was the best part, seeing how happy the residents were to spend time with the kids, listening to them play a little more on the piano, or talking about their lives.  I also loved that the kids were so cheerful and comfortable talking to the residents.  After we all stayed in the multipurpose room talking for a little while, I took Oma back up to her apartment and got her settled before returning downstairs.  I expected to find Ben and the kids waiting for me in the van, but they were all still in the multipurpose room, hanging out with a few talkative residents.  It turned out that they'd been singing and dancing together, having a great time!

Eliza gave a private encore performance, playing Fur Elise.

Oma and one of her best Wellington friends.

Four piano players!

This woman is so excited to be turning 100 next year!

We had our family Christmas concert on the Sunday evening after Thanksgiving.  (We usually do it on Monday after Thanksgiving but Ben had to go out of town that day, so we scheduled it a day earlier.)  We had some yummy food: dried beef wraps by Ben, peppermint bark, fudge, gingerbread cookies, crackers with cream cheese and pepper jelly, fresh veggies, and Grammy's Wassail.  We had several friends and neighbors come, and enjoyed spending time with them, sharing music, talking and laughing, and ringing in the Christmas season.

This was our program:

Angels We Have Heard on High (Luke & Eliza)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Jack)
What Child is This / Gymnopedie (Cat)
Believe (Eliza & Jack)
Christmas Time is Here (Ben & Cat)
The First Noel (Brett)
Away in a Manger (Everyone)
We Wish You a Merry Christmas (Eliza et al.)

When we started on our piano journey several years ago, I knew that it would help teach the kids many life lessons (having to work at something consistently, breaking a large project into smaller tasks, time management, and of course the direct and indirect [i.e., math] skills of learning a musical instrument, just to name a few).  I remember appreciating having piano as an outlet when I was feeling sad, (cue "Santa Fe" from Newsies), sentimental (cue "Candle on the Water" from Pete's Dragon) or angry (cue "Phantom of the Opera), so I knew piano could be a blessing for the kids in that way, but one thing I don't remember considering is what a blessing music would be in our family, and how it would enable us to connect with others and bring them joy.  Ironically, it was this last category that turned Cat into a willing piano student: when she entered YW at the age of 12 she quickly learned how much the other YW and leaders appreciated that she could accompany on hymns and special musical numbers.  Looking back at these performances (and I didn't even include Cat's Christmas Sunday Sacrament Meeting musical number of a John Schmidt arrangement of "Carol of the Bells") I am so thankful for the opportunities we've had to learn and share music, and hopefully spread a little joy and convey our faith.