Our Songbirds

Yesterday morning our family walked up the street to Trinity High School so that Abigail and Suzanna could perform in the 2011 Trinity Junior High and Elementary Solo and Ensemble Music Festival.  Suzanna first performed in the festival two years ago (remember?); and when Abigail was old enough last year, she joined her (remember?).  Hillary is still one year away from being old enough (one must be at least in fifth grade), so it was just Abigail and Suzanna again this year.  And, again, we have audiovisual evidence of their participation!  Wanna hear?

Abigail's Choral Festival Performance!

Can you spot Abigail in this photo?  Bigger question: do you know what's going on in this photo?  Well, I'll tell you!

Back to School (and the Pool)

The school year has begun for everybody in our house.  I had start-of-the-year meetings to attend last week, and classes at the university started at the beginning of this week.  Susan had her teacher workshops Monday and Tuesday, and she started school today.  Our daughters got registered at their respective schools over the last couple weeks (remember?) and had open houses this past Monday and Tuesday in preparation for their own first day of school, which also was today.  We're getting back into our school-year routine . . . and I've got photos to prove it!

And the Bands Played On

Here's how school band works in our town:

Fifth grade is the earliest that a student begins playing a band instrument, and the elementary music teachers teach both general music to all elementary students and instrumental music to any fifth-graders wishing to be in band. There are five elementary schools: four of them house grades kindergarten through five, and one is for only sixth grade. That means that the four small fifth-grade bands combine the next year to form one large sixth-grade band.

In preparation, each spring all the fifth-grade bands combine to perform a few songs as one band at the All-City Band Concert. Each fifth-grade music teacher prepares her own students beforehand, and then the sixth-grade band teacher takes over conducting duties for the combined band of fifth-graders the night of the concert. We got to hear Abigail, our fifth-grader, play her saxophone in that group at this year's All-City Band Concert tonight!

Here is Abigail playing saxophone with the fifth-graders on "Regal March."

As a fifth-grader, Suzanna performed in last year's concert playing percussion rather than her trombone--here is why. As a sixth-grader this year, she got to play her trombone. Her band director was slated to conduct both the fifth-grade and sixth-grade bands, but he has been out of school on sick leave, so a substitute teacher got the honor of conducting those groups! (And he did a fine job.)

Here is Suzanna playing trombone with the sixth-graders on "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?"

We listened to Abigail's band perform, followed by Suzanna's band, followed by the seventh-grade band, the eighth-grade band, and two different bands from the high school. The final number on the program was performed by all the students . . . grades five through twelve! The elementary students sat together, the junior high school students sat together, and the high school students spread themselves out, joining one or the other group of younger students to play along with the corresponding sections (i.e., high school flautists with the elementary flute section, etc.). Considering the massive group, spread out over a large space, composed of such varying levels of expertise, that last song went pretty darned well!

Abigail and Suzanna play "We Will Rock You" with the combined bands: grades five through twelve.

Downtown Everything's Waiting for . . . Suzanna!

For several years Susan and I have been attending our daughters' elementary school music programs. Their music teachers always selected a theme for each program--a theme that united the songs by topic or style, or a theme that was evident in the narration and lines delivered by the students "in character" between songs. So, although they have always been essentially choral performances, they have always felt a little bit like mini-plays, too. Maybe that's why they have their own term: "music program."

Well, tonight for the first time we attended a daughter's music program that was not play-like but that was, in fact, just music. In our school district, there are several elementary schools with grades kindergarten through five in each building; but all sixth-graders attend school in the same building. That's the school that Suzanna attends this year, and at that school, the music programs become music concerts . . as they will be for her from now on. It may seem a silly rite of passage for me to note (pardon the pun), but it's one more marker that our babies continue to get older. Heavy sigh.

Tonight friends of ours from church had some extra seats beside them that they offered to us, so we got to sit in the front row (this never happens at an elementary music program), meaning we got some great photos. (Compare Hillary's recent music program.) The first part of the concert was the vocal performance, and it was quite the hodge-podge of songs: some Christmas ones, yes ("Let It Snow," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," "Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas," and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"), but also some patriotic ("Star-Spangled Banner," "This Land Is Your Land," and "Oh, I Love America") and some hard-to-categorize ("Purple People Eater"). Yep, by sixth grade, they have pretty much abandoned the idea of a unifying theme.

Suzanna the vocalist

The second part of the concert was the band performance, so the group of sixth-graders thinned out considerably as those kids not in band filed out and those kids in band set up their stands and instruments. Again, some Christmas music ("Deck the Halls," "Angels We Have Heard on High," and "Frosty the Snowman") and some not-at-all ("We Will Rock You"). There is quite a range of ability levels amongst the band members. (Was that a politically correct way to put it?) Suzanna, of course, was phenomenal. One of my education students at the university is a music major and trombone player himself, and this semester he completed a field experience in Suzanna's school during which he sat next to her, heard her playing, complimented her skill, and offered to give her private lessons. So for a couple months she has been coming to campus after school once a week to take lessons from him, which has been good teaching experience for him and excellent individualized instruction for her.

Suzanna the trombonist

During the first half of the concert, there was one particular song that we enjoyed more than the others: "Downtown." Suzanna and her classmate Elizabeth stepped up to the microphones for their solos during that number. For your pleasure and edification, here is the portion during which Suzanna was featured (there are some pitch problems at the end when Elizabeth joins in again, but you can be the judge about whom to blame):

Suzanna's Band Concert Debut

Suzanna, as a fifth-grader, is nearing the end of her first full year as a band member (remember?). Tonight was her first official school band concert: the All-City Band Concert featuring separate performances by the fifth-grade band, sixth-grade band, seventh-grade band, eighth-grade band, and each of the two high school bands in addition to a final song performed by all the bands combined. After spending all year honing her trombone skills, she performed tonight . . . on percussion!

Yes, due to her recent tonsillectomy (remember?), playing her trombone is a no-no until her doctor gives her the okay (she has a post-op checkup next Monday). How nice that the music directors could allow her still to perform in the concert, though. Here she is performing:

Watching the music intently for her cue to play the wooden block.

And here she is telling all about the day and evening:

"We went for practice in the afternoon. We left during lunch, packed up all our stuff, and went to the high school. As you all know, I got my tonsils removed, and so I couldn't play my trombone. Therefore I played percussion: the jingle bells and the wood block. We got to the high school at about 12:45 P.M., and we unpacked all of our things, got our stands ready, and went out into the old gym.

Then Mr. Jangula, the sixth-grade band director, showed us how he would count it off, and he had us play our warm-up song. He tuned a couple instruments and helped us go through our songs. Later we packed up our instruments and left them right where they were. Then we went out into the entryway and got cookies and bottled water. Then we went and loaded onto the bus, came back to the school, and had a normal rest of the day.

At 6:00 P.M. Mommy, Abigail, Hillary, and I went out for supper at Perkin's. We left at about 6:40 P.M. and went to the high school to get ready for the concert. I got in at about 6:50 P.M. and went to make sure my wood block was where I knew it needed to be and my jingle bells were ready for me to play right away. Then the fifth-grade band went out, we played our three songs, and then we went and sat on the bleachers.

About an hour later, all the bands performed a final song. It was a wreck! Mr. Jangula started so quickly, but the seventh-grade and older bands thought they'd take it nice and slowly for us little kids. The high schoolers wouldn't let our drummers on the bass drum, so the beat was off, and no one started at the same time! The high schoolers hadn't even looked at their music for that song yet, so that was the first time that they had seen the music. It was just a disaster, but it was kind of funny at the same time. Everyone was complimenting everyone else, and everyone was saying how well we all performed . . . except for the last song. It was a pretty fun night."