It’s Ashley’s turn to be the musician now! Today was Ashley’s spring piano recital at Libertyville Manor. They have this nice open area with a baby grand (it was more in tune the last time we were there). Her teacher, Mrs. Schiller, splits her students into two groups, so there are usually 5-6 students in each group. Ashley was last on the schedule for this recital, a sort of “closer”, if you will. Good thing too. I know I am the mom, so I am naturally biased. And two of the other kids are friends of the girls. But Ashley had 4 pieces, 2 of which she did by memory, and the difference between the other kids and her was pretty striking. I don’t get to fully appreciate that Ashley has an aptitude for piano until I hear her play after other kids her age/training experience. She sounds like a player many years older than the pint-sized entertainer that she is! So on to the music so you can hear for yourself!

She opened her set with “The Can Can”, which she did from memory (but at a slightly slower tempo than she plays at home….)

We go next to a number called “Arkansas Traveler”.

After that, she played “The Entertainer” from memory. She had to learn this one because Kayla performed it at her gold medal earning Solo Fest in March.

She finished off with “Over the Rainbow”, dedicated to her three grandmothers in attendance.

When each student was done, Mrs. Schiller presented him/her with a special gift – an acrostic of their name listing the special traits about each one. Here is Ashley’s acrostic.

And a final picture of the whole family together! Yes, that is Grandma in the background.

If you look to the left of Grandma, there are two ladies. The one farthest to the left is Vivian, who is 100 years old and plays piano by ear. I guess she has been there a while, because Grandma remembered having some meals with her when Grandma was recovering from her surgery the few years ago. Grandma tried to talk to her and remind her of how they shared meals together. Vivian’s hearing was not too great, so she thought Grandma was telling her it was time for lunch!

It was a great recital! This coming week, Kayla’s band teacher is visiting the 3rd grade music classes so that students can be tested out on instruments because band starts in 4th grade. Ashley is excited to see what instrument she might be good to play. She wants to play flute, so we might have another instrument in the house (as if that is anything but a good thing!).

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms! Our blogs are the evidence of those well earned titles – we wouldn’t be moms and grammas and great-grandmas without the little darlings that we all blog about and comment on!

This was a super busy day to end a super busy week!  First things first – we got to meet Kieran and be overwhelmed by all of the cheeks. I don’t have too many pictures with Shannon using her camera, I just didn’t pull mine out enough. And Kayla was still coughing a bunch, so we kept her away from Kieran some.

The next big thing was Kayla’s Honors Band event today. Honors Band is an organized event sponsored by Music Education Services, the group that comes in and does the band program in Kayla’s school. All of the directors choose their best students to invite to this event. Kayla was one of 6 who attended today from her school. There were over 200 kids there from as far away as Rockford (3+ hour drive). The kids spend HOURS in sectional rehearsals and whole group rehearsals throughout the day, breaking only for lunch and a quick snack. They are working to perfect pieces that they have only ever practiced alone at home. At the end of the event, the kids perform the pieces in a concert. It is so cool to hear how great the kids sound performing pieces they had not ever played together until today. I am not posting all of the songs, just a few.

Here are some pictures of Kayla in morning group rehearsal (pink shirt), attacking her Jimmy John’s slim 6 at our picnic lunch in front of the hosting church, and in afternoon rehearsal/concert  (concert dress).

The first video is of all of the band teachers performing for the kids. They did a John Williams medley in honor of Star Wars Appreciation Day (May the 4th). I missed the very beginning, but here is the rest.

Kayla began her concert playing the national anthem. Remember, these are 6th-8th grade students…..

This next piece is called “After Burn”. Kayla hates this piece because her part is to play middle C 260 times. It’s a very boring repetitious part, but necessary to the overall song. It is supposed to be the musical story of the Air Force F-22 Raptors performing maneuvers.

This was Kayla’s last piece, “Picture at an Exhibition”. It’s a musical version of strolling through an art museum. Dad was able to come for the concert, and he knew this one right away because he played the same piece on the clarinet when he was Kayla’s age. Too weird!

Kayla is exhausted! She played her clarinet for hours today with kids just like her and guest conductors that treated them like serious musicians. She enjoyed the whole thing, and we are so glad she was healthy enough to go!

Next week: Music part 2 – Ashley edition!