Jun 15, 2024 12:29
This was a special week--we were doing a children's concert for the first time in a number of years. I think maybe my first or second summer we did one, but I don't recall one since. AD2 has two granddaughters so I imagine she is more attuned to something like that now.
I ran an errand before rehearsal on Wednesday; I've needed to run to Target for a bit, and it was pressing since Father's Day is tomorrow and I needed a card. I also needed some other stuff, and I decided to get myself earrings, but the funny part about that is I was looking at three different cards of them and completely forgot which card I came home with, thinking I'd picked out the slightly more expensive card that came with more pairs ($15 vs. $18, and 18 pairs vs. 30), then surprised myself when I unpacked my bag in the morning to see that I'd picked the $15 card--and that the tiny ball earrings I'd thought were silver were actually pearl. Nice. Guess my eyes don't like the lighting there. And when I checked out, the girl had one arm in a sling and clearly was just trying to get through her shift--she'd just started and I was her first person--and she saw my reusable bag and went, oh, I'll bag it, then completely didn't bag any of my stuff, which was piled at the end of her stand, and moved on to the next person. Given her situation, I didn't mind; I just thought it was funny.
This concert was going to be short, supposedly, and start a half-hour earlier to make it more kid-friendly. There were a lot of logistics to go through, so rehearsal ran 20 minutes longer than normal, ugh. But being the kids concert, we had a lot of kids involved:
--We had the one district's 8th grade scholarship winners sit in for a song. (The town is big enough that it has two school districts, and the other set had performed with us during our March concert.)
--We had the same district's high school interns sit in with us for the full concert. (They would've joined us for our May concert, except commencement was the same day.)
--And we had this year's three winners of the Director Emeritus college scholarship join us as well. This goes to area students who are studying music education. The scholarship was started several years ago, but I imagine with his passing there were a number of additional donations to it. I put money in a condolence card when he passed, and the thank-you note from Mrs. DE said it was going toward the scholarship, which I thought was nice.
We did some unusual but special things for this concert. For example, we introduced the instrument sections, starting with the flutes, and we all played the same segment of a Sousa march. The directors weren't sure if they were going to play that whole segment every time or not, but that's what ended up happening. That was actually pretty cool, to get to hear the individual parts, plus you could hear that the clarinets (joined by the bass clarinets), the saxes (alto, tenor, and bari), and the trumpets and cornets as groups pretty much all played a complete song with melody, harmony, and background. We only had four saxes but they sounded like a quartet; it was pretty cool. The poor French horns had one of their common boring parts on the march, and the tubas just played bass tones on the downbeats. But it was a great introduction to all the sounds, really, even for people who are older than school-age.
We ended up playing two Sousa marches for the concert, as those were the pieces where kids were welcome to come up and guest-conduct, and there were so many kids that they had to be divided between two songs, and even then they were double-stacked on stage at times. AD2 gave a quick conducting lesson to the crowd beforehand, and it was actually really cool to see the entire crowd, and even much of the band, all following along with a simple two-pattern. When the kids came up, they each got a glowstick, one of the little wristband ones, and they got to conduct us. I'm not sure who was with ADB for the first round, but my section leader's granddaughter got to come up on the podium with ADB for the second. She's about 4 and super cute. Both of her parents are band directors, and both of her dad's parents taught band at some point (Shecky the clarinet player ultimately retired as an IT person), so she has it in her. We also played walk-up music, and vamped a bit, while getting the kids up on stage and in place. I don't normally flat-out name some of what we play unless it's big like 1812 Overture or Stars and Stripes Forever, but in keeping with the theme, our walk-up music was You've Got a Friend in Me, which was perfect and even had a repeated section...which we played over and over again until most of the people were up on stage, and even though it wasn't planned that way, we pulled it out a second time to prep the stage for the second march.
The kids even got to march themselves. Our special guest was a gal named Poorna, who once was one of our 8th grade scholarship winners, went to one of the local high schools (the one where we had our March concert, actually), and she is now one of the drum majors down at U of I--where, incidentally, all three drum majors are from this area! Wild. Poorna wore her full regalia and brought her mace, i.e., her big long conducting pole, and even performed her salute to get us started. She led the kids while marching around and then afterward was available for pictures, and she was so popular you'd have thought she was a Disney princess. That was pretty cool.
To encourage people to join music when they get old enough, AD2 had invited area music teachers to join us. My section leader's daughter-in-law talked about band in her district; another gal talked about orchestra in the neighboring district; and a third gal talked about an independent choir that kids of all ages can join. That group shares our rehearsal building with us. It was nice to hear them talk about how you can join those groups. There had also been an instrument petting zoo set up before the concert so kids could come up and check out various band and orchestra instruments. I only saw it in passing on my way in but I heard it was really popular toward the start of the concert.
One of the district high school kids who sat in with us happened to be in the flute section, and she sat between me and DB. I think she's a rising junior and she was nervous, partly because it's intimidating to play with a new group, and partly because she'd not played for a few weeks. She did really well; anything I heard from her was completely appropriate. I asked how she felt after the rehearsal and she said, it wasn't so bad! But yeah, having one rehearsal and then playing a concert can be scary when you're not used to it. She seemed to really enjoy it, which is good. She'd be great to have back. DB was also giving her tips, since DB is a local flute teacher, and was encouraging her to try out for the big state music conference next year. Since she'll be a junior, she can go into it thinking she won't make it, but at least get the experience, so that when she's a senior she'll know what to expect and can work hard to get in. Who knows, maybe she'll even make it next year.
So here's the thing about Thursday's concert: It was totally up in the air weather-wise, because earlier in the week, at 7 PM, there was supposed to be a huge red blob of precipitation over the area. Even as of Thursday morning, we got an email with contingency plans on it. Our running order of the show even had a line at the bottom saying, if there is no concert, feel free to weep openly. BUT. The weather completely held off and we had blue skies overhead. Our audience was sparser than normal but that wasn't a surprise, and the kids who did join us--in costume, even, for the parade part--had a blast. Our current band president, clarinet D, said the kids were swarming like cicadas. He wasn't wrong. It was a hit and I'm sure we'll be bringing this back in the future. Also, from our cicada correspondent, AKA oboe section leader C, she was wearing a cicada shirt as well as a cicada ring, and she picked one up after rehearsal and went, aw, poor little guy is missing a leg! Then she flipped it over and corrected herself--poor little girl is missing a leg! Wait, you can tell them apart? Yep, she's made herself knowledgeable about them. They're so dumb but she loves them, she said.
Our concert was only supposed to be an hour long, but it was more like a regular-length one after all. Should we do this again, AD2 would definitely shorten it by a few songs. We had "fellowship" scheduled for after our concert down at the local VFW, and I decided, what the heck. I'd talked to Mrs. DE prior to band on Wednesday and she was talking about the snacks she was bringing, including Chex Mix, so I figured I had to try her Chex Mix! It was pretty good. I stayed about an hour and there were about 20 of us there, which was nice. The piccolo player and I left about the same time and she told me, for those of a certain age, they'd always go there and hand out after a concert. I don't think I can do that every week, but once in a while is fine.
Finally, we got a surprise upon arriving at rehearsal this week: Everyone had stickers on their chairs for the band. We are free to put them on water bottles and folders and such. That's cool. I tucked the one from my chair into my binder pocket, and then while putting my flute away, a second one magically appeared in my flute case. I have no idea how it got there but what the heck.
shopping,
target,
band,
concert