Whew, this is a very belated blog post. I have several lined up to do! We’ve been out of school for a week and a half now, and I’m still getting around to writing about the things that happened 2 and a half weeks ago.
Students and staff were restless during the last week of school. Emotions ran high as kids looked forward to summers of freedom and exotic adventures, while dreading the many sorrowful departures and goodbyes. Overall, though, we all enjoyed the random moments of fun in the midst of studying for finals and preparing for the end of the year. During lunch one day, this was the result:
The Spring Concert was on Sunday, May 27th, the last big thing before finals. It seems so long ago now. I have woefully little to post on this blog, since it appears that no one videotaped it and put it on YouTube, and I only took 3 pictures and 1 video, and the pictures are all blurry. Words will have to suffice.
Suzanne (Music dept. head) and Ruth (MS Principal) opened the concert with announcements and prayer. After performances by the piano classes, handbells, and hand drums, the guitar class was up. We all wore black plus plaid. Yes, plaid. I will not take credit for the idea, but I will accept blame for allowing it to happen. Actually, it looked decent and made it easier to find the students. We played a couple normal pieces from the Essential Elements book, then performed 2 student-written songs (the 2nd video and the 2nd to last), and ended with a novelty piece. This last piece was ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ performed by 8 guitar players on 2 guitars, 1 bass player (me), and 1 singer (a junior girl). We got the idea from Walk Off the Earth’s video.
After we exited the stage to thunderous applause from enthusiastic classmates and dorm-mates, the male vocal ensemble performed the popular ‘Count on Me.’ Then band and choir performed, and it was time for the orchestras! Marit led the beginning orchestra – they did a great job! Then I led the Intermediate and High School Orchestras. People told me afterwards that one of their favorite pieces was the combined Intermediate/High School orchestra piece, ‘A Pirate’s Legend.’ It sounded a bit like music from the Pirates movies, and the overall effect was heightened by the bigger orchestra – 15 people! The other favorite was the last piece the High School Orchestra played, called ‘Salsa per Christina.’ The cellists turned their cellos sideways and played them like guitars, which gave the audience a good chuckle.
The choir did a final set to close out the concert. The one I videotaped was their arrangement of Mike Tompkins’ arrangement of ‘Rolling in the Deep.’
The concert had lots of variety, and covered the range of funny to serious. It was a good end to the last week of school.
