Day 1: Monday. Piano, Strings, Voice, Guitar.
In the morning, there were piano sessions in the auditorium. I took my Guitar class and High School Orchestra there to watch and fill out a guided listening sheet.
In the afternoon, the voice juries started, although I wasn’t able to hear any of them. We started up with cellos around the same time, then guitars, then a couple more cellos, then a big group of intermediate violinists (and 1 violist).
In the guitar group, I was thankful that K.N. survived her first big performance. She had felt nauseous with trepidation at the nursing home, so it was a big deal that she just made it through the performance without freezing and forgetting her notes. I was also really proud of I.K. for doing incredibly well. I already posted a video of him from the nursing home. He’s had some ups and downs in lessons this year, so it was encouraging to see him smiling during the adjudication.
In the strings, the judge asked the students questions about the composers of their pieces. Most of them didn’t really know any background (oops! We didn’t get to that!). One student played Bach and Schumann; the judge explained the difference in time period like this: “Robert Schumann is younger than Bach, but not really young. He’s about 200 years dead.”
I was really happy for M.F. in particular. In past Music Festivals I’ve felt like I didn’t give him enough rehearsal time with the piano to feel comfortable, but this year was different. He played really well, and he actually smiled just after he played! His Seitz concerto was really strong and he put in extra expression, and had fixed some problems that we had been working on. Basically, it was the best I had ever heard him play it. His second piece was the Largo from Dvorak’s New World Symphony. There was a moment when the judge asked him, “Which instrument plays the solo in this New World Symphony?” I held my breath, hoping he’d remember. He said, “The English Horn” and looked at me and grinned. I was jumping and shouting inside, and beaming on the outside. We had talked about the English Horn, but I didn’t know he would remember the name! It’s an obscure instrument, only famous for that one piece!
Day 2: Tuesday. Flutes.
My morning was spent running around town getting groceries and doing a few other errands. In the music department, we have the tradition of providing meals for each other during Music Festival week. Since Marit and I didn’t have any adjudications today, it was our turn to fix lunch for the rest of the department. I won’t tell you what we ate because you’ll be incredibly jealous. What? You really want to know? Ok, we had Pesto-pasta-chicken, a veggie plate of fresh peppers and sliced cucumber, and a fruit salad with yogurt. Hungry yet?
After school was the flute session; it was nice to just relax and watch each performance without the racing heart that accompanies my students as I hope they remember everything they’ve practiced!
Day 3: Wednesday. Strings.
It was a full day of string performances, beginning at 9:00 in the morning and ending at 5:00pm. The violinists in the first session were clearly nervous. The judge encouraged them to relax their arms – “You can drop your nervosity.”
The advanced cello session was particularly inspiring. The orchestra was able to watch two of their peers perform difficult works for cello, and the judge’s cello skills were impressive as he worked with them. The orchestra students were in awe. One of them said in mock despair, “I’m quitting cello!”
The final 3 violin sessions in the afternoon each had moments of brilliance and moments of stumbling over notes. All of the kids recovered well from mistakes, which is a huge victory. Marit and I were both pleased with the kids’ performances and with the work Florian Mall was able to do with them.
After all the notes had been played and comments given, it was time to select the Honors Recital students. Our adjudicator deliberated for quite some time before giving us a list of students who had given outstanding performances. Marit and I felt excitement for those who were chosen, since they were truly excellent, but that excitement was mingled with a tinge of sadness for the other students who had worked so hard and not quite made the cut.
The music department then met (starting around 5:45pm and going till 7:30!!) and hashed out the details of Thursday evening’s recital: making final cuts, deciding on a program order, and working out how to contact all those involved.
The final thing to do was make the phone calls, which I started around 9pm as the kids were getting back from Small Groups. These are not the dreaded teacher phone calls of “Your child made a serious blunder” or some other problem. This is the phone call everyone hopes for. It’s the “Congratulations! You made it to Honors Recital!” Of the students I called, all were happy. Some just took it in stride and thanked me; my guitar student had a bigger reaction: “What?! Oh my! I’m in shock! Wow!” She is now prepared to share the song she wrote with a larger audience, and I’m so excited for her.
Tonight is the big performance! I’ll write a separate post for that one, hopefully with some video clips.
