Denisa and I had the chance to go to TRC’s first concert performance last night, where the fourth grade strings played rousing renditions of “D Scale,” “Pillow Dance,” “Rolling Along,” and “String Progression.” I have video, and it’ll be up on my Facebook page if you’d like to check it out. It certainly was strange being on the other side of the concert scene. The last time I really was going to concerts, I was performing in them. As a proud parent, the feel is different. For one thing, there’s no nerves at all–no rush of excitement to get you through all the other performances. (MC loved TRC’s performance–which happened to be first–the next half hour, she wasn’t quite as big of a fan of.)
I showed TRC the video afterward, and he thought it was really interesting. “It sure does look different from out there,” he observed. I couldn’t agree more. Looking forward to many more years to come, though I’m not sure if he’ll decide to stick with violin or go for a different instrument. I’ve always been a wind sort of a guy, but the school district leans very heavily toward strings. He enjoys violin, I’m happy to report. We don’t have to twist his arm (much) to practice. Now if we could just work on making sure he always remembers to bring his violin to school . . .
And if you don’t want to go over to Facebook to see the video, then here’s a clip that’s always pretty much summed up my thoughts on elementary school concerts: (sorry–couldn’t find the 1962 original, which I prefer)