Our friends Stefania, Juan, (my students) Samuel, Sofia (Golda's flute student), Ana and Araceli

The G-parents

Fiddling class

 Thanks for the Yogo, Bill and Coco!

We can't let summer go by without sitting outside and listening to music.  It's part of what summer is, along with crickets, lemonade and swimming.  Last night was our favorite concert, the Summer Strings performance, because we knew one of the cellists!  Aside from the blistering heat, the concert was a lot of fun.  Ari participated in the fiddling class, the intermediate orchestra and the intermediate-advanced collaboration.  Fiddling was definitely the most fun.  In fact, Ari said she just suffered through orchestra so she could take the fiddling class.  But the two orchestras joined for a really exciting piece, one that was written by a grad student.  The composer conducted the piece in the concert.  Wow!  Ari probably doesn't care, but it's pretty exciting to play new music, especially when the composer is there.  When I was in college, we had orchestra every day, and part of it was to play new music, mostly written by grad students working on composition degrees.  Some of it was amazing, some didn't really work, but it is exciting to be part of something brand new that is nevertheless a continuation of a very old tradition.

I don't think Ari got all that.  She just had fun hanging out with her crazy orchestra friends.  I like that she has friends who also have to practice every day, and who share in her orchestra experience.  It's dangerous, though, because music people, even little ones, can be weird.  Ari and her little friend Sara developed a chuckle/giggle/hysterical choking sound that they thought was perfect for use in daily life.  At Yogo Togo, we ran into some friends and Ari decided to try out her new chuckle.  HEEEHHEEEEHHHHEEEGGRRLLLHHEEHE.  A couple of people were ready to perform the Heimlich on her until I slapped her on the back and she stopped.  In the car on the way home, Golda said, "Ari, let's not use that laugh unless you're at orchestra, OK?"

Not to worry, the next orchestra has already started rehearsals.  Concert July 28 at 11:00 at Cherry hill if you're around!  You might get to hear The Laugh. And you'll get to see Freestone struggle to move his bow like everyone else's in order to earn a Hex Bug.  But that's another story...