Self Starter

Maybe it's me, maybe it's her.  OK, it's me.  I haven't had Tziporah start an instrument because I don't think she'll be compliant enough with practicing.  It's sad when you're the 7th child and your mom has seen too much. You have to write your own music, dig up your own violin and giant bow and be your own teacher.  Ruby reminded me that Ptolemy and Tziporah's synapses are withering away from lack of musical training.  Ugh, I know!  Hopefully, some of those synapses are forming due to the creativity it takes just to raise yourself when your mom has already practiced with kids close to ten thousand times, and she literally can't do it anymore.  New script, please!

Two-for-One December Date Night

I didn't think we'd get tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert this year.  I forgot about the tickets going on sale, even though it was on my calendar, and I missed the rush.  It sold out in five minutes, anyway.  But Jen Ramsdell offered us two last-minute tickets!  I was going to go with Scott, but THEN Melanie Scarlet offered us two FREE last-minute second-row tickets to the Jazz game!  We're pretty good at the divide and conquer thing, so two dates emerged.  Araceli and Freestone aborted plans with friends and we all had a great evening, after dropping off Tziporah at a Polar Express Hot Chocolate Pajama Party (4yos are so cute) and picking up Ruby and friends from the airport. Glad they made it home safely from Chicago. The rest of the kids were happy to stay home watching Christmas movies after an eventful day. 

Waiting in line in the rain, after sprinting from our parking spot three blocks away so we wouldn't get too wet.

Hands Free

 One day after school, Araceli wanted to invite her friends over for soup and treats.  I got everything ready, but the friends ended up not being able to come.  When the kids got home from school, I told them that the big spread was their after-school snack.  You've never seen such delighted faces!  I said, "Yep.  This is all for you because you're the best!"  Tee hee.  They really are the best. 

Last week was Araceli's week of performances for Hands Free. Scott had taken her to many rehearsals for this 15-minute piece, where 180 Utah Youth Symphony musicians use nothing but their voices and bodies to make music.  Their mentors were the dancers from Repertory Dance Theater.  Tizzy and I took Araceli to Rose Wagner for the Wednesday matinee and watched Repertory Dance Theater's whole performance.

Friday night, Scott and I took the teens to watch the performance.  Afterwards, there was a reception, which was fun.  Araceli wanted to try beer, but we dissuaded her, saying, "You won't like it.  Plus, there's wine over there. Why would you try beer?"  Ha ha.  Maybe we're funny.  Maybe we're not. :)

Hands Free was a neat experience, but I'm glad they get to start rehearsing some Bernstein and Brahms next week...with their instruments!

Olympe's Piano Recital, July 28

It's not Carnegie Hall, but...:)

Olympe is a wonderful pianist.  She just graduated from high school in France, and has been accepted into a music conservatory in Lille.  She plays like a dream.  We thought it would be neat for her to give a recital, and Nana's place has a built-in audience.  Olympe was disappointed that the audience was small, but it would have been hard to get a bigger crowd during the summer months with very little notice and no publicity.  Plus, the old folks at Nana's place were very appreciative.  We all could have listened to Olympe play all day.

She played some Tchaikovsky, Chopin and some pieces she arranged herself.  It was truly lovely.  The electronic piano wasn't a Steinway, but it wasn't the worst, either.  Olympe made it sound incredible.  We were all grateful to have the opportunity to listen to her play.  Next time, we'll have to plan for a bigger show, because everyone would love Olympe!

Our little (big) family was about to get a bit smaller.  This was a farewell dinner, I think, for Olympe.  Boo hoo!

Cue Farewell Music

I probable mentioned how crazy-town it got the week before Golda's farewell.  I thought several times, "I can't believe so many people do this!"  On top of all the wonderful chaos, I had said yes to putting together a musical number for the farewell meeting.  I play in sacrament meeting all the time.  People probable get sick of me.  So it should have been no big deal to find a piece, but it turned into a time-sucking ordeal.  Everyone wanted to play, and I could not find a piece for all of us.  After finally nixxing a Circe/Golda duet, I decided on a cello-violin duet, so Araceli could be part of the farewell.  After MUCH searching, I found an arrangement and bought it.

Parts of it had SIX flats.  Seriously, why?  And on string instruments, too.  No string instrument sounds good when you can't play any of the open strings, but we won't go into that.  Araceli even had her teacher help her with it, but we could not play it.  It was flat-out too hard.  See what I did there?  ha ha.

We gave up, and Ruby stepped in, as she so often does, to save the day.  Ruby and I played a violin duet that I had previously played with Golda, Golda on flute, How Great Thou Art.  It sounds beautiful with two violins, but there was one tiny glitch: Ruby hasn't practiced violin for 8 years.  Nonetheless, she awed me with her abilities, coming in and playing it nicely.  We still had to practice several hours. over the course of a week, but we pulled it off.  I don't know how we sounded, but I felt good about playing with Ruby.  We loved it, and it was magical to play together in that setting.  I definitely felt the spirit, and I was honored to be included in the program, especially with Ruby.

That said, it took some serious doing to get it together, hence the pics.  Don't forget, it was summertime, and we were trying to do summer, doggone-it!  On top of that, I was texting all kinds of people about all kinds of things, probably farewell-food related.  Ruby laughed as she snapped pictures of me trying to get in a few minutes of post-pool practice.

I loved this time with Ruby, and this time in general.  I knew it was going by too quickly, and I knew I wasn't fully able to take it in at the time.  Thanks for documenting a moment of craziness, Ruby. I wouldn't trade any of it for anything.

Utah Youth

Araceli had her Utah Youth concert at Abravanel Hall recently.  I had enthusiastically signed up to be a chaperone backstage so I could relive my glory days.  Even though Utah Youth performed at Gardner Hall when I was in it.  But enough about me. 

Araceli and her stand partner Debbie, with a boy from another orchestra that Celi fell in love with in about 5 minutes backstage, (we can't remember his name) and a kid who jumped in the picture when I barked out, "Everyone scoot in!" 

Us being funny

Rehearsing Tchaikovsky"s 4th Symphony.  I've always been partial to the 5th, but this concert changed my mind.  They played it magnificently.

Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed the concert, even the new piece they played where it was all body percussion.  Araceli's orchestra didn't participate in that one, sadly.  It was the North American premiere of the piece, written by a British composer using clapping, slapping, voice, and body movements.  Ririe Woodbury helped them with choreography.  I love new music.  I feel like I understand the vocabulary of it, having played mountains of new compositions at Indiana.  I love it, especially when it's a premiere. 

I'm thankful Araceli is willing to do youth symphony.  She sometimes complains that "I'm following your dream, Mom, not mine."  I say, "Yeah.  Thanks!  You're the best!"  Don't worry, she's following plenty of dreams of her own.  She just wishes she were dreaming instead of driving to rehearsal at 8 am on Saturdays. 

Guitar Recital

We took an evening last week to enjoy Ruby's guitar recital. She did wonderfully. Roy is just a top notch teacher. We love him. After the reception, we took some fun pictures.

My Boys

I love taking my boys to violin on Wednesday mornings.  I wake them up at 5:45, stand Ptolemy upright, wrap his blanket around him and point him toward the door.  5 steps later, he crumples to the floor and falls asleep.  Ditto halfway up the stairs, same thing on the way to the front door.  Poor kid!  That's early for a first grader!  He's like a newborn koala, the way he's all floppy and sleepy, but eventually he perks up.

We've learned the hard way that kids need food before a 6 am lesson, so McDonald's it is.  Because am I really going to cook breakfast at 5 am?  Since the last time Freestone almost passed out in his lesson, I get them a big Hi-C too, to get some sugar in their blood.

Ya, even I'm questioning my parenting skills at this point, seeing the description on paper.  I wake them up in the middle of the night, get them high on sugar and take them to a violin lesson where there's a high likelihood of passing out.

It's not as terrible as it sounds.  Kinda like their violin playing.  Har har.  

Sol Gabetta Recital

 After dinner our first day in New York, we left the Lower East Side and went to Columbus Circle to take in the somewhat rarefied air of the Lincoln Center and Metropolitan Opera House.  We had tickets to a cello recital featuring the Argentine cellist Sol Gabetta, at 10 pm.  She played the Haydn D Major Concerto with the New York Philharmonic and 7:30, then played a full recital in the nearby Kaplan Loft at 10. Wow!!  Good thing she's young!

 Having taken the redeye, gotten off the plane at 6 am and walked 14 miles according to our pedometers, we were getting sleepy.  I think we might have dozed off sitting on a ledge across the street from Juilliard.  But as soon as it was time for the recital, we were reenergized.  There was the most adorable little old woman trying to get a ticket for the concert, and a little old man, too.  Like in their 90's.  I wondered if they were together.  I love the energy surrounding the arts in New York.  10 pm on a Wednesday night, and people are out, excited about a cello recital.  The venue was gorgeous, with floor to ceiling windows and views of Manhattan.  We were seated at tables, and somehow Scott and I had scored the best seats in the house.  We were at the closest table, 5 feet away from the soloist.  At our table was an Israeli doctor and his wife who have lived in New York for years.  He is also a semi-professional cellist.  And also, a young Indian woman and her aunt, both living in New York.  It was energizing to talk to them and find out their stories.

 I quickly snapped these pics for Araceli before turning off my phone.  I really wished she could have seen that incredible performance.  Both the cellist and the pianist put every ounce of everything they had into each and every note.  It was incredible.  There were two encores, and I think the audience would have been game for several more.  I know I would have been!  Any trace of fatigue I felt before was gone, replaced by the raw energy of a live performance.  We met up with two critics afterward and walked with one to the subway.  The guy who had "gone away" to college in The Bronx from Brooklyn.  Here is his blog.  How incredible to have access to all those world-class performances.

I think it's safe to say that we wrung the most out of our day in New York.  It was heaven to walk into our airbnb brownstone in Brooklyn and crawl into bed.  We may have been in the city that never sleeps, and we did our fair share to live up to that, but eventually, it's inevitable.