Music is a huge part of our lives here in the Howard house! Just yesterday we were able to observe one of Olivia's voice lessons with her voice teacher in Rochester. She sang a Christmas tune and a few other songs she is working on for her audition book. After the voice lesson Mom and I headed straight to church choir rehearsal...we are busy preparing for Midnight Mass. We'll sing a few songs at a Prelude and then provide music for the mass.
Olivia and Grant are both in band and choir at school. Grant's concert was first--at beginning of December. It's so fun to hear the guys get more confident with the singing as their voices are finally settling down! Grant is a leader in the baritone section and looking forward to singing with the All County Choir in January.
Grant takes singing pretty seriously. Back in 5th grade a group of boys quit and Grant said "It was too tough, they couldn't handle it." :) Below is the 8th grade chorus (with Grant front and center) performing "Rise Up Shepard".
Grant plays the trombone in band. I am (not so) secretly jealous of this fact. In 5th grade I wanted to play trombone but the band teacher told me "your arms are too short". I ended up playing saxophone and liked it, but always wished I could blast away on a brass instrument! Below the trombone section is featured in a play on the Dance of the Sugar Plums--"Dance of the Slippery Slide Trombones". As with choir, band is split by grade level and this is the 8th grade band.
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| Signature smirk |
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| one of Olivia's good friends Kelsey is the brunette on the right |
Olivia plays the alto sax in band. It's hard to see her during the concert so here's a photo when the band stood at the end of a number! Band is also split into two groups, by audition. Olivia is in the Wind Ensemble. Both bands combine to play the Holiday Sing-A-Long at the end of the concert so that explains all the empty chairs. Band and choir both did pieces which had the musicians spread out in the auditorium. The band performed "Holiday Concert in the Round" and the combined choirs sang a piece in Latin out in the house to open the concert. It was an awesome "surround sound" experience.
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| Olivia's friend Krista is the clarinet player in this pic |
Below is a holiday tradition...the high school band playing "Sleighride" (they play it every year! I used to love playing for the elementary schools the day before Christmas break. Kids in the audience would always try to clap at the same time as the horse whip sound!)
There was one more concert in our Holiday line-up this year. Olivia was selected to sing with a 200 member High School choir (Festival Chorale) that had the awesome opportunity of singing with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for their Gala Holiday Pops concerts. Last weekend Olivia (and 4 other girls from Newark...pictured below) performed 6 concerts with the RPO at the Eastman Theatre in Rochester. I was also a member of the ensemble in high school and it was honestly one of the coolest things I remember doing. To be able to sing with the outstanding RPO and on stage in that beautiful theatre is really something special. The students were selected based on their NYSSMA solo scores, acceptance into various singing ensembles (like All County/Area All State etc.) and their teacher's recommendation. Olivia was pretty worn out from the concerts but she said it was worth it!
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| Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre |
Our final concert of the season (after Midnight Mass) will be on our 5 hour trip to my Nana's house. Mom loves Christmas music so I'm sure she'll be crooning along with the radio on Christmas morning as we travel to the North Country!
♫ May your Christmas be filled with joyful sounds! ♫
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