Last year...

Last year on November 5th, we grieved and celebrated. Last year, my mom's ashes were interned, and we had the funeral. Some very, very clear memories from that day. But, I actually don't feel like writing about them. Which is strange, because the past few days I've felt like I've been reliving every second. Perhaps I'm just happier today. My classes this morning and this afternoon went pretty well, although my Sunshines had great difficulty with the K piece we had done this past week...hence, I will be adding it onto the next lesson as well. It is the first K piece to use more than one critter/note, and uses stepping up patterns, which they had not done at the keyboard yet. Today was, for them, I think just a bit of an off day too, one of them had a cold, and my youngest one was a bit hyper today. But, other than the K piece, it went decently well. And my Sunbeams class went quite well with the keyboard today. Best yet in terms of preparation. THE best part of my job is seeing my students improve from week to week and really 'get' things and their excitement over that. I love it and it makes me feel special to be a part of their learning.

I think part of the reason that I'm feeling pretty okay right now is that I went to a concert tonight, of the provincial senior honour band. I was part of it for two years four and five years ago now (which made me feel old when I read that it was the 34th annual senior honour band and I remembered that I was in the 29th and 30th senior honour bands!), and it was an amazing experience both years. This year, it was conducted by a very special man, who I had as a conductor during NYB 2008 and then at IMC later that year. He has an incredible sense of humour, is receptive to everyone, and is an overall amazing conductor. I have to say that some of my best music memories come from NYB 2008 and the rehearsals and stories that he told...plus, all the other crazy things that went on. Our percussionists were very musical, but something got lost in the translation with them. They seemed to fit the rather unfortunate stereotype percussionist joke "How can you tell if the stage is level? The drool comes out both sides of the drummer's mouth". For instance, one of them once raised their hand and said "We need two tambourines for this piece". Conductor: "Do you have two tambourines?" Percussionist: "Yes". The rest of us in the band were sitting there trying to comprehend what had just happened...

So, I got to talk to him afterwards, and that was nice. Plus, I saw my former flute teacher from high school-it's always great to see her. And, I saw some of my friends from orchestra who were playing in the band (high school students grades 9-12). I miss seeing them each week! It was an amazing music evening, starting out with one of the military bands. They played one of the pieces that always reminds me of my mom, called October by Eric Whitacre. Actually, I thought we did it as a Wind Ensemble last year, but it turns out that we didn't. It was with Concert Band. I am confusing it with Colours and Contrasts of Grief, which is also a very beautiful work, and which for some reason I listened to obsessively during the 2009-2011 season of challenges, changes, and grief. The recording of Colours and Contrasts that I listened to was from NYB 2009. I found a youtube clip of October online, which I posted, but I could not find one of Colours and Contrasts of Grief, which is unfortunate, as it is beautiful.