My camera doesn’t have the power to take photos of kids on stage from any distance. So until I get a photo or two from Jane and Tim, I don’t have anything to show from Meagan’s choir concert at school tonight. And since we don't know anybody at Susan’s school, I won’t have anything from her last week concert either.
Eastern High is in the building stages of all their programs, so the concert was a mixed bag. The entire music department participated: 2 choirs, band, orchestra (strings only), and jazz band. The choirs were very good, both bands passable; the orchestra, well, they need some work (Suze tells me none of those kids started on their instuments until 8th grade; listening to them it wasn’t hard to believe.)
Suze didn’t allow her sister to attend this concert because she was afraid they’d sound bad compared to Northview’s spectacular choirs. The 12-member Eastern Singers in my book could just about rival Northview's Varsity Voices. Suze’s 31-voice Concert Choir sounded excellent, in spite of having just 8 boys (who are still a bit unsure of their voices). Of their three numbers, “Do you hear what I hear” was their shining moment. Susan’s fear was absolutely NOT justified and I think she was happy in the end with their performance.
Her pleasure with the school-provided music uniform is another story, however. “We look like Amish nuns,” she insists, inexplicably, about the girls' attire (the boys wear tuxes). It's a short-sleeved black velvet scoop-necked top over a long, full black skirt that must be 10 feet around the bottom. (It’s a beautiful skirt I would’ve killed for in high school when the best I could do was a homemade long, narrow black number; I lusted after the skirts that were full and swishy). I guess girls who wear nothing but raggy jeans and T-shirts or hoodies day after day and favor slinky short things when they do dress up just don't appreciate the look and feel of a long, full, substantial skirt that swings glamorously as you walk. There's nothing like it in my book. But, well, I am that old.
Of Northview's four choirs, only the two top groups wear assigned vestments: Women's Chorus and the women in Varsity Voices wear proscribed formals (which they must purchase); the men wear tuxes. Chorale (freshmen women) and Concert Choir wear various items, from purchased T's in the fall and spring to white top, black bottom for this holiday concert. Trouble with this system is that you never know what you're going to get in the way of uniformity.
Of course, you don't notice their sometimes slightly rag tag when you hear their sound. And as usual, tonight's 90 minute (yes -- that long!) concert blew me away, as usual.
Meg sings in the Concert Choir this year along with Dani, Leah, Meg2, and lots of others (140-some others, to be exact; this is a HUGE choir). Almost as many boys as girls sing in this group. They sounded extra good on "The First Nowell," where two boys sang sweetly in a tenor duet. Their "Carol of the Bells" also was right on, if a little too speedy.
The Women's Chorus sang a breathtaking "Breath of Heaven." The soprano solo with guitar accompaniment, "Mary, Did You Know" was really lovely. Then there was the young man who enhanced a Jim Brickman piano arrangement of "We Three Kings" by injecting his own interpretation of "Carol of the Bells." Wow. What a touch that kid has on the piano. Varsity Voices made something worth listening to with a very varied arrangement of the usually interminable "Twelve Days of Christmas."
Outside afterward, it was bitter cold and clear after a blizzardy afternoon. Houses along the street across from the school sported blazing lights of the season. I'm so proud of my kids. I'm finally starting to feel like Christmas.
As I explained in an earlier post, Westminster's high school choir, the Kirk Singers, takes their music from the church year on tour. Usually they travel by bus to places like New York City. But at least once in four years they go further and travel by air. This year the group flew out to Seattle to sing in various churches, nursing homes and retirement centers. 
Singers in Seattle
Wednesday morning 4:30 a.m: We arrived at the airport. Sus had stayed up all night, but Meg couldn't quite make it -- she slept for two hours before Sus woke her at 3. They spent the night making cookies and "puppy chow" to share on the plane. 
