Monthly Archives: December 2014

Piano Studio Christmas Concert

Each year, Linda has all of her piano students play Christmas songs at a local nursing home. It’s a good opportunity for the kids to do an additional recital and also a chance to do some community service for the residents at the nursing home. We arrived at the nursing home the other evening with many eager folks waiting to hear the kids play. They sang along and genuinely enjoyed themselves.

Enjoy the pieces that Emily and Anna played:

Emily – Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Anna – Go Tell It On the Mountain

Anna – A Celebration of Carols

Tis the season…for high school music conerts

It’s that time of year when every kid in any kind of music activity at school is busy performing in concerts. With each of the girls in multiple music groups, we’ve spent the last 3 nights attending choir, band, and orchestra concerts. Frankly, it’s been great to be there and see the girls performing in their respective groups.

In case you weren’t able to make it, here is a sampling of music from each of the nights.

Choir
Anna sings “Still, Still, Still” with the Heritage Singers.

They also ended the evening with their traditional performance of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah; this is performed with band and orchestra students accompanying – a very nice job.

Band
Emily plays flute on a fun piece called “A Crazy Mixed Up Christmas Concert”.

Orchestra
Anna plays violin on “The Christmas Song” with the combined orchestras. One of Anna’s good friends, Victoria, sings along. Unfortunately, this concert is held in the school cafeteria with very poor acoustics and lighting (it’s a fundraising evening with desserts and drinks).

“Messiah” with Kansas City Symphony & Chorus

So, I’ve not posted for quite a while. Frankly, life happens and I’ve been so busy with work, family, and all of our activities. One of my activities that has kept me very busy lately is my position as a Bass II with the Kansas City Symphony Chorus.

We rehearse every Monday evening, but when we have concerts, we rehearse every night of the week leading up to the performances on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

As usual, we were joined by the Independence Messiah Choir (they’ve been doing the Messiah every year for over 90 years).

It’s a very busy week, but so rewarding when the audience gives a standing ovation and they enthusiastic applause after 2 hours of singing.

If you’re looking for me in the above picture, you’ll find me on the 2nd row of the choir loft. I’m the 3rd in from the right.

Each day, Thursday through Sunday, I took pictures as I approached the Kauffman Performing Arts Center. Enjoy the view that I got each day.