Tag Archives: Music

Christmas Recital – Anna

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Yesterday, I posted that Linda has her piano students play Christmas music at a local retirement facility at Christmas time.  The students get to play Christmas songs on the piano and the residents get to hear the kids play.

Anna played several pieces: Christmas Time is Here; Do You Hear What I Hear; and I’ll Be Home For Christmas.

Unfortunately, the camera began to overheat and shut itself off to cool during the last piece.  Linda had said this happened to her before, but I’ve never seen it happen.  The crazy thing is that this is a brand new DSLR that has amazing 1080p HD video and shouldn’t be overheating 8 minutes into recording video.  But – alas, it did and we’re stuck with a performance recording cut short.

Christmas Recital – Emily

Each year at Christmas time, Linda has her piano students play Christmas music at a local retirement facility.  This gives the kids an outlet for playing Christmas songs on the piano and gives the residents at the facility an opportunity to hear the kids play.

Emily played several pieces: The First Noel, Hallelujah Chorus, and Silent Night.

P.S. Anna will play for you tomorrow.

Orchestra Concert for Anna

As mentioned earlier this past week, Anna was busy recently with Choir and Orchestra concerts.

Here is the orchestra concert, with Anna playing violin.  I was unable to attend this concert due to work, so Linda was videoing with the Sony STL-55.

Enjoy.

– When Johnny Comes Marching Home (00:05-02:54)
– Andante Festivo (02:55-06:48)
– The Idylls of Pegasus (06:48-08:57)

Choir Concert for Anna

Last week was a busy week for Anna because she had a choir concert one night and then an orchestra concert the next night.

Today, we’ll take a listen to the choir concert.
– Autumn Vesper
– Locus Iste
– How Beautiful is the Rain!

Video shot with Sony STL-55

Band Concert for Emily

Emily had her middle school band concert last night.  We are very proud of her and her flute playing.

The video is 08:24 in total time with four songs:
– Regency Fanfare (00:05-01:50)
– Simple Gifts (01:50-04:28)
– Montezuma’s Castle (04:28-06:47)
– Hickory Dickory Rock (06:47-08:24)

Enjoy!

Kansas City Symphony opens season in new Kauffman Center

Last night, after a filling dinner at Cinzetti’s Italian Restaurant, the four of us spent an evening in the comfort of the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.  What an absolutely beautiful concert venue.  The above picture is a panorama of the gathering space from within the building.

The Symphony did not disappoint – what an electric choice of music.  Director Michael Stern (son of famous violinist Isaac Stern) started off with Stravinky’s Fireworks.  This was followed by Emanuel Ax playing piano on Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5 (Emperor).  Intermission followed and we were treated to the world premiere of Chen Yi’s “Fountains of Kansas City”; this piece was commissioned for the opening of the Kauffman Center.

We were finally treated to the “Pines of Rome” by Respighi.  Wow – what a wonderful piece that sounded absolutely amazing in the new Helzgerg Hall.  Amazing, amazing, amazing.  We can’t wait to go back for the next concert.

Here is the view from the seats we had last night (our normal seats are elsewhere, but we had to trade evenings for this particular concert).  Notice that we are sitting behind the stage; this was such a unique viewpoint and the sound was fantastic.  The acoustics in this hall is such that a person can speak from the stage without using a microphone.

Violin Recital for Anna

Anna had her first violin recital a little over a week ago.  Anna has been taking lessons for several years, but has never had a recital.  Each of the students were given challenging pieces at the beginning of the summer; the hard work paid off as evidenced in the video.

Steinway of Vladimir Horowitz

Today we took a trip to our favorite piano store, Schmitt Music, to see the concert Steinway of Vladimir Horowitz (1903-1989).  The piano (CD #503) was given to him in at the time of his marriage to Wanda Toscanini, the daughter of Arturo Toscanini.  He took this piano with him on his concert tours in a custom waterproof case.

Schmitt Music is where Linda holds her piano recitals and also where we purchased our own pianos.  As a piano teacher, Linda is well known to the staff and we were quickly welcomed in to view the Steinway.  After talking a bit and taking pictures, Linda sat down to play on the very piano played by Vladimir Horowitz.  What a sound.

Following is a clip of Linda playing, however she will quickly point out she was merely testing out the sound of the piano.

http://youtu.be/REfrCGL7EtA