The weekend

Wednesday we decided to go on a small weekend "vacation." Drive 6 hours for a friends graduation. We left Friday morning, and went to see friends for the day. Saturday we had breakfast with friends, and then went to the graduation party!
It was so much fun to see all our old friends and a lot of people thought I was my older sister! Friday night we had dinner with one of my best friends. We've kept up with each other through the years, and it was so awesome to have a chummy talk with her in person!!
We drove back Saturday night, and got home around 11pm. Nobody got to bed until after midnight, and the next day was church!  :)
We all woke up 30 minutes later then we usually do but still managed to make it to church on time!
And that afternoon our orchestra was playing for the academy's graduation.
That was a horrible idea! (taking three days off from practicing violin right before the performance.)
We played pomp and circumstance first. It went good, although we had to stop in the middle because the graduates were all on stage. Than Mrs. M provided us with a bag of suckers to pass around. (We were sitting in the very back so nobody could see us!) And my seat partner and I had a lot of fun trying to sneak the bag away from the concert master, who was probably in charge of it. :)
I wore my black heels because they matched my dress. They're only about an inch high. But I discovered that I do not like heels. They didn't hurt my feet... it's just impossible to walk quietly. I much prefer ballet flats, any day!
"Capriccio Espagnol" was the piece we played second to last, and it was... ok. Not great, but not horrible. "Jupiter" from the Planets, was awesome! It's a great piece, very slow and lovely.
Afterwards it was weird to say goodbye for the whole summer instead of just for a week. But I'll see some of them at string camp. (which I'm super excited about!) And one of the girls and I are going to be doing some duet pieces over the summer. It was going to be a quartet, but two of the people I asked couldn't do it. So it's a cello/violin duet. Which'll still be really fun!
Softball starts in one week! I'm really excited, as I love to play!

Here are some pictures of Chicago.. taken from the car, so they aren't great. :)

One of the funny things about Chicago is all the trains between the highways. 

We used to say "Hey batter batter, cake batter batter" whenever one went by. 

(I have no idea where that came from!)

 Tunnels are so fun to drive through!

 Bridge's even more so.

Landscape was very cool and fascinating, but I guess I'm just a country girl/small city girl at heart. :)
I would not like to drive in that. 

Violin

I love my violin! 

And the back of it might be my favorite part..it's so smooth and pretty.  

That's not my point. 

This morning our piano tuner guy stopped by. (He's been tuning our pianos for years, and has been about 80 years old for 10 years) 

Anyway...

Every time he comes he will have all of kids play a piece on the piano for him. And he's very entertaining and will tell jokes or stories the whole time he's tuning. (some of which are not funny!)

He heard I play the violin, so he wanted to hear me play. But I was gone last time he came. 

This morning I was eating my delicious strawberry-banana smoothie when the doorbell rang.. three times.  ;)

It was Mr. R. He had brought me some music! He told me that he didn't have time to stay and hear me play today, but he would be back soon. (With which I breathed a sigh of relief, because I didn't know what to play for him! I thought I would play the piece that I did for my recital, but I haven't played that one since the recital. Thankfully I practiced it again today, and I'm ready for whenever he decides to show up again!) 

This is old music! Which I really enjoy playing! 

Some pages were torn or handwritten

(sheesh, whoever wrote that was pretty good! You ought to see my attempts at handwriting music. Or wait, you shouldn't!) 

I don't know if you can see this or not, but a full orchestral score cost $1.50! (extra piano part .30 cents)

:) 

Some etude and technic books, which are fun! 

So, I was very excited to have these. Mr. R told me someone was about to throw them away, and I'm glad he rescued them for me! 

It's a lot of fun to use used music, as you can see previous markings and the like.

Anyone want to dance? 

(Largo just sounds like a dance.)

Concert

I got to the Academy, and we go through the songs real fast on stage. Then we hung out in the Art room until starting time!
We get up on stage, and Mrs. M talks about concert etiquette, and then our concert master walked out.

On one of these picture's I'll tell you who's who, but this one isn't real clear. 

Mrs. M came out, and we started with "A Knights Quest." 

I don't have very many close up pictures, so I can't really tell you who's who, but in this one from left to right:

Toni Marie, Abigail, Me, Samantha (Sam), Peter. 

(Peter is the concert master)

I laughed at this one, because most of us are looking up. Probably getting ready to start a song. 

The next song was theme from Star Wars. 

Me

Peter, Olivia

The whole group! 

Then some of us switched places, and it was just the upper school orchestra. 

I'll try to name people..

left to right: Toni Marie, Abigail, Michael, Will, Peter, Olivia, Mrs. M, Maddie (not sure on spelling), Noah.

The two people on cellos are Maddie, and Brooke.

Even though this is a bit blurry....Cece on the viola, Katherine on the cello, me on the violin, Taylor on the cello.

Olivia, Sam, me. 

(apparently I scowl while playing.. :) 

Yay! Here's one from the other direction!

Mrs. M, viola "helper" (I don't know her name) Cece on viola, Brooke, Maddie, Taylor and Katherine on cello. (and yes, if you have noticed, there are two girls name Maddie) 

I think I have now named everyone....

The two songs that we played in upper school were Arlington Sketches, and Tango Mysterioso. 

The Tango was my favorite song that we did. So much fun! 

Then the choir pieces, starting with the little kids choir.

*Before the concert even started, Mrs. M told Peter to reserve seats for me, Brooke, and himself. Because after the orchestra pieces were over, we could sit down and listen for the rest of the concert. So Peter laid some music out on the seats. I put a program down, yada yada. 

We finish orchestra, put our instruments away, then discovered that people had no respect for reserved seats, and they were taken. :) 

So we stood awkwardly in the door way, around the bleachers, or hung out in the art room.*

 Matthew had spotted us and took pictures of us. 

 Peter and his brother, Noah.

This is Kayla (on the violin) I don't think there were any pictures of her in orchestra, as she was in the back. But she was a huge help in orchestra. I got to sit by her for the upper school songs, and she helped me as well as the other kids. Another girl I know in the choir, Megan. She is in the second row to the right. 

 At this part in the concert, Mrs. M asked the piano player to play the melody for a choir song. (his name is Aaron, although there aren't any pictures of him) Aaron is a piano player and composer.. I think. So, after he had played the melody, Mrs. M said "Now play it in the style of Mozart." Aaron did it... perfectly like Mozart! 

Mrs M "Now like Debussy." And when he played it like Debussy, I laughed because it was spot on. :) 

He then played it in jazz and nightclub style. Both of which were awesome! 

 This so totally a Mrs. M pose! 

 Mrs. M is pregnant with her first baby! 

So she is resigning from music director. Which is sad, because she is awesome.

Brooke and I

We had no idea someone was taking a picture. :)  I don't even know what we were laughing at! 

Chamber choir was amazing, and they sang "In Christ Alone"...possibly my favorite "hymn."

(is In Christ Alone a hymn?)

 All the people. 

At the end, the school director or boss (or someone) came up to talk. He first gave Mrs. M a tissue. :) 

He asked her husband to come up, and gave them a card and gift.

The crowd gave her a standing ovation, and she definitely deserved it! 

These two will make great parents! 

 It was a music box! 

Then he prayed for the new M family, and thanked the Lord for blessing this school with Mrs. M! 

And the concert was concluded with popsicles and ice cream sandwiches. Both of which everyone thoroughly enjoyed!

If you have carried on a lengthy conversation with me in the past school year, I'm sure I've told you about orchestra. :) So know you can "see" all the awesome people I've told you about.
We still have orchestra practice until graduation, so this doesn't mean I'm done writing about orchestra... ;) Haha!

A huge thanks to my brother, Matthew, for taking all these pictures! 

Love
~Emily