Christmas 2010 Orchestra Concert

Hurray! The embed worked! So, here is a compilation of the pieces Helena's orchestra performed for the Christmas concert this year! Merry Christmas!

Carol of the Bells/Greensleeves

Carols of Olde

Deck the Halls





A Charlie Brown Christmas





Fiddle Like the Dickens!




Sorry for the late start on that last one!  I had been saving seats for the boys (who came late to the concert), when a couple asked me for the seats.  I decided to give them the seats, because I wasn't sure if the boys were going to make it after all and there were so many people standing.  It was a WELL attended concert!

Testing the YouTube embed feature

I thought I'd try uploading my videos of the kids concerts to YouTube, then placing the embedded code here on my blog, just to see if it works.  You see, the blogger video system really doesn't work well, and can't handle videos longer than 5 minutes.  Most of the music played by the band and/or orchestra last between 5 and 7 minutes.  The piece I am testing this on lasts over 11 minutes!  By the way, this is not actually Helena's orchestra.  It is the next level up.  If this works, I'll post Helena's concert and Will's concert.

This piece is the Symphonic Suite to the Lord of the Rings.

Enjoy!

"The Price of Freedom"

Helena has been mentioning a new friend, lately.  His name is Alec Taylor, and he is in her Latin class.  Apparently, he is also in the Chamber Strings orchestra class and plays the viola exceptionally well.  Helena told me he is sitting first chair viola in another orchestra, as well.  It's called the Lyceum Orchestra at American Heritage.

American Heritage is a private school that was built right next to the Mount Timpanogos Temple.  In fact, walking out of the front doors of that school, the temple is perfectly framed in the doors and is right there.  The school is a private LDS school.  My nephew, Abram, attended that school for a while, but hated it.  Probably because he wasn't given a choice in the matter.

But really, Abram could be a whole different post, and I don't want to talk about him right now.  I want to talk about Alec.  Or rather, Helena and Alec.

Alec invited Helena to attend a performance by his other orchestra (the Lyceum Orchestra), and Helena asked it she could go.  I purchased two tickets and went with her.

I WISH I HAD BOUGHT TICKETS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY!!!!!

The performance was entitled "The Price of Freedom".  Click on the name to check it out!  Words cannot do it justice!  Helena and I spent half of the performance in tears, and at one point she was completely sobbing!  SUCH a good show!  The orchestra was amazing, the performers were excellent, and the video/lighting/effects were all top notch!  The composer asked veterans and families of veterans to stand before the performance, and again during the final number.  Helena and I stood in honor of my great grandpa, my grandfather, my dad, my brother, my brother-in-law, and my son.  That is a lot of military service and I am proud I got to stand for them!

But this post isn't just about the performance.  It is about Alec.

You see, he likes Helena.  She thought it might be the case, and I confirmed it when I saw the way he looked at her after the show.  We were out in the milling crowd, and I saw him before he saw us.  It was obvious that he was anxiously looking for someone and his face lit up when he saw her.  His family had come to the matinee, so he was only looking for her.

We invited him to join us at JCW's, a local burger joint, because, you see...

Helena likes him, too.

Helena's orchestra concert

Back on November 2nd, Helena had her Fall orchestra concert.  I have to be honest, Helena's orchestra class has a lot of inexperienced players this year, so the sound was a bit raw.  She played well, though, and I always enjoy hearing her!

The Chamber Strings class followed immediately after her class (the Concert Orchestra), which I thought was not very sporting of the teacher.  How better to highlight the awkwardness of the newer players than to put them back to back with the very best players in the school?  The Chamber Strings group was phenomenal!  My favorite piece of the evening was Vivaldi's Spring, from the Four Seasons.

Helena doesn't currently plan to continue with orchestra class next year, though I hope she doesn't give up entirely.  I sort of hope she decides to take a class or two in college.  I love the violin for it's beautiful tone, and its compact portability.  She can take it with her to college much more easily than a piano.

Orchestra Tour - Day Four

Sunday morning, the students were told to have all their stuff packed, loaded onto the buses, and be ready to pull out at 10:00 a.m.

Because Helena and I drove ourselves, we were able to stay just a little longer.  I took this photo of Helena in the hotel pool right about at the same moment the buses were pulling away. 

We relaxed for about an hour, just enjoying the 85 degree weather.  Helena showered and changed, and we were on our way home by 11:30.  It was a relaxing drive home.

All in all, it was a fun trip!  Helena and I got to spend 4 days together without a single moment of conflict.  I am so very grateful for that!  I hope it helps her to remember that I do love her when I am nagging her about school or chores later.

Orchestra Tour - Day Three

Saturday morning arrived, and it was time to perform for the adjudicators! All of the students dressed in their performance clothes and got on the buses by 9:00 a.m. They also packed clothes to change into afterwards, because it would be very uncomfortable wandering around the other fun activities planned for the day while dressed so fancy.

The buses drove us back to Vegas and took us to Bonanza High School. The school was situated in a lower to middle class neighborhood that looked like it had fallen on hard times. With the bus being as tall as a semi, I could easily see over privacy fences into back yards as we drove by. Most were choked with weeds and garbage. I estimated that only 1 in 10 yards (that I could see) were up kept. The homes were small.

The high school itself was a bit of a shocker! There were two sets of security fence/doors to go through in order to get into the school compound! You can see both sets of security doors in the photo above. The outer doors are shown in the bottom middle picture, and the inner doors are the picture on the bottom left. There were also signs on the doors informing students that at any time they can be subject to searches using metal detectors and trained dogs!

As a parent, I would not feel reassured to see the security measures necessary for this school! It felt like a prison compound, not a school!! I'd definitely find another alternative for my kids.

When they were all done at the festival, we drove to a mall food court for lunch, then drove back down to the strip to go to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay.  We got off the buses in the same place that we did for Lion King, but then we had to walk, and walk, and walk through the casino (all the kids had to have adult escorts through there, as per casino laws) and other lobby areas to get to the shark reef at the other side of the building.

There was a projection screen that said 'shark reef' when we were nearly there.  The cool thing about the projection, though, was that it reacted when someone stepped in front of it!  It rippled like water!  The kids enjoyed walking through it.

We then stood in line for over 30 minutes to get into the Shark Reef exhibit.  It only took us 20 minutes to walk through it, however.

There were some cool exhibits there, and everything was very well decorated, as you would expect from the Las Vegas strip.

Rubbing for luck?

You can't go to an exhibit called 'Shark Reef' without getting some pictures of sharks!

After we were all done looking at the exhibit (and buying boatloads of souveniers) we all loaded back onto the buses and drove to the other side of the strip and the Circus Circus Adventuredome, which looked like a gaudy, pepto pink, metallic circus tent from the outside.

It was quite different on the inside, though.

It was full of carny rides and games.  Oh.  And the obligitory stale cigarette smoke that is so pervasive on the Vegas strip.  The smell was much stronger at Circus Circus than at Mandalay Bay.  I suppose that is because Circus Circus has been around a lot longer and has absorbed more smoke over time?

Waiting in line to get our wristbands, Helena and some of the boys from the orchestra watch a ride go to its extreme limits.

Waiting in line for their turn on the roller coaster and showing how excited they are to go on it.

This picture is rather obvious, I think.

Yes, that is actually a picture of Helena and her friends on the loop!

The awards ceremony was held on a party patio right off the Adventuredome, so we took a break from rides to go see how the orchestra ranked.  They received a gold ranking and an award of first place in their division.  Everyone seemed very happy about that, though I think Mrs. Smith was not completely satisfied with the scoring.

After the awards ceremony, we went down to the buffet to eat dinner.  Our meal was included in the day's activities, otherwise I would have been very disappointed with it.  The quality of the buffet was pretty low.  After dinner, Kim and Helena wanted to ride a few more rides before heading back to the buses. 

I thought it was amazing that we could turn 100 highschool students loose in an amusement venue on the Vegas strip and still manage to get them all back onto the buses within 30 min. of the designated time!  That was really quite an achievement!

Everyone was pretty wiped out on the 2 hour bus ride back to the hotel in St. George.  We dragged in at about 12:30 a.m.

Orchestra Tour - Day Two

Here is a shot of the tour buses.  The bus Helena and I were assigned to is on the right.  They look really low to the ground because they have an air ride feature that makes them lower to make it easier to step in and out of them.

While they were definitely more comfortable than school buses would have been, I was really glad to get off of it!

What follows are just a bunch of photos of our time in Zion National Park.

Helena and Kim on the bridge that leads to the Emerald Pools hike.

I was struck over and over with the vivid color contrast between the red rocks and the bright spring green foliage.

This was the waterfall at the top of the third Emerald Pool.

We hiked with a group of four other girls.  Their names are Allissa, Erika, Camille,and Kim.  Kim was one of Helena's room-mates.

A Close up shot of the girls in front of the waterfall.

It was quite windy right below the falls.  Notice how Helena's hair is swirling around her head!

On the way back down the trail, we noticed an outcropping of rock that had this stupendous view beyond it.  We burned several minutes letting each of the girls pose while I took photos of them all.  I need to burn disks for all of them so they can have these photos to play with!

If it weren't for all the other hikers coming and going, it would be a really zen place to do your yoga!

I told them to do a 'Lion King' pose for this shot.

The views everywhere were just stunning; and this was just on one of the easiest hikes in the park!  I hope to be able to go see even more amazing sights next month when we visit as a family.

I love the texture on this rock background.  The lighting gave her hair some red highlights.  It made this background work really well for her.

The sun came out from behind the clouds for the remainder of the afternoon, so I was able to get this shot of sunlit water falling at the lower Emerald Pool.

The rock formation bows inward, so the waterfall is to the left of this picture, yet it actually falls from the rocks on the right.

Helena wanted to have me take her picture while sitting on this rock wall.  It drops off on the other side, but it was hard to see that in this photo.

After the hike, we returned to the lodge and had some ice cream while sitting in the sun and shade on the big grassy field.  I really appreciated the opportunity to just relax and enjoy the warm weather!  I like my vacations slow and unscheduled, so that hour of lounging around doing nothing in Zion felt like a mini vacation to me.

There was a boy named Daniel who kept climbing the huge tree in the middle of the field.  He was like a monkey!  We told him to be careful that Mrs. Smith didn't see him, or she'd yell at him.

The final image of the day is of Helena and Kim soaking up some sun.  There was a game of ultimate frisbee going on, but these two decided it was more relaxing to not join the game.  I have to agree!

Orchestra Tour - Day One

Helena and I drove down separately from the rest of the orchestra. I decided I just did not want to endure 4 1/2 hours on a tour bus with 50 teenagers. There were 100 students on the tour, half in each bus. We were assigned to bus #2 for the rest of the tour, though.

Anyways, it was really nice driving separate! Helena got most of her homework done, and she and I got to visit one on one in a way that we haven't been able to for a long time.

When we arrived in St. George, the buses were still an hour behind us on the road (even though we left at approximately the same time from the high school parking lot), so we went to lunch at McDonald's while waiting for them. After lunch, we drove up to Dixie State College and waited for the buses to arrive. After they finally did get there, we had to wait another 30 minutes while the kids ate their sack lunches before going into the theater to hold a dress rehearsal with a master teacher from the college. He had some amazing advice for the orchestra to improve its performance. He is the person sitting alone in the seats in the picture above.

After the rehearsal (that ran until 3 pm), we drove to the hotel and checked everyone into their rooms. At that point I met my room-mate, Janeen. She was a quiet mother of a junior girl who plays viola. We were shocked to discover that, not only were we sharing a room, but we were also going to be sharing a BED! The room was a single king! We checked with the front desk about switching to a different room with 2 double beds, but the hotel was completely booked (I mean so full there wasn't a single unoccupied room); so we had to make the best of it.

Everybody did a whirlwind quick change of clothes before loading back onto the tour buses (Helena and I for the first time) to drive to dinner (at Golden Corral... yum. yum.), then 2 hours to Vegas to see the production of The Lion King being performed at Mandalay Bay.

Side story:

Just 15 minutes south of St. George on I-15 I happened to notice a strange site. I saw a woman standing on a hillock of scrub and cactus looking like she was trying to get phone reception. Moments later, we passed a white SUV with a blown left rear tire. I don't think anyone else on our bus noticed her, because they were all focused inward, to the movie playing on the bus DVD system.

There is a stretch of road just below St. George that winds (pretty severely) through a narrow and twisted canyon. There is no cell reception there. I had to wait until we had finally emerged from that dead zone before I was finally able to get through to 911 dispatch and report what I had seen. I have no idea if my call was really needed by that lady, or not. Hopefully she received help quickly, in any event.

So, back to my story!

LION KING WAS AMAZING!!! The singing, staging, and acting were all really excellent! Getting that large group of kids into and out of there was really much easier than I had anticipated and we all had a marvelous time. The photo in the bottom right corner is of Helena and her friend, Kim.

After another long ride back to St. George, we all collapsed into bed to sleep until the next big adventure in the morning... Zion National Park!

Stay tuned tomorrow!

A Happy Birthday to my Lover and Best Friend!

Today is Bill's birthday. He is not the sort to make a big fuss about it and chose to spend the entire day working, first at his job, then on the back yard.

Helena had an orchestra concert tonight and we stopped at Bajio afterward to pick up dinner for Bill. We didn't get home until 9:00 p.m. and that is when Bill was just barely putting away the heavy equipment for the night!

I tried to get him to spend a more leisurely birthday, but he is feeling the pressure to finish the yard before the weather turns for winter. He doesn't like being fussed over for his birthday, anyways. I have never known him to want a party or even presents. He reminds me of my Dad in that respect.

Well, I didn't plan him a party, but he'll just have to have his presents whether he wants them or not!

Parent/Teacher conferences at the High School

This was our first experience of P/T conferences at the high school level.

The building was really very quiet! At the Jr. High, there are usually small flocks of teenagers running around together, goofing around and being obnoxious.

The lines were small! Again, at the Jr. High, sometimes the lines can be painfully long and slow. To be honest, some of the 'small' lines at the H.S. were still fairly slow... but that is probably because the grades are so much more critical that the teacher takes great care to go over everything that needs to happen to raise them.

The teachers were very direct. Helena was able to come with us for the first time since 6th grade because she no longer has ballet preventing her. Every teacher directed his/her comments to Helena rather than to Bill and me. I liked that. I got to sit back and watch her interact with them.

There was a parent meeting in the orchestra room after the conferences. The meeting was to go over an orchestra tour that will be happening in April. It will be a 3 day trip to St. George/Zion's National Monument/Las Vegas. The Las Vegas portion of the trip is where they will perform in festival and they will get to attend the off Broadway Lion King performing at Mandalay Bay.

Helena is actually excited to get to go on tour this year (again, ballet always prevented it in the past). The orchestra is planning a trip to Boston next year, so she might let herself be convinced to play her violin for another year in order to go on that tour!

My beautiful daughter

This is my cute girl, Helena. If I can find other pictures of her, I'll post them. Right now my favorite picture is missing! At Disneyland, she went around kissing every character she could find.

She plays the violin, but it is not her first passion. I am hoping she will continue to take lessons, but I will not force it.

Her passion is ballet. She dances with Utah Regional Ballet!