Leah had a very busy concert evening in January. The evening began with Leah singing with the school Chorus.
After singing with the chorus, Leah transitioned to the stage to play her cello in the Advanced Orchestra made up of fourth and fifth graders.
Leah still wasn’t done, though. Next, she played her cello in the Symphony Orchestra as well.
Nice job, Leah!
Molly had her winter Chamber Orchestra concert in January. This is her main, during-school group that meets every day. They were great!
Molly is part of a string octet at school, and they played at Barnes & Noble in December. They're very good.
This year, Molly auditioned for and was accepted into the middle school GT Sinfonia. This is a countywide orchestra that is very difficult to get into. You may recall that Molly was in the elementary GT Sinfonia in 5th grade - this is just the middle school version of it. They have a 2 hour rehearsal every week at one of the local high schools. Here's her first concert with the group. They are really talented!
Molly is in Chamber Orchestra at school this year, which is mostly 8th graders with a handful of 7th graders (like Molly). They had their Fall concert yesterday and did a wonderful job. If you’re looking for Molly, she is on the 2nd row in the viola section, but is mostly hidden by her music stand for much of the performance.
The orchestra/band director at Leah’s school held a practice night for parents to come and learn how to help their students practice. He asked a few students to come demonstrate their instrument for the parents to show proper technique. Leah was selected to be the example cello, and was very happy to help out.
This week is Kindness Week at Leah’s school. Leah was asked to be part of a small ensemble to play as folks arrived at school to kick off the week.
One of the songs they played was a rock medley, including part of We Will Rock You. For part, the violins stopped playing to stomp, stomp, clap while the cellos took the lead. Then later the cellos stopped playing to stomp, stomp, clap while the violins took the lead.
You can also see here that the cellos and basses struggled with the morning sun in their eyes, some resorting to trying to hide behind their stands to block it.
They had quite a large crowd gather to listen before school. The crowd only dispersed when the Assistant Principal came to tell them they all needed to get to class as the bell was about to ring. Nice job, Leah!
Last week, Molly had a very busy Sunday morning at church. She played with the youth orchestra at both the 8:00 and 9:30 services, but that was just the start. She also gave part of the sermon at the 9:30 and 11:00 services. It was Missions weekend, and we had a few testimonies from folks who had been on mission trips in the place of the sermon. Most of these were adults, but they did include a couple of youth. Molly was the only middle schooler to speak.
You can see her testimony here:
And if you’re interested in seeing all the testimonies from all 4 services, you can watch them here (Molly’s is at the 48:55 mark):
And here she is playing with the youth orchestra:
We’re so proud of you, Molly!
3 years ago, Jen and I went to see Pentatonix in concert. When we saw that they were coming back to Merriweather, we decided to take the girls for their first big concert. This time rather than getting seats, we decided to try lawn tickets (which were great!).
Leah’s friend Anna (and her mom and sister, unpictured) came too.
The crowd at Merriweather was light, which was great as we got a spot up at the front of the lawn.
Rachel Platten opened, and did a great job.
Then we had a bit of a break before Pentatonix came out.
They did a chill encore song.
It was a great concert, and everyone enjoyed it a lot. It’s amazing what these folks can do with their voices alone.
After a week of orchestra camp, Molly had a bit more performing to do. She joined me and the band to lead worship Sunday morning. This was her first time playing viola with the praise band.
