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Molly had a piece of her art selected to be shown at the Board of Education. She and I went to their Artist’s Reception to see it.

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!

A month ago, Molly and Leah started school! 7th grade and 4th grade. And of course they had to wear their new jackets.

Leah played her cello with the Beginner Orchestra at school. Almost all the 3rd graders in the school are in the orchestra, and they sounded great (as did the 4th and 5th graders)! Congratulations to Leah for a great concert and for being the 1st chair cello!

G’Mom and Grampa came in town for a visit, and their visit once again coincided with our elementary school’s Bingo night. We of course made it to Bingo, and Jen of course got Bingo again. Sadly, a kid did as well and the kid won the call-off (which also seems to always happen to Jen).

As a consolation prize for losing the call off, Jen got a Target gift card. Molly was still excited.

Madison just needs one more! (She sadly did not get it).

A fun night as always.

In addition to her Concert Orchestra, Molly joined the Symphony Orchestra at school. This group includes 6th-8th graders, and combines strings with winds, brass, and percussion. They meet at 6:50am before school every Tuesday and Thursday, so these are some dedicated kids. And it was a joint concert with Leah's elementary school orchestra.

Here are our two orchestral musicians after their concert together.

Leah had her first orchestra concert in January. The 3rd grade orchestra at her school did a great job, especially Leah on her cello. And it was a joint concert with Molly's middle school, so we got to see both of them in the same night (I’ll post about Molly tomorrow).

In addition to the video, I got a couple of pictures. Leah was not nervous at all before her first orchestra concert.

Not sure where this expression came from as they prepared to play.

The 3rd grade at Leah’s school only has 3 classes, but almost all of the kids chose to join the orchestra. So it’s a big group.

Back in November, Molly had her first middle school orchestra concert. It’s a whole new level of professionalism, complete with uniforms. They were great!