Music in the Midst of Storm

Through Snow, Sleet, and Rain -- St. John's provides wonderful music  and words praising God for the hearty who come in the storm to hear it.     Although later in the morning the Jr. Choir was recused from singing in church today so the families didn't have to get out in the weather, Megan and Max had come early with me as I rehearsed with the adult choir.  Our choral director/organist broke his wrist earlier in the week and had asked me to play for the church service.    

Since the Jr. Choir normally sings the offertory, during the church service our choral maestro asked Megan and Max if they would fill in and sing the solos with the adult choir singing chorus.   Luckily, I had brought my camera because Max was suppose to have a small solo with the Jr. Choir and I wanted Dad and Seth to be able to hear it, so I was able to record this spontaneous Glattstein production.    

They are wearing their North Face jackets because they didn't know they were going to sing and they were cold.   The video doesn't show their faces because I have the camera on the piano I am playing and the kids are singing out the balcony to the church below.

Picturesque Christmas Party

We received 10 inches of snow on Thursday.   Megan and Max were both home from school by noon and enjoyed playing outside as it came down in the afternoon  by nightfall they had enough to sled on our little slopes.     They were disappointed to have school on Friday, but made sure they were out in it Friday night and Megan even had her first horse ride in the snow on trail behind the farm where she rides.     Saturday, Seth took Max and a friend  sledding down a local hill and Megan spent the day at a Christmas Party with the horse farm.    The picture is of the Clydesdale drawn wagon ride they took to a neighboring Christmas Tree farm.  The wagon and horses were from a neighboring Duxbury horse farm.     It was like a postcard with the red wagon, horses, and all of the snow.   

Can you believe we also had time to celebrate Seth's birthday this morning? -- Happy Birthday Seth!!

Christmas Concert Season Continues

Last Thursday we attended the 7th/8th grade concert and enjoyed Megan playing in the Chamber Orchestra.  She is 1 of only 3 6th grade violinists.  On Sunday Megan and I went into Boston with the St. John Youth Choir (same one that sang in the Snug Concert video below) and sang for the St. John Episcopal Church in Boston.   It is a beautiful gothic style church 1 block from the State House in Beacon Hill.(See picture)  Megan and 2 of the boys are in red choir robes because they also sing with the Jr. Choir at our church.    

 Our Jr. Choir sing almost every Sunday except in the summer and next Sunday Max sings a small solo in church with the choir.  Our concert maestro, Roy Kelley has broken his wrist so I will be providing the music on the piano for the hymns, choirs, prelude, and postlude.    I should of taken the organ more seriously when I had the opportunity to learn it.    The sound of the piano just doesn't fill the church like the organ.     

I'll try and post some video of these concerts before Christmas.

 

NOTE:  I've edited Oct. 29 entry and added a video from Max's last football game.   Its on the bottom of the entry.

Beautiful Voices from Friends

Megan's friend Shannon sang a duet in the 6th Grade concert.  She is a member of the chorus and this was her public debut.   

More Music in the Season

Megan's 6th grade orchestra played in a concert last night.   They sound pretty good for 6th graders.   She is also in the Chamber Orchestra (6, 7, and 8th grade tryout orch.), and will play in a concert on Thursday.   The concert was an eclectic mix of classical "New World" with fiddling "Clog Dance",  American "St. Lawrence Overture", children's "Old MacFiddle", and ended with the attached "Countdown to Christmas". 

Thank You!!

The previous videos have been made possible to share through my husband's (and Megan and Max's) generous birthday gift of an Apple notebook.  It is much easier and faster to process videos then on the Windows desktop we have.   I also want to thank my father who gave me an Apple Ipod Nano on which I was also able to quickly and painlessly load these videos for viewing.

Thank you!!!

Megan in the Snug Harbor Concert - Away in the Manger

This is another of the songs the St. John's Youth Choir sang at the concert.   "Away in the Manger" has always been my favorite carol and I think brings out the simplicity of what Christmas is about as well as the child in  all of us.

Megan in the Snug Harbor Concert

Megan enjoyed her first singing concert in front of a large audience.  She is singing with the St. John Episcopal Youth Choir at the Snug Harbor Chorus Christmas concert.  The choir is composed of kids in grades 6th to 9th grade.   Roy Kelley is our church's musical maestro in every sense of the word.  In addition to our choral director he is a fabulous organist and pianist.  We are very lucky to have him and it is amazing the sounds he can produce out of a relatively small group of church singers.

Snug Harbor Concert 12-2-07

This Saturday was the Christmas concert of Snug Harbor Community Chorus.    We've worked since September on 15 songs.  The attached video is probably the most classical the chorus did at the night's concert.  Once I get the DVD I'll attach my favorites.  The St. John's Youth Choir joined the chorus on 2 of the songs.   Unfortunately, our video camera wasn't charged enough to tape the entire concert.   

The Fish called Max

Max has been to 2 swim meets this season.   He swims in the USS league with the 9-10 year olds against around 25 boys.   He is placing in the top 6 of every race and is currently a couple of hundredths of the seconds from making the 12 and under championship cut for 50 breathstroke.   These cut times are extremely hard to make and often even the first place winner of a race doesn't even make it.  The attached video is from his first race in November.