Last night was my daughter's Spring Concert at the High School. She's actually in the Junior High School, but the music program merged the singing groups and various bands with the Senior High School's musical program, since the 8th grade is the only "Junior High" class.
Anyway (there I go, rambling again!), the concert was last night and showcased some really talented students. There was a fantastic jazz band, they just blew me away. The drummer was incredible, I really hope some of those kids have a successful future in music. They certainly have the talent. If I had only been listening outside, and not known the band was comprised of students, I would have thought they were pros.
There was also a wind ensemble performance. They were also very good, though not as good as the jazz band. A lot of the kids played in both, as well as the 95 member school concert band. The school really does have a lot of opportunities for musicians.
The chamber singers were good, though to be honest, I'm not much of a fan of chamber music. It's an audition only group, and the kids were great singers. I wonder if we'll see any of them on AI in the future.
But the newly formed a capella group, calling themselves Fermata Nowhere (the music teacher is very clever), was phenomenal. They performed Adele's Rolling in the Deep and the girl who sang lead, while not as talented as Adele, still did a great job. Then they did Stacy's Mom. Several of the parents and probably all of the grandparents in attendance were not familiar with the song. The kid who sang lead was really good, I've seen him perform before in other things, and he is quite talented. He's one of the ones I hope gets to make a career with music. He had stage presence, and really had a great time up there, he had that "spark." Anyway, the lyrics drew quite a few laughs, but some were also offended. One older woman near me, when she realized what the song was about, said,. "That's disgusting." She was promptly shushed quite loudly!
My daughter's choir was also good. I wasn't familiar with some of the songs, but they did a medley from Les Mis that left me crying. The soloists were incredible, the emotion in their voices touched everyone in the auditorium. And from there, they went into Bohemian Rhapsody. They cut chunks of it, since it's such a long song. I'm not a big fan of that song myself, to be honest, but they did a good job with it, After that, we had yet another set by the concert band. The whole thing lasted about 3 hours! By the time I picked up my little guy from his friend's house, it was after 10:00pm.
There was a brief intermission, and two idiot dads almost came to blows over someone coming in late. I mean, really, why do you have to be an ass and ruin what's supposed to be a great night for your kids? Morons. Thankfully, someone stepped in between them, or it would have turned into a fistfight. Similar thing happened at my daughter's dance recital a few years ago and they had to call the cops to break it up and keep it from becoming a free-for-all. I don't understand why people have to be such jackasses.
In any case, the concert was a nice way to wrap up the music program for the year, and the kids worked really really hard. The talent and discipline they showed impressed me so much, I could use some of that discipline, to be honest! Lol
On another note, Kathryn at The Romance Review gave 4 Stars to Healing the Mage. You can read the entire review here: http://erotic.theromancereviews.com/viewbooksreview.php?bookid=2170 This review was especially sweet, since she really liked the characters. As my critique partners know, the editing process was difficult with Healing the Mage. My hero had some serious flaws, as pointed out by my editor at Noble. Flaws I didn't see until she brought them to my attention. Lily had some problems too, but not as bad as Aidan. I took every one of my editor's suggestions and made significant changes. If I hadn't, I seriously doubt this book would have gotten such good reviews. So a big thanks goes to Jill Noble for not only her comments, but her patience in working with me as I made the changes. I appreciated (and apparently needed to hear) her honest opinion, and it made all the difference, as evidenced by the latest review.
You did music while I did dance recital. I remember the days of music concerts, especially since I have two children who were voice majors. It always amazes me at the amount of talent in the young. The dance recital was the granddaughter's, age 7 and what a professional performance we saw.
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