Christmas concerts

 'Tis the season for lots of music in our lives.........Mara alone had 3 concerts to perform in.   Chorus started it all off.  The thing I don't like about the concerts is that I never get a good seat!  Mara is right next to the wall, bottom row.  A short video follows.  Mara complains about chorus because she says she doesn't have anyone to talk to during class........they all talk to each other, but not her.  I wish she could just break in.....but I completely understand her apprehensions because I am the same way.....and I wish she wasn't so much like me!  Mara has a beautiful voice, but she also has a big confidence issue with it.  She always ends up in tears after she sings with her friend Maryn because she feels like she just isn't as good as Maryn.  Singing is hard......your voice is your instrument and it is very personal and very much all you.  It's hard to get over the feeling that your voice isn't good enough.  At least with an instrument, it is making the sound, not you.  So I'm not sure that she is going to keep going with singing.  Hopefully, if we keep singing at home she'll keep up that skill and maybe someday she'll decide to work with it.  Who knows.......it is her choice.

This is a short excerpt from the Northwest Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra Concert.  My video camera has issues, so I wasn't sure if I was actually videoing Mara or not.  But you can at least hear a bit of their sound. 

I told Mara before the concert that I would pay her $1 every time she smiled.  As you can see from the picture below, she didn't make very much money!

This is a nice smile, but it happened after the concert was over.....not during.  Sorry, no $1.

The final concert was the band concert.  Mara absolutely loves band.......she got to play  2 songs all by herself while the bands were changing around on stage.  I tried to upload the video but it didn't work.  I'll try again.  She played very well.  I can tell she really loves the flute because she practices on her own, she smiles, she works hard, she doesn't complain.......quite the opposite from violin.  Maybe the day will soon come when we'll have to let her make that choice.........or maybe not!