Off We Go!

My bags are packed.

Music is learned.

Nerves are rigid.

Early tomorrow morning, HSMA's senior choir, orchestra, and band are heading off to New York to begin our 2012 Tour. We will perform at five different locations in four days; anyone in the area is welcome to come. I've copied and pasted our tour flier below:

Home School Music Association ~ HSMA ~ from Lansing, Michigan
Spring 2012 Tour! They are going to …

The Conference & Event Center at Niagara Falls
Wednesday, May 30, 2012 ~ 6:00-7:00 pm! 101 Old Falls St., Niagara Falls, NY 14303

West Seneca Christian School
Thursday, May 31, 2012 ~ 9:00 – 10 am ! School assembly – welcome to come join us!
511 Union Rd., West Seneca, NY 14224

Upstate NY LEAH Family Conference
Friday, June 1, 2012 ~ Choir - 8:30 am, Symphonic Band & Senior Orchestra – 7:00 pm
(Must be registered for the conference to attend these performances)
123 E. Main St., #1, Rochester, NY

Wesley Gardens Nursing Home & Rehabilitation
Friday, June 1, 2012, at 2:00 pm !
3 Upton Park, Rochester, NY 14607

Faith Baptist Church in Perry, Ohio
Saturday, June 2, 2012 ~ 1:00 pm- 2:00 pm!
3003 Narrows Road, Perry, OH 44081


 The purpose for our Spring 2012 Tour is three-fold:

1. To encourage home schoolers in the area of music. Some home school groups have instrumental and vocal programs in place, some dream about this, and some groups have never thought about these types of programs. Our group began 19 years ago from a desire of 4 families. They pursued a man in their church, asking him to consider conducting a little band and he said, ”YES!” HSMA began with a small group of students on a variety of instruments. It was a “bandestra.” It now consists of 12 groups in three area: Band, Orchestra, and Choir. Our desire is to help and encourage other home schooling families in the area of music and see how it may be possible to begin their own program in their area!
2. To educate our home school musicians. We have toured colleges, museums, Shepherds Ministries in Wisconsin, and rescue missions. This year we will tour the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.
3. To engage in fun! This year ~ Niagara Falls!
We are hoping to meet many home schooling families at these locations! If you have friends or family from any of the above areas, even if not home schooled, let them know about our itinerary! Would love to have them attend a concert! Thank you for helping to “spread the word!”
Contact Marilyn Frazee at marilyn.frazee55@gmail.com if you plan on coming! She’d love to hear from you!

A Post of Many Things Musical and Poetic

Lame title, I know. Well, my time allotted to this post is short, so I will be as brief as possible without totally confusing my readers.

Over the last week, I've performed in  two concerts, one for orchestra, and one in which I helped a younger choral group keep in line (my rag-tag bunch of singers did an excellent job, by the way. I was impressed by what their conductor was able to pull off). The orchestra concert went extremely well; we received a standing ovation for our performance of Tchaikovsky's "Little Russian Symphony in C Major" (which is not a "little" symphony at all). Tonight is the night on which the Senior (Chancel, if you want our official name) Choir performs, along with the Senior Orchestra and the Symphonic Band. This is our last concert of the year, besides tour; and if anyone in the mid-Michigan area would like to come, you are very much welcome to. It's being held at the Holt High School, starting at 7:00pm. Admission is free, and there will be cookies afterward, along with a chance to talk to the, ahem, "evasive" musicians (meaning, if you can locate and catch us while we're breezing around the school).

I'm nervous already, and it is but early morning---what I shall do tonight, I haven't the faintest idea. Perchance I shall feel more relaxed after I practice today (yeah, right).

The second half of this post shall be devoted to my latest poem, which I shall present to you without further delay:


Nope, never mind. The CD-ROM drive is stuck, and I can't get the disk with my poetry on it up on the computer. I'll have to figure something out later. Tally-ho!

(Yes, that farewell was totally out of character for me; I know it.)

Music of the Week

Poetry for Thought

Reluctance

Out through the fields and the woods
And over the walls I have wended;
I have climbed the hills of view
And looked at the world, and descended;
I have come by the highway home,
 And lo, it is ended.

The leaves are all dead on the ground,
Save those that the oak is keeping
To ravel them one by one
And let them go scraping and creeping
Out over the crusted snow,
When others are sleeping.

And the dead leaves lie huddled and still,
 No longer blown hither and thither;
The last lone aster is gone;
The flowers of the witch-hazel wither;
The heart is still aching to seek,
But the feet question 'Whither?'

Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?

~~~~Robert Frost