Honors Recital

Yes; I am very, very behind schedule. I know it. But life has been extremely packed for the last few months (or all year) and I'll give ya'll a more substantial post later.

Right now I'm talking about HSMA's Honors Recital.

What is the Honors recital, you may ask? Well, you're going to have to show up to find out!

(Or I could just tell you)

The music program that I'm in, Homeschool Music Association, has a recital every year for the students that meet certain criteria (getting a 1 or Superior at States is a major one). The directors choose fifteen from the eligible students to perform at the recital. This year I think we had around fifty eligible? Anyways, here's a write-up of the flier that someone did:

(Ain't it the truth!)

2013 Honors Recital

Date: Friday, April 5, 2013
Time: 7:00 PM
Place: St. Luke’s Lutheran Church
5589 Van Atta Road, Haslett, MI 48840
Admission: Free! 

The Honors Recital has a two-fold purpose: Honor the very best of HSMA with a special recital showcasing, un-characteristically for HSMA, individual talent, and to serve as an inspiration to other HSMA students.

Featuring:

 Kayla Austin, soprano

Jonathan Bacon, french horn

 Benjamin Calhoun, trumpet

Domenica Dalla-Vecchia, soprano

 Rachel Dobyns, flute

 Marlin Dugan, cello

Seth Dugan, tenor

 Derek Eilert, cello

Jessica Frazier, soprano

 Tessa Linsley, marimba

Emily Pohl, violin

Tyler Wixtrom, euphonium

 Ian Dufrin/Ellen Miller Duet

 Seth Dugan/Matthew Swett Duet

 Dvorak String Quintet


I feel that I should mention that there is a reception afterward which, I think, means food. Not that anyone would come for the food. But, yeah. Come if you can! Swell the ranks of the intimidators---those that are occupied in scaring the shinanigans out of us.

Firefox crashed on me during the first version of this post, so the second version wasn't as good... I think I need to switch to Google Chrome...

Recap of August

Sooo, what happened during August?

Nothing much out of the ordinary. I was asked to play with the pit orchestra of our local acting group’s production of The Wizard of Oz. I’m the only violinist, which puts me in a very scary position. I mean, just look at this music:

Anyway, I’m plugging along with that. Show doesn’t play until the second or third weekend of October, so I’ve got time.

Of course, I was looking through the music when I first got it and going, "What is that?". So we watched the movie to get the jist of things, and now everything makes sense. While we were watching it, the commentary was rolling:

"They had color in 1939?!"

"She's not wearing the shoes in that shot!" 

"Wow, compared to the Munchkins, the Winkies have pretty awesome voices."

"The Tinman untied the hot air balloon! He's a traitor!"

 It was much fun. ^.^

We went to the Civil War reenactment again this year. The kids just love (and I hate) to see the battle and hear those cannons roar. I like to stay to the back of the park while that’s going on; not too fond of gunfire. However, the shops were fun to browse through; they had clothing, cookingware, weapons, and all sorts of stuff from the Civil War era. They even had a drummer and a fife player, and some other random soldier who danced an Irish jig. We stopped at a woodcarver’s tent, and the lady gave Jesse quite a few tips to use on his own projects; Lydia was given some sewing lessons, and came away with some kind of handkerchief embroidery thing.

I’ve been keeping up with reading and writing, of course, and a little drawing. Just sketches of characters and random little people, really.

Oh, and another thing: I now have glasses. Not all-the-time glasses; these are just for reading because my eyes aren’t strong enough to handle the amount of reading that I’m doing. A source of headaches has been discovered; apparently my eyes get tired and just quit, and my head starts to pound. It’s funny, really; I, who have been an avid reader since the age of five, have weak eyes. Hmm. Well, that’s how it stands.

Here they are:

Yes, they are large and dorky. I liked the color (at least, over some of the others that were covered by insurance) so I snagged these (plus, the co-pay was much smaller).

Anyroad, not much else has happened this summer. I finished piano and violin lessons last week, and auditions for choir and orchestra are on Saturday. For violin, I’ve got Handel’s “Sonata in D Major” and for choir “The Infinite Shining Heavens”, which is an aria and I don’t know why on earth I chose it. It was under the list of songs for high voice. *Shrug* It’s in a horrible key and even worse time signature, but, oh well. Wish me grace.

Dia leat, mo chara.

Oh, and I almost forgot; I got this painting at the farmer's market in exchange for a bar of soap. I watched the girl do it entirely with spray-paint. Impressive, eh? It's hanging above my desk.

Firefox has crashed multiple times in the making of this post. Stupid, human-made technology.