Two Very Musical Months

 

The months of April and May were full of recitals and concerts. Mac had three Musical Arts Youth Orchestra (MAYO) concerts, two school orchestra concerts, two piano recitals, and a state violin competition. Ethan had a recorder recital and a piano recital. I'm not sure how we all survived but we did, and I can't say that I'm disappointed that the recital and concert season has come to a close and summer break is almost here.

 

Mac completed his Suzuki Piano School, Volume 2 last November. The Suzuki piano program requires that the kids give a book graduation recital, and Mac spent the first part of the year preparing for it. He had to play seven pieces, two that were required and another five pieces of his choice. Three were from the Suzuki book, and he also chose to preform one Bartok piece and one contemporary piece by, Martin Kutnowski.  We decided to  have his first solo piano recital at our home, and invited a few close friends and were especially happy that Mac's grandparents were in town and could attend as well.
 

I made a special piano cake for his piano recital topped with a chocolate grand piano. I was in Philadelphia the week prior and was able to get to the Naked Chocolate Cafe to pick up the chocolate piano and some special piano truffles -- Mozart truffles filled with hazelnut cream. Yum.

 

Our piano recital guests also received these music note and treble clef cookies as party favors.

A couple days after Mac's solo piano recital, he had a MAYO concert. This was the first orchestra concert that my parents were able to attend, and we were lucky to have them in town for two very special events!

 Mac was a member of both MAYO ensembles, the Concertina and Symphony ensemble.

The  boys also had their studio piano recital and Ethan had a recorder recital at the IU Jacob School of Music for the Pre-College Recorder Program.

This is a picture of Ethan and his teacher, Laura. Ethan played an early music piece, a solo, When Laura Smiles.......Philip Rosseter (1575-1623), and also an ensemble piece, Rigaudon........Esprit Philippe Chedeville (1696-1762).

Our final concert of the season was Mac's school orchestra. This concert is a special one because the director acknowledges all the 8th graders. She was especially proud of Mac and his friends Gabe and Roger for their gold medal trio performance at the state level. It is rare for a middle school trio group to get to preform at the state level. Mac and Roger also had Science Olympiad competition the same day, and the fact that they were able to follow through on two very different events, and perform well in both is quite an accomplishment.

Mac also sat 1st chair and was the concertmaster this year in his school orchestra. We are very proud of him and of Ethan for all their hard work and musical accomplishments.

Unfortunately in the rush to get out of the house for the final concert, I forgot both the camera and the video recorder. However, I was able to capture one piece on my phone which isn't the best quality sound or picture, but decided post it anyway.

The Tri-North Orchestra playing, Symphony No. 2..........Tchaikovsky/Dackow.