It's hard to believe, but another year of music lessons and violin playing has drawn to a close. Isabelle performed as a student of Marilyn Short's Violin Studio last night and did a beautiful job.
Violin has definitely been an easily learned instrument for my sweet girl, although publicly performing does not come so easily for her. It helped that Josiah was also performing as a part of an ensemble during the recital so she had his hand to hold back stage.
The recital opened with all 18 students performing a great fiddle piece that Isabelle loved. They sounded EXCELLENT and all ended perfectly with bows held mid-air. It was very inspiring!
Isabelle performed her solo (a Seitz concerto with great chords throughout!) with great fear and trepidation, but she managed well with only a few bobbles. I know that the dessert following the performance was her greatest motivation at this point :-)
Although no longer a violin student, Josiah was able to practice and perform with our teacher's advanced ensemble this academic year in his "spare" time. The group known as "High Strung" performed a Barrage piece entitled "Old Joe Clark" complete with washboard and Scottish drum. It was fabulously played and incredibly difficult but also a lot of fun for Josiah (and the audience!).
All of the seniors in the studio were recognized including Josiah. He has been a student off and on with Marilyn for 10 years now and they have a very special bond. I believe both fought back tears at this moment.....
We have been so blessed to have had such excellent teachers and the opportunity to play this beautiful instrument through the years. It has shaped the character of my children in more ways that I can count. This was a sweet ending for Josiah. It was on this day that he also finished his very final class as a high school student as well as played publicly as a student violinist for the final time. There were a few bittersweet tears before bed as he read the beautiful note given to him by his teacher with inspiring words throughout. We sure are counting our blessings ......
Onto graduation!!!!!
1 comment:
How lovely to see this post. I know the emotions, as our violin teachers are special to us. Our teacher of 6 years has just passed us on to another teacher of her choice, and it is very emotional. We have loved her so much all these years, but transitions are good for our kids, to grow up and to change and reach new stages. Congrats on the Seitz concerto - we know those pieces so well!
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