Music Madness

My brothers and I performed with the Auckland Symphony Orchestra in their carols concert at the Auckland Town Hall on Friday night which was really fun! I sat with Hamish right at the back of the viola section and right next to the drums which was deafening at times! Aonghas was filling in for the second violins so he was on the other side of the stage to us.

Prior to the performance we had to look all over the place for black dress shirts as it is the Auckland Symphony Orchestra uniform. I can't believe how much black shirts cost! Some places like Hallensteins cost over $100! The cheapest we could find was at Farmers for $30! Even then there was only one left of each of our sizes!

The programme was fairly similar to previous years' Christmas concerts except for the solo performances by various choirs that formed the combined choir which performed along with us. The solo performances were mostly own compositions by the respective choirs' church music directors and they were really catchy and moving songs! Our section leader (our violin/viola teacher) gave us all reindeer antlers to wear just before we played Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I brought along my mini-santa hat as well but when I tried putting on both of them they fell off not once but twice! Hopefully nobody saw that! Then again I was at the back so probably not!

After the show we got a photo with the conductor Gary Daverne who asked us when we were going to join permanently, so we might have to think about that over the holidays!

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Yesterday morning was the end-of-year concert at the music school where I teach recorder. I was a little worried as I wasn't too sure how ready my students were and this concert is usually my best chance to prove myself as a teacher. I guess the students sorta reflect how well I teach!

Fortunately recorder was in the middle of the concert so I was able to go through a few pieces with my students in one of the back rooms before they had to perform. My students were a little unfocused though and after one student discovered that poking me in the side with her recorder gives me an 'electric shock', they all started doing it! Unfortunately there was this girl from my church who learns flute there who was warming up in the same room and started dissing me and the recorder! I'm going to have to get her back next time I see her at church!

Anyway my students went up on stage. My two youngest students who were only about 5 years old and had never played together till the performance performed Jingle Bells. I made a little booboo when I introduced them to the audience - I got them mixed up! My older Korean first year students each performed a duet with me by memory which was sooo impressive, before they peformed a duet together on their own! The recorder section of the concert concluded with my two more advanced students performing on treble recorders.

My students did so well! I was so proud of them! I gave them their reports and some lollies afterwards and I got a present from two of my students, the most I ever have in one year since I started teaching two years ago! I wanted to take a photo with my students but I didn't have a camera so one of my students' parents took one but just before I managed to get their email address I had to rush back on stage to perform violin!

After all the prizes were awarded and the concert finished, I had a chat with my boss about next year. I've been a little worried about how many students I'll be getting next year since quite a few of my students are going to learn other instruments like violin and flute next year. It turns out that next year there will be a policy that if you are under seven years old and want to learn violin you must do one year of recorder before you can,  so they'll just give me all the younger students who know nothing! I've also asked if they can advertise that I can teach music theory too, so hopefully I'll be able to get some students to sit some music theory exams!

Us three brothers were about to leave when our violin teacher invited us to coffee at a nearby cafe which was nice. I tried a spirilina, which apparently has seaweed and some other stuff to give it a green colour. It tasted a lot better than it looked though!

To continue with the music, we had to off to church afterwards for a meeting about the upcoming children's summer camp we're helping out with at camp and also our first string group rehearsal! Let's just say we've got a bit of practice to do before the Christmas Eve concert...