What Happened?

How can it possibly be 2 months since my last entry?  Well, this happened!!

 

It was quite the family affair.  Me, Amber and David were all in the orchestra.  We were literally consumed the entire month of March with dress rehearsals and performances.  10 performances in all!!  It was also a first for our family - the very first time that Mom played in an orchestra with 2 of her children.

Nice photo-bomb Michael!!  I love it!  And YOU!

The stage was literally transformed!

I've never seen anything like it at a small scale church gym stage.  Stage left - you see that small wall?  That's the orchestra pit.  It was so dark back there we had to have an additional light so we could grab our instruments.

 And here's my view from waaaaaaay back in the corner.  Yes, it was difficult to see the conductor.  Thankfully he had an additional light behind him and a really BIG baton.

We had a good time, a frustrating time, a spiritually uplifting time and an exhausting time.

This is my little corner.  What you can't see to the right of the table is another set of chimes that the timpani player used.  It literally blocked me into my corner.

 

My fabulous friends in our "corner".  Joan Rudd - piano, Rachel Hanson - timpani, me - percussion, Mary Hancock - piano

 Our wonderful conductor - Ron Elliston.  I learned SO much from him.

 You can guess what I was going to do with those mallets

 Me and my babes

 And with our friends, Will and Jenn Card

 Our other friends, The McCormick's got away without pictures!

And after the performances, this gong stayed in our entryway for an entire week before we took it back to the high school.  It was spring break.  You can bet it was a great alarm clock.

 

Here is just a quick video Rob took one night.  If you listen carefully you can here the most amazing bassoon player (Amber), trombone player (David) and me - you can here some cymbal rolls and that's me at the end on the chimes.  This particular song takes place right after the crucifixion of the Savior.