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PMEA: Round Four (*ding ding*)

Oh my goodness, say it isn't SO!  Glo is now old enough to compete at the Pennsylvania Music Educators' Association Festivals!  There has been a Kennedy competing since 2008, and Glo wasn't going to drop the ball.  Being the amazing girl that she is, she decided to compete in Chorus and Orchestra.  This past weekend was the first festival:  PMEA District Chorus.

Even though she was chosen to compete back in September, and even though she was given the music in October, she didn't really start working on the music until a month before the festival.  She insisted that she knew most of the music, but knowing exactly what is expected during the auditions, I decided to test her.  I know, that as I type this, all of the previous Kennedy attendees are feeling their palms sweat, and their hearts race.

We sat down with a piece of music, and I gave her the starting note for the alto line.  I told her to sing it...unaccompanied, with no help.

Yep, it was at that point that Glo realized she would need to take this whole thing much more seriously....which she did.  And that was a good thing, because let's face it, with the exception of Hannah, we Kennedys don't have the most amazing voices.  When the judges give points for "tone quality" (or in our case DON'T give them), we are grateful that we have worked and practiced hard so that we make up those points in other areas.  Like rhythm, pitch, and dynamics.  That's right--no natural talent, so we work to make it up in other areas.  The boys were lucky because, let's face it, they are boys who sing, and Hannah had the beautiful voice.  Glo's voice hasn't even CHANGED yet--yes, she sounds like a child when she sings--so she couldn't let her guard down anywhere else.

From then on, Glo was having me sit down at the piano with her just about every day, and when she wasn't practicing with me, she was listening to the recorded excerpts (which I had made for her).  She listened on the bus, during her architecture class, in the car.  I could see the FIRE in her soul.  I could see that she most definitely wanted to WIN!

This past Wednesday, Glo was all packed for the four-day festival when I received a phone call while driving her to school.  Turns out, because of the impending nor'easter, the schools were dismissing early and the festival would begin on Thursday.

I've never seen a child so disappointed to have one more day to practice!  I could tell that she was ready to GO and wanted to (in the words of Mark) "just DO this!"  She woke up bright and early the next morning (with bags still packed), and headed off.  She was super excited, despite the early morning hour.

It was a long, drawn-out day of auditions and rehearsals.  I'm not sure the administrators knew exactly how to work it all, without the audition-only Wednesday evening that is normally planned gone.  When John and I were out at dinner that night, we got a text.  Here's what it looked like:


Now, I don't endorse the fact that Glo used the word "crap" to describe her excitement, but considering she's all of but eliminated it from her vocabulary after using it 100+ times in a day, I made an exception :-)

We were all so proud of her.  And the best part was that I could tell that she was proud of herself.  Plus, she proved to her choir director and all of the "vocalists" (and yes, I'm using air quotes on that, and my family knows what that means) that she can SING and she's here to stay!

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