Skip to main content

The Kennedy White Whale: PMEA All-State ORCHESTRA

Yep, another PMEA year has come and gone.  And this year, we had a new winner.  Glo, after hours and hours, and have I mentioned HOURS of practicing, advanced to All-State festival for orchestra, a feat that had not been accomplished by her siblings.

She also made it to Regional Chorus, but since she had already auditioned for, and advanced to All-State on violin, she didn't put much time into practicing her chorus music.  In all honesty, who can blame her? :-)



It wasn't perfectly easy though.  When Glo auditioned at Districts (the first level) on first violin, she was seated eleventh chair, which meant she didn't automatically move forward to Regionals.  She had to reaudition (along with seven other kids) for three spots in second violin.  I had never been so thankful that she and I had worked on that erudition piece, despite the fact that we didn't think she would need it.  It was an excerpt from an unheard piece, and in the end, we could only find a recording of it on YouTube by some South American teenager.  Thankfully, she moved on.

There's nothing like fear and disappointment to motivate a musician, so for Regionals, Glo gave everything to practicing.  Two hours a day of just PMEA music.  After her audition, she texted us all and told us that she didn't think she did very well (she'd actually needed to restart one of the excerpts).  Oh my goodness, I was praying so hard for her to just get a seat.  Even last seat.

The next day, she texted us with the news:  she had gotten FIRST CHAIR!  Obviously, Glo isn't very good at evaluating her own performances! :-)

And at All-State, she got seated better than almost every State High musician, and she out sat all but one of the violinists that she beat at Regionals.  It's kind of like running your second marathon:  it proves that your first victory wasn't a fluke.

We are so proud of her!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Quest for Birkenstocks

One of the main reasons I go to Germany every couple of years is to restock my supply of Birkenstocks.  I started buying them when I lived there, and I basically can't live without them now.  It just about kills me when a pair runs its course and needs to be thrown away.  I think in my lifetime, I've thrown away only three pairs.  One that never was quite right (the straps were plastic and would cut into my skin after a long day), one pair that I wore gardening one too many times (the brown dirt stains wouldn't come out of the white leather), and the pair that I was wearing when I broke my ankle (they were an unfortunate casualty of broken ankle PTSD because those purple and blue paisleys go down as one of my favorite pairs of all time).  I only threw out the garden ones a couple of days before I left for Germany, because I knew I would be getting a new pair. The only store where I have ever bought my Birkenstocks is Hoffmann's in Speicher.  (Well okay, t...

Johannah's Bridal Shower

One of the only reasons to lament my daughter not living in Utah anymore? Sister Mecham.  When I think back to the absolutely classic, beautiful, elegant, heart-warming bridal shower she threw for Glo, I literally sit in awe.  Her talents and abilities are unmatched! Believe me, I was hoping anyone  would volunteer to throw Hannah a bridal shower.  Being only two weeks post-op, I knew it was going to be very difficult for me to stand up let alone host the thing.  I even asked several people about me throwing it, thinking they would tell me it wasn't  up to me, but do you know what they ALL said? Of course  I should host it. This is what we do, baby! So I took a deep breath and decided to do it the best I could do it, knowing that I would never equal what Becky Mecham could do. Since Hannah's wedding colors were Tigers colors, and since Hannah loves baseball, I figured a baseball-themed bridal shower would be perfect for her.  And she agreed! But l...

Saying goodbye to KitTen

Last week, we said goodbye to KitTen.  Sadly, it was way too early for him to die. When I worked at Interlochen during the summers, I knew a medical assistant who fostered animals before they were put up for adoption by the local humane society.  She got a Siamese-looking kitten after I had already left camp and posted a photo of him on FB.  I reached out immediately. Growing up with Siamese cats, I really do love them.  I love their personalities, especially how vocal they are.  I adopted KitKat back when we lived in Dayton, but in a strange turn of events, a girl who was cat-sitting him before we left for Germany wouldn't give him back.  Since then, we've had mostly tabbies (with the GRAND exception of Hootie), so I was excited to start an adventure with another Siamese. We were living in PA at the time, so Mark and Allison brought him out to us.  Because he was going to be MY cat, I was determined to give him THE most perfect name, but in the end, w...