It seems like there are far more things I want to blog about than time to blog. But I really, really want to write about Rachel’s first solo recital before too much time passes. Last August, Miss Kim told Rachel she wanted her to perform a solo recital. She gave her the list of songs she wanted her to perform: some of the songs Rachel already knew (her State Fair competition pieces), but others, she would need to learn. She spent most of her Fall lessons working on these pieces. Miss Kim told us to invite family and friends, so we decided to have a nice picture taken for the invitations. Our friend, Sally Puckett of Puckett Photography did a great job with that.
We set the date (Dec. 6), made arrangements at a nearby church and I planned on a few snacks to serve afterward. Unfortunately, a winter storm hit that day and caused us to postpone the recital to January 3. This gave Rachel a little more time to prepare, although with Christmas and New Year’s Eve and Day celebrations, practice time was pretty scarce. She did manage to squeeze in as much practice as possible the week leading up to the recital and she even did a dress rehearsal on Thursday night for us in at home. Miss Kim wanted her to introduce each piece, talking about the composer, song, etc. and Rachel really wanted to practice what she was planning to say. The rehearsal went well and ended up being about as long as we expected: 50 minutes.
We decided to type up programs to pass out,
and had them printed the day before the recital. For refreshments, we planned on lemonade and water, and I made Tiger Butter, Shortbread Cookies (which we dipped in white and dark chocolate to resemble piano keys ;-) and White Chocolate Dipped Pretzels and picked out fancy dishes to serve them in. We picked out some white roses to hand to Rachel after the recital and hid them in the back of the van. We made plans to arrive at the church at 5:30 (the recital was scheduled to start at 7:00 pm) just to have plenty of time to set things up and give Rachel some last-minute practice to loosen up.
Everything seemed to be falling into place very well, but in spite of all our preparations, there were a couple of minor, last-minute issues that we didn’t expect. First several inches of snow fell over most of the state on Thursday. Thankfully, there was enough time for the major roads to be cleared off; however, we were left with temperatures in the teens and a bitter cold wind by Friday night. We knew that would probably keep at least a few friends and family from being able to make it, but we decided to go ahead with it anyway, rather than reschedule it a second time.
We arrived at the church in plenty of time to get everything taken in and for Rachel to have lots of practice time (I think she ran through all her songs). The deacon was there to unlock the church and greet us and even offered to get the drinks ready and move the piano to the center of the stage. So, what was the other glitch? Well, simply the fact that, for some reason, I took very few pictures. Maybe I was just so preoccupied with thoughts about everything being ready and our friends and family getting there safely (Uncle Bob and Aunt Melanie had to call for proper directions) and hoping Rachel didn’t get too nervous (she didn’t). For a long time, I didn’t even know where my camera was. I took a few pictures of the little ones watching Rachel practice beforehand and a short video of the refreshments area.
Strange, huh?
As we imagined, there was a very small crowd that night, but in spite of that, it was just a wonderful evening. Rachel looked beautiful and she was poised and seemed comfortable during her speaking, She played very well and didn’t forget any of her music – yes, she memorized all those songs! A funny thing that happened was that during Schumann’s “Child Falling Asleep”, Trent actually fell asleep on Erica’s lap. :-)
Even though I didn’t get any pictures of her playing, I did videotape the entire show and took a screen shot of the footage that looks similar to a photograph.
In spite of my fears that I would completely forget to give her the roses, I remembered them and made a quick scramble to get them out from underneath Erica’s chair while everyone was still clapping.
In the end, it was a learning experience for Rachel and us. We are proud of her for all her hard work and look forward to hosting future solo recitals.
