On a Musical Note

So its been a while since I have posted anything. I have thought of plenty of things to write about... but the "this and thats" of life have kept me busy.
I am so excited for my student's upcoming piano recital. Ten of my students will be entertaining a small audience this Saturday morning :) So far I have coordinated about five recitals and they all have been INCREDIBLY stressful. I have learned my lesson though and been quite proactive in prepping for this one. Not only are all my kids well prepared to perform, but the programs are completed and the power-point is created. I have special gifts to give them and a few other surprises planned.
Zach, Heather, Daniel, and I have been slaving away at a piano quartet (two piano, four hands) entitled "Perpetual Commotion." The plan is that this will be the Finale of the recital. I am excited for my kids to see "grown-ups" making music together and enjoying it. To be quite honest, these people, my family, are my favorite people in the world to enjoy music with. I LOVE IT!!!!
We have spent a lot of time practicing. Its really funny to see our personalities working together. LOTS of laughs at mistakes. And of course... we are all related..a couple of snarky remarks. I tend to be a bit of a task-master... so the rest of them have a lot of fun trying to get me to laugh. They really teach me to loosen up. Heather is like the energizer bunny-- she just keeps going. Zach just wants to wing the whole thing...  But Zach is easy going like that!!!  And Daniel is the human metronome keeping us all together, in more ways than one.

We have been rehearsing at the church. Ana came to observe one of the rehearsals. We asked her if she was getting bored and she replied, "I am just enjoying the show!" This is her about ten minutes later

On another "note", Dan and I just went to see "Fiddler on the Roof" live at gammage. It was so much fun. We really enjoy the music from that play. This is my favorite musical of all time!!! Its better than Oklahoma, Sound of Music, Music Man, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers... it is just THE BEST!!! Mostly for my own ammusement, I cropped a couple of my favorite lines from the play.

Perchik: Money is the world's curse. 
Tevye: May the Lord smite me with it. And may I never recover. 


Villager: An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.
Tevye: Very good. That way the whole world will be blind and toothles


Perchik: In this world it is the rich who are the criminals. Someday their wealth will be ours.
Tevye: That would be nice. If they would agree, I would agree. 


Tevye: [To God] Sometimes I think, when it gets too quiet up there, You say to Yourself, "What kind of mischief can I play on My friend Tevye?"


Tevye: As the good book says, when a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick.
Mendel: Where does the book say that?
Tevye: Well, it doesn't say that exactly, but somewhere there is something about a chicken

Tevye: Traditions, traditions. Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as... as... as a fiddler on the roof!