Celebration VII

On Saturday Kate and I enjoyed a day together shopping, rehearsing, eating and attending the Celebration concert. The state Suzuki Association organizes this concert every 3 years. All the instruments that have a Suzuki program participate by each group playing 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 songs. Then someone writes a piece all the instruments play together. This year Kurt Bestor wrote that song, "Jubilate." More than 3, 000 students come from all over the state to play and they've all learned this song written by Mr. Bestor. He was very fun with the kids during the rehearsal as he worked with them to play together. The concert was in the Conference Center which is hard soundwise. The kids really have to watch the conductor rather than listen to each other because of the size of the building and the speed of sound. Anyway, this was a fun opportunity for Kate. After the concert she told me about a girl in her section that fell sound asleep. The sound of her violin crashing (it really is a loud sound) to the ground didn't even wake her. Someone by her just picked up her violin, passed it to a volunteer parent, and left her to sleep. I chuckled at this because it made me think of the time Hunter fell asleep at one of Kate's recitals long ago. He was sitting in perfect Indian style, with his arms folded, and his head tipped back. Next thing I know, he is sound asleep. After the recital he told me he was trying so hard to stay awake, but he was just listening to the pretty music and got so relaxed that he dosed off. Anyway, I think the sleeping girl did wake to play with the violins...they were last.