The End of an Era

This has been one busy week!  Three concerts, practically in a row, with just one day between the second and third.  These were the last concerts I would present at my current elementary school

Monday was a mere warmup, assisting at the middle spring band concert shared by its feeder elementary band students.  Amidst the 24 students from three other schools, my two drummers showed up to play and I got to conduct Let's Go Band.  Then we listened to the jazz band and went home at intermission.  Like I said, it was an easy warmup to the concerts ahead.

On Tuesday, all of the instrumental music students from my school gathered for their spring concert:  beginning strings, intermediate strings, beginning band, intermediate band and Orff ensemble.  Aside from setting up (and tearing down) the Multi Use Room without the aid of the night custodian (there was a conflict with the classified staff barbecue), it went off without a hitch.  I am amazed every year at the progress of my students from the first day of honking on a mouthpiece to now playing concert music in parts.  Amazing!  Of course, my heart is with my Orff ensemble because I get to delve further into the Music for Children volumes than I can in a class of 32 students.  What a fun and talented group they are!

Then, last night (Thursday), the week wrapped up with the Kindergarten and First Grade performance of The Bremen Town Musicians.  I have used that story every year with my Kindergarten students.  I read the story to them, we sing a theme song I wrote, they make animal sounds and get to move like each animal (gallop, walk, tip toe, run), then each animal gets its own special day with songs and movement activities.  It seemed like just the ticket for our spring concert.  And, since it was so familiar, I couldn't just let it be.  I had to find a new rooster song (Let's Put the Rooster in the Stew), create original artwork depicting the story, put it all into Power Point with narration in English and Spanish and expect it all to go smoothly.  Well, it didn't.

As concerts go, this one was fairly typical at the beginning.  At 6:25 only about 20 students had shown up and I started to panic.  Then, right around 6:30, when the concert was supposed to begin, they started coming in droves.  We ran out of space and had to have students sit on the floor.  There was not much thought about where students were placed other than their size.  That was mistake number one.  Two students, chatty friends, were seated right next to each other in the front row and sat talking to each other throughout the performance, even during the songs.  Even as I stared them down.  Even after I told them to stop talking and sing please.  Meanwhile, another student, while sitting on the floor, fell asleep.  Her little head just fell forward into her lap and all you could see was her mop of thick brown hair.  I think she woke up in time for the last song, maybe.  There were more, of course:  the first grade boys who kept pushing each other as they stood on the top step of the risers.  The shell shocked Kindergarteners who just stood there, eyes wide, not singing at all.

The main glitch, the one that really got me, was the *&%$@ computer!  I put a lot of work into the Power Point and it was going really well.  The narration was loud and clear and all could understand  d the story.  That is, until the audio stopped working.  I looked at my techie and he just shrugged.  The audience and the kids started to grow impatient.  We checked all connections and everything was fine.  I even, with the projector still on, checked the settings of the slide show and everything was fine.  I was so set on the telling of the story that I asked my principal if she would translate for me.  She suggested we just sing the songs and forget about it.  Okay then.  So I made a "technical difficulties" announcement and told the audience we were simply going to sing the rest of the songs and forget the story.  They cheered.  Ouch!

 

So we went on with "Let's Put the Rooster in the Stew" and it was charming.  Then, just for fun, my techie advanced to the next slide and just as we were ready to sing the next slide, low and behold, the audio started working again.  Sigh.  Whatever.  By then, it was a moot point.  I was disappointed that my story hadn't gone off without a glitch, but I had to remind myself that this was a concert and what counted most was the music.  And that part went very well.  They all sang beautifully.  Well, the ones who actually sang did!  And in the end, all that mattered to their parents was the experience of being there, seeing what their children had learned and that they were happy.  On that note, I would call it a rousing success.