Hammock, Pops, Carmina, Kyra

Such a lovely two days to give outdoor lessons. Caleb and Isabelle enjoying the hammock and the awesome weather on Friday-

Then began my first experience with the infamous LAHS Pops Concert. I'd been hearing for nearly 2 decades about the length and managed to avoid it all these years. So I was NOT in a good mood going in, but I actually warmed up as the night went on. And our students were terrific- Sarah's bo arm looks super fluid. Irene can pretty much lead anything at this point. Absolutely unflappable in these really tough jazz solos. Big duo feature with Jenna on Zeta fiddles. And Jenna . . . I mean, really. Piano, tenor sax in jazz band, for starters. Nice accompanying of soloists. And then she arranged this fiddle/tap dancing number (with Sarah providing solid back-up). You had to see it!

Concert over at 10:45. 8:30 am next morning, picked up the stars of the evening before (that would be Irene and Jenna) and took them, along with Ross (who played great trumpet in the Pops Orch, by the way), to Camp Hill for an all day Carmina gig. We were like, "Why did we say yes to this?" But I personally enjoyed hanging with them one last time before graduation! I learned that they're BOTH speaking at the ceremony. Must. obtain. ticket.

And here are some other cool things that happened at that gig:

1. I found out surreptitiously about who they've hired for the string job in L-burg: a former pre-college student, Andrew Jones? (All hearsay!) If it's him, great choice! Big talent, big personality.

2. Two SU alums were soloists for Carmina- on, Peter de Mets ('92 alum?) sang with us at the Carnegie concert in 2008, and the other, Jason Backwater ('03 alum?, pictured) was in our SU studio and orchestra- man, has he become an even more terrific singer!

Too bad Ross left his trumpet music at the gig and Peter (Wiley) had to drive to H-burg this AM to retrieve it.

On to Sunday, the rain continued but there was more nice indoor work to do, rounding out the weekend with Kyra's first local solo recital. Lovely afternoon at their house with an appreciative audience of family and a few nice friends.