An Evening Of Music. And Food

    Phew!  It's over.  Another recital pulled off, and now all our nerves can go back in their corners for a while. 
    I can tell you how the recital  went, or, how I think it went, or if you'd like you can watch it, some of it, all of it - or none of it- if you'd like.  Our videographer puts our recital  on youtube for us, (which is why I'm so late with this post - sorry - I was waiting for the link to be set up), so here's the link, if you're interested in seeing how it went:

                                                             http://youtu.be/HWqefY-UJB4

    (Sadly, the boy who was to perform "The Entertainer" was sick, so no "Entertainer" on the video).

    Anyway, we all played on, through the right notes and the rogue notes, the mini-tangles and  stellar recoveries, which are sometimes more amazing than the flawless performances. 

     And for me it was wonderful to watch these pianists, ranging in age from preschool to middle school, and also a few  fearless  adults, who work day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, slowly but steadily building their skill at their instrument and making music a part of what defines them.  Now each of them is someone who can play the piano.  And at the recitals they share their music with others. 
    And even though I believe, as I'm always telling my students, that part of the reason we learn an instrument is so that we can play for others, for most of us performing isn't that easy.
    But last night, once again, we all pulled it off.
    And afterwards came the celebratory pool-party cook-out, where the weather favored us:

    ...and the hot dogs, hamburgers, mac and cheese, baked beans, green salads, potato salads, cole slaws, chips, dips, veggie trays, fruit salads, watermelon and dozens of desserts tasted all the better being served up with congratulations all around.

The famous mini-cupcakes without which there could be no recital.  One of my boy students remarked that "the recital mini-cupcakes are getting girlier and girlier", which makes me think that maybe I should go back to white, non-swirly frosting. I don't want to serve gender-bias mini-cupcakes.

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     The festivites continued until 10:00, then everybody went home except for the clean-up crew:  Tom, me, my nephew Randy (in the foreground) and Tommy (behind Randy).

    And we pulled that off, too! 8)