CELEBRATION!

Today was the Eighth Annual Music by DESign Spring Recital! Can it really be eight years already?! What a day – and what a great celebration of my students and their achievements this year.

Although I had a roster of 18 students this spring, only 14 performed: 2 are moving and just recently dropped out, one is an adult who didn’t feel up to peforming, and one is a fairly new beginner who wanted to “wait until next year.” But those that did perform made this recital very special and made their teacher extremely proud.

This was my first time in a new venue – our new church, McKinney Fellowship Bible Church. With a new venue came significant changes to how I’ve *always* done things…and that means a little uncertainty and just a little apprehension. The setup this year was far simpler because McFBC has a reception area known as “Main Street.” There are several bistro tables in addition to a number of rectangular tables, plus three separate “cafe” rooms with oversized chairs, couches, and coffee and end tables. There was certainly plenty of room to spread out and visit, and for the first time in eight years everyone in attendance stayed for the reception.

I ordered the cake from my favorite bakery: Willie Mae’s in Plano. I had anticipated it being exactly the same as last year’s cake which looked like this:

Much to my disappointment and dismay, it didn’t quite look the same. Instead, my cake this year looked like this:

A PURPLE Piano??  Are you kidding me?  And the icing on the sides was not of the usual quality, either.  But I already used my allotted 5 minutes of whine time, so I will not dwell on the negatives.

The students performed beautifully and the awards presentation was so much fun.  This year, I decided to give out humorous awards in addition to the regular certificates of participation and achievement for those who had completed levels.   Some of the awards that received the most laughs were The Director’s Commentary Award (for the student who consistently talks out loud while she’s playing), The Fantastic Flying Fingers Award (for the student who tackles tricky technique and complex classical compositions with finesse, flair, and fortitude), The Sleight of Hand Award/Magician’s Assistant Award (for two brothers who pulled off a great practical joke during one of their lessons), and The Boogie Man Award (for Trey, who has thoroughly enjoyed his Boogie ‘n’ Blues book he received for his birthday this year).

These students were recognized for completing levels this year.  See how excited they look?

Trey got a kick out of his award.  He went off the stage slapping his knee. 

We celebrated with a wonderful reception following, and I was able to get a picture of my entire performing studio:

 As usual, I learned some things that will help me next year to make things even better.  But it’s always such a special way to end the year, and the students seemed to have fun and enjoy performing.  The parents were proud, and genuinely seemed to appreciate the students’ efforts.  What a great CELEBRATION!

To close it off, I have to share this picture – one of my favorites – of three students I teach that are in the same family. I love the “six hands, one piano” composition.