College Cello Audition

 Sylvia has been working hard to put together a video audition to send to several colleges she has applied to, since none of the schools are currently allowing in-person auditions or visits. Usually, a cello audition would be accompanied by a pianist, but nothing is done "as usual" these days. I think Sylvia has done a beautiful job here. We are so proud of her, and just love to hear her play.

ILMEA 2020-Style

ILMEA, like everything else this year, is different for 2020.  District festivals were all canceled months ago, so ILMEA decided to have students submit audition videos. Sylvia auditioned for both orchestra and vocal jazz and made it into both.  Instead of district festivals, today they hosted online masterclasses for the students.  Sylvia chose to attend one workshop for each ensemble she auditioned into, so her first one was cello.

Her second masterclass was with Kim Nazarian of New York Voices. She was awesome, and Sylvia loved every second of this workshop! Kim talked about how she got into vocal jazz and made it her career, as well as how she and other friends have made having a family a priority while also maintaining a career as a performer.  

As Kim was teaching the students over Zoom, she could see their names on the screen as she was watching what she was having them do.  She was calling out students who didn't look like they were participating, and 4 different times she encouraged Sylvia and told her she was doing great!   (Annah, Caeden, and I were all listening in off-screen.) It was pretty darn cool, really.

FaceTime Cello Recital

Sylvia's teacher, Dr. Ransom, has kept up lessons via FaceTime during the COVID19 shelter-in-place order, and today she hosted an end-of-semester FaceTime recital for her students. 

It was quite a bit less nerve-wracking than a recital in-person, I think.

 Sylvia played Bach, which I love to hear.  I just cried watching and listening to her, thinking of all the things she has missed out on these past couple months.  

I'm so glad Dr. R made sure this recital happened. 

I just love to watch and listen to Sylvia play. 

I love hearing this girl play.

As she finished practicing today, I begged her to let me record the Bach Suite (no. 2).

Caeden got his phone today.

We were getting ready to watch a movie tonight, and Caeden made us watch  Bad Lip Reading High School Musical first.  All 3 of our children find this hilarious.

They sing along and crack up the whole time!

Goofies!!!

 

I had promised Caeden I'd make him biscuits and gravy after wrestling season was over, and I hadn't gotten around to it--until today.

When we get "bored" around here, we send our family group goofy SnapChat photos and we all laugh.

The girls and I colored Easter eggs today!  We used lemon juice instead of vinegar.  It worked really fast and the colors were pretty and intense.  

Sylvia joined a dozen of her Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp friends today for a Zoom concert.  Each of them played a Bach solo for the others. So many of them are having concerts, recitals, tours, auditions, competitions and lessons canceled right now, I thought it was such a wonderful beautiful way for them to connect and console one another.

Annah practiced her makeup skills this afternoon when she needed a break from school work.  

Solo/Ensemble Contest

Today was Solo/Ensemble Contest day!  

We hung out with these guys all day. They took this fabulous selfie when I asked them to record Sylvia's performance while I accompanied her.

Sylvia had a very full day!

She sang vocal solo and received a I!

Right after she sang, she played her cello solo (the Haydn she will play with BNYS).  She received a nearly perfect score, but they dropped her down to a level II because she played it unaccompanied--a rule we were unaware of. 

Later in the day, Sylvia played her horn in a brass quintet.

When we got home, it was so beautiful outside and Sylvia took her skateboard outside!

Rye Soloist Competition

This girl amazes me.  She decided in December that she wanted to learn a cello concerto for the BNYS Rye Solo Competition.  In January she and Dr. R chose the Hadyn cello concerto, and she learned it really quickly.  On Sunday she practiced for half an hour with her accompanist, and this evening she played her audition for the judges.  AND SHE WON!!!

On Sunday, May 10, she will play the Haydn cello concerto as the featured soloist accompanied by the Bloomington Normal Youth Symphony!

We went to Krispy Kreme to have a celebratory doughnut!

BNYS Concert

 As the wrestling meet was ending, I bolted out and drove over to IWU to watch Sylvia in her Bloomington Normal Youth Symphony concert!  Annah and Ryan had dropped her off for rehearsal, and Annah was prepared to record the concert for us if I didn't make it there.  But, I arrived just before it started.

Sylvia looks so beautiful with her cello.

The cello section warming up

One of the pieces, Adagio in Sol Minor, featured an organ soloist on the beautiful pipe organ of Presser Hall. The soloist rehearsed with the orchestra last week, then immediately was hospitalized and unable to play.  Mrs. Bryant called a friend who is the organist at her church, who happened to be an alumnus of IWU and had given her senior recital on the organ in Presser Hall, and she stepped in at the last minute to be the featured soloist!  She did a fabulous job, and it was such a beautiful piece!

VIDEO playlist:

1) March Militaire Francaise by Saint Saens (I didn't catch the beginning!)

2) Adagio in Sol Minor by Tomaso Albinoni

3) Slavonic Dance #8 by Antonin Dvorak

4) Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna by Franz von Suppe

5) "Les Toreadors" from Carmen Suite #1 by Georges Bizet

6) American Suite by Glenn Gould

Mrs. Bryant congratulating our girl

Sylvia's friend Isabella and her mom and sister came to see the concert!  It meant SO much to Sylvia to have them there supporting her! 

ILMEA District 3 Music Festival

Sylvia auditioned into the ILMEA District 3 Music Festival Senior Orchestra on her cello, and spent the day in rehearsals.  Jeremy and Caeden and I went up for the concert this afternoon.  

Because one of the pieces was call and response, the cellos were seated in the middle of the orchestra, instead of stage left like usual.  So, the only photos I could get of Sylvia were photos of the giant live video screens when she happened to appear on it.

We purchased a professionally recorded dvd of the concert, because Olivet does such a fantastic job with them, so I only caught a few seconds of video during the concert.  The end of Pines of Rome was epic!  And it made us all want to play the bass drum!

We are so proud of our amazing cellist!!!

Popper Festival

Sylvia has participated in the Popper Festival at ISU for the past several years, since she has been a student of Dr. Ransom, who puts it together. 

Sylvia invited her cello gang friends from Blue Lake last summer to come for the festival, and one of them did!  Zoe came from Elmhurst, IL and Sylvia was so happy to have her here! They got to sit next to one another in the cello choir.

Sylvia also played in the masterclass and was able to receive feedback from the guest artist for the festival, Milene Alverti from Federeal University of Rio Grande do Sul -- Brazil.

Jeremy, Annah, Caeden, and I attended the afternoon concert, which included the beautiful cello choir.  There is really nothing like it!

Always love Drr. Ransom's arrangement of this piece--especially by the cello choir.

I'm working on getting my substitute teacher license, and today I had an early appointment for fingerprinting and background check.  Then I took the Prius to get an oil change and tire rotation.  They have such a nice waiting area at our Toyota dealership; I don't mind sitting for more than an hour because I get to crochet.  Afterwards, I met the girls at the Music Shoppe to take their bows in to be re-haired.

They were just getting started on their sister shopping day!

They came home and showed us all their treasures...