Senior Night

It is currently "football season" here in central Illinois this spring. Our team gets only 4 games, and tonight was the only home game. Therefore, it was also the only senior night Sylvia will get to celebrate. (Usually there is a senior night for every activity so that all seniors get to be recognized for what they have participated in, but due to no crowds being allowed at indoor events, and no fine arts performances being allowed at all...well...) Anyway, it was a beautiful evening and it was good for all our hearts tonight!

It was sunny and warm today, and when we arrived at school the senior banners were hung all around the fence at the track. It was a bit surreal to see Sylvia's and her senior bandmates' names. 

So proud of our girl

Sylvia and Isabella have been best friends since kindergarten, and they've loved playing their horns together since 5th grade! 

The girls asked for our families to walk out together during the band senior announcements, and we were all honored to do so.

Annah and Ryan came home just in time for senior night, and recorded and took pictures for us. 

We love these seniors and are so glad they got a little recognition in this year of lost performance opportunities.

After the senior night announcements, the band made their way to the end zone for the National Anthem. Sylvia got to conduct them. It was so cool to see her signal to Caeden to start the drumroll!

The band even got to "take the field"--well, sort of, and Sylvia was announced as drum major! They formed the tunnel for the football team to run through and played the fight song as the seniors were announced and the team ran through onto the field.

Sylvia conducting The Victors

(By this time, the sun was nearly down and it was beginning to feel like a Fall Friday night lights game--quite chilly! So, Sylvia borrowed my mittens.)

I love seeing Caeden play drums!!!

Mr. B, the JH/HS principal joining in support for the band!  

I made rounds through the band to take photos for the yearbook while they were not playing, and asked them to pretend to play. They were all starting to get pretty cold and it was only the first quarter!

By halftime, they were frozen, but they played a great set of pep tunes in the end zone. It was so fun to hear them play!!!

The game was so exciting too!  We won 36-0!  And it was just so great to be together with our community enjoying football and music and seeing each other smile and laugh!

HOIC Honors Music Festival

Ridgeview is part of the Heart of Illinois Conference (HOIC), and each year the music teachers choose a handful of students from band and choir to spend a day at the HOIC Honors Music Festival. This year, Sylvia and Caeden were both chosen to play in the band. They spent the day rehearsing at the ISU Center for Performing Arts with a guest conductor, and we went to their wonderful concert tonight.

Sylvia played her horn.

Caeden played percussion, so he switched instruments for each piece and played triangle, crash symbols, glockenspiel, and the concert bass drum.

The two of them had very different experiences today.  While Sylvia enjoyed the music, one of the girls next to her insulted and criticized her all day long, and she was emotionally exhausted by the end of the day.  Caeden, on the other hand, enjoyed his friends in the percussion section and others he met in the band.

Here is a YouTube playlist of 4 of the pieces they played:

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!

HS Concert

Midnight Blues, warming up on  microphones for the first time before the concert this evening.  This was the first concert with this group for 5 of the 12 members--including Caeden, Briley, Avry, Chase, and Cameron.  They are sounding great!

The ladies, rehearsing their number.

Sylvia loves this ensemble so much!  She just found last week that she was selected to perform in the ALL-STATE vocal jazz ensemble in January, and she is SO excited!!!

Concert Choir began the concert with Noel.  You can't see them at the beginning, but the duet/echo you hear is Kyle singing tenor and Caeden singing bass.

I only had one song to accompany for this group on this concert, as most of their songs were acapella.  But, Ma Bella Bimba was a fun one!

Midnight Blues!!!

The ladies...

Sylvia has a solo in Lately.

Here is a video playlist of most all of the songs and ensembles in the concert.
Some other notable moments tucked in here, are:
Concert Choir started a new tradition of singing The First Noel with senior soloists.
Concert Band started their portion of the concert with Sleigh Ride instead of ending with it. They played one of my favorites, Nettleton, and ended with a fun medley of songs from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  (I must say the horn section is probably the best section in the band right now!) And as always, it's fun to watch Caeden move from one percussion instrument to another!

I have such a hard time getting photos of my kids after concerts, even if I run up to them immediately as it ends!  Caeden started putting away percussion instruments right away, and I didn't get a photo of him and Sylvia.  But, I was fortunate to get one of these 2 lovely horn-playing friends!  Such sweet friends and wonderful musicians!

Music Awards Banquet

This evening we celebrated at the RHS Music Awards Banquet!

22 Senior music notes and roses were lined up!

Including this one!

The first award given out was the Drum Major Award for last fall's marching band season.

ILMEA All-District ensembles:

(Chloe - band, Sylvia - Orchestra, Annah - Choir)

ILMEA Solo/Ensemble Contest Brass Quintet - Division I Award

HOIC Band

Annah is the only Ridgeview student ever to make it into the Illinois All-State Honors Choir.

She was very excited to receive an official certificate from IMEC!

Sylvia and Kyle were chosen as the Outstanding Sophomores in Choir!

All 22 seniors were announced and received their music notes. This was emotional.

Seniors and the directors

Cecilia was really the star of the night! Such a cutie!!

Annah was presented with the National School Choral Award!

She received a plaque, pin, and certificate, and her name is now engraved on the plaque displayed at school, as well as listed on the national registry for the award.

Adam received the John Phillip Sousa award.  These are such big honors!

Music has been such an enriching part of Annah's life and education, so much so that she is excited to continue on with it as her career and share it with others in the future!  We are so grateful for all of the wonderful opportunities and education our kids have had in this program!

BNYS

This evening Sylvia played in the Bloomington-Normal Youth Symphony Spring Concert.  

However, instead of watching her as second chair cello, we watched her in the back row this time!

Sylvia played her horn in the ensemble this semester, since she was injured and going through occupational therapy on her wrist for much of the semester and couldn't play her cello.

She was injured at the beginning of the rehearsal semester, and decided to still attend rehearsals even though she couldn't play.  At the second rehearsal, Mrs. B offered Sylvia the huge cello solos in the Rimsky-Korsakov piece, and she had to turn them down because she didn't know how long her injury and therapy would last, or if she'd be able to play cello at all this semester!  It really broke her heart!

After Mrs. B saw Sylvia carrying her horn at solo/ensemble contest, she presented her with horn music at the next rehearsal!  

There had been no horn players in the group last semester, so Mrs. B had invited a recent IWU horn performance grad (Kizzie) and a freshman horn player from ISU/Phantom Regiment Drumcorp (Nate) to sit in with the ensemble this semester.  Sylvia got to learn from them all semester!  It turned out to be a fantastic experience for Sylvia, and she had tons of fun and grew so much!!!

Thanks to Mrs. Bryant for the opportunity!

It was very cool to see Sylvia playing in this wonderful ensemble on a completely different instrument than she auditioned in on!

VIDEO: the entire concert

VIDEO: one favorite--Greatest Showman Medley

VIDEO: concert finale: Seventy-Six Trombones

The audience loved this feature so much, they played it again for an encore!

Kizzie and Nate were so awesome to Sylvia!  I don't think she's ever had as much fun in a semester of BNYS!  What a blessing, since she thought she was going to be suffering through just listening and watching the cellos play!

She did still get a selfie with her cello buddy, Hannah G.

What a happy ending to the semester!  Wonderful, fun concert!