Sylvia spent the last 2 days in Peoria at the IMEC conference. She earned a spot in the All-State Vocal Jazz ensemble, and was one of only 26 high school students from Illinois to do so, and only 4 from our district qualified! We are so proud of her for this amazing accomplishment, and she enjoyed every moment of this honor!
Sylvia went to the Civic Center on Thursday morning, and the group started rehearsing at 9am. These musicians had a great time together from the beginning!
Thursday evening, when Sylvia and some of her new friends set out for dinner at Avanti's they had a bit of an "issue" and had to take their food to-go and eat it on the floor during a quick break in rehearsal later! Memories made!
I spent the last 2 days subbing for Ridgeview music classes, and had a ball. Caeden joined me during lunch time, hanging out in the office.
Dr. Wilson, Annah's choir director at GU, took her to the IMEC conference as a member of ACDA and future music educator representing Greenville University Choirs, so we got to see her!
Although her job as head of Music Education, professor of music theory, and teacher of many music courses was eliminated and she is no longer at GU, Professor Weiss still represented the university at IMEC and gathered some alumni for this photo. She also allowed Annah to stay with her at the conference so she wouldn't have to pay for a hotel room. They had a wonderful talk about Annah's immediate future at GU through her future as a music teacher. (Annah is also glad to know that Prof. Weiss received both her bachelor and masters degrees at SIUe.) Truly, this is the kind of teacher and person Annah wants to be!
Annah and her fellow GU choir student Nathaniel sang in a clinic choir and attended the ACDA choral reading session and a GU alumni reception, but Annah was most excited to watch Sylvia perform with the All-State Vocal Jazz Ensemble!
Jeremy got home from practice just in time to shower and change in about 5 minutes and drive us over to Peoria for the concert.
The All-State Jazz Band opened the concert, and was sooooo good!!
Meanwhile, the vocal jazzers were backstage getting ready to go on!
You can just tell they were having tons of fun!
The director of the ensemble was Mr. Drew Dahan, who was formerly the head of vocal jazz and music education at Illinois Wesleyan University. He is now teaching high school in the Chicago area, but while he was at IWU the Ridgeview vocal jazz ensemble had a couple/few opportunities to work with him, so since Sylvia was extra excited to work with him again!
Sylvia is in the back row, 4th from the right in this photo.
She wore a dress I wore in college for some recitals and I think she rocked it!
Here is a YouTube playlist of all of the songs the group sang. They did a fantastic job, and were such wonderful performers. I could tell from the moment Sylvia stepped on stage and I saw her shining bright the entire performance that she was having the time of her life!
At the end of the last song, Sylvia has a little feature. If you listen carefully, when the whole group starts singing "Freedom is a voice," she is the only one singing the riff they had all been singing before.
She says this is her favorite thing she's ever done in her life, and she loved the whole experience SO much!
Proud sister
What a great time!!!
