Fifth Grade Music Fest

I asked a neighbor to put L on his kindergarten bus this morning with her son who is in the year behind him. That way I could catch an early bus to the hospital to get back by 10 a.m. for the city-wide elementary school music festival. I was third in line and in and out of treatment quite quickly, no troubles with side effects yet. I managed to make it to the local civic center before 10 quite easily.

Fifth graders from 6 of the 18 public elementary schools performed at the local civic center today. After about a month of practice, each school's entire fifth grade sang one song as a chorus and played another using whatever instruments the schools provided. M auditioned for one of the eight an accordionist positions their instrumental piece and won a spot. She had a cold the week before the chorus part auditions and her hoarse voice earned her a place among the altos for the choral piece. I splurged and bought her a new outfit so she wouldn't look too raggedy in her usual (and favorite) hand-me-downs on stage. I got a big laugh when I heard that everyone else in the class was also in new clothes today. They sang a Japanese song "From Space" and played "Csikos Post" by Herman Necke. I was moved by the teamwork the 100+ 10 and 11 year olds achieved, some learning new instruments for the event and all carefully watching their conductor.