Friday, December 10, 2010

Today's School Christmas Concert

        Last evening I was occupied by one of my volunteer activities...front of house duty for the local Arts Center. Being December many school Christmas concerts are held in this fine facility. So I thought back to my previous post of the Christmas concerts put on in days gone by.

        Last night one of the local high schools put on their concert.The concert was made up of a offering of their choral groups and various bands.

         First, they had the choral group and jazz choir perform.

         Next, the grade nine band and jazz band strutted their stuff.

      After the intermission the heavies took the stage...the symphonic winds band. A dance group performed one number with the band. For a finale the band and choral groups performed together. The house was packed with admiring parents and excited students were pacing around the building. Both groups had a right to be excited and proud. It even infected me!

       These kids put on a fine performance of seasonal  and non seasonal music. The students have been in a band program for three years before they hit high school so they have experience to work with. The musicianship is of high quality. Music teachers are much more highly qualified as they are very active in professional development. A very active parents group assists the music program.

     Of course along with the hype there were all kinds of draws made after people laid down their cash for "winning tickets."

      So hats off to all the enthusiastic young performers, teachers and parents. You are doing a fine job.