Night of Magic

Sarah arrives 2 hours before the concert for a final rehearsal.

We attended Sarah's first concert with the White Mountain Symphony Orchestra in Snowflake last night. It was amazing!

The Performing Arts Center on the Snowflake campus of Northland Pioneer College.

The program was perfect for my family. It featured magical songs from our favorite fantasy films, like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (the kids' favorite) and The Lord of the Rings (my favorite), as well as Mary Poppins and others, as you can see in the flyer above.

Dylan and his mom (me!) at intermission.

The 10-minute intermission was fun because we got to visit with some old friends we hadn't seen in years.

Brothers Jacob (age 18) and Dylan (age 12) at the beginning of intermission.

Although both of my sons enjoy music, and Dylan is very talented musically and performs in concerts himself, neither of them is exactly "highbrow" when it comes to attending formal concerts. However, they both truly enjoyed this concert since they were familiar with all the pieces performed. (If they look a little cranky in this picture, it's because I made them sit still for these pictures instead of rushing off during intermission right away as they'd planned.)

Performing the final piece, from The Lord of the Rings.

You can barely see Sarah's head behind the music stand directly on the conductor's left. The conductor (Maestro) is Theresa Bailey-Dick, who also teaches orchestra and concert choir at the high school. It's her first year in the district and I'm her mentor. Her choir room is right across the hall from mine. She is also Dylan's orchestra teacher at the middle school. Welcome to the small world of rural America!

I'd hoped to get a shot of the entire orchestra performing, but they had strict rules about taking pictures during the performance. I took a few without the flash and they came out all right, but we were sitting near the front and I didn't want to disturb anyone by getting up and going to the back to get a shot of the whole orchestra. Suffice it to say, it's a good-sized, talented group for such a small community.

Sarah (age 20), walking at left with music in her hand.

This was the best shot I was able to get of Sarah. During the performance she was always barely visible behind her music stand. This was taken immediately after the program, when she was heading backstage to put away her violin and join the reception in the lobby following the performance.

Recording the performance was also forbidden, but what can I say? It was my daughter's first appearance with a symphony orchestra! So I sneaked a small 27-second snippet of the final piece of the evening. Below, you can listen to the theme "About Hobbits" from their performance of The Lord of the Rings.