Concert Night

Program and ticket from Sarah's concert yesterday.

September 28, 2019

Yesterday, White Mountain Symphony Orchestra put on two performances, one at 3:00 and the next at 7:00. They'll also be performing in St. Johns on Monday. That meant Sarah got to take a three-day weekend from her job in customer service at Walmart, which made her very happy.

The orchestra's maestro, Ted Vives, takes the stand to begin the concert.

Sarah is visible to the left (third violinist from Vives's elbow).

Mark and I attended the 3:00 concert with Sarah's husband and mother-in-law, Chris and Brenda. We enjoyed the fact that the concert was at Blue Ridge High School, from which all three of my children graduated and where I taught for twenty-seven years. Sarah and I both felt like it was a walk down Memory Lane, even though the Blue Ridge auditorium has been remodeled recently, giving it a feeling of strangeness, as well.

Concert begins with "The Star-spangled Banner" after Posting of the Colors.

I can't remember the last time the WMSO performed at Blue Ridge. The concerts are usually held in Show Low (fifteen minutes away) or Snowflake (thirty-minute drive). It was nice to have it five minutes from home this time. I'm sure their choice of venue was also influenced by the fact that this is Fall Festival weekend here in Pinetop-Lakeside. This means an annual influx of "flatlanders" crowding our highway, restaurants, and shops for three days so they can enjoy autumn's changing of the leaves, a big parade, the Race to the Pines car show (hundreds of beautiful vintage cars), and showings of arts, crafts, and quilts, among other things.

I admit, the increased traffic and crowds can be a major annoyance to those of us who live here. Even so, we remember why we chose to make our homes in this beautiful area, so we understand why they come. Besides, it's a financial boon for our local businesses, and brings in lots of potential concert-goers!

The entire White Mountain Symphony Orchestra on the Blue Ridge stage.

For once, we had a great view of Sarah from our seats and got to enjoy seeing her wield her bow throughout the concert. I was very angry at myself when I realized I'd left my camera at home, so I was unable to get any good pictures of her on stage. I used my cell phone's camera, but it isn't as nice as my Canon. Rather than a sharp image, Sarah's face looks washed out under the stage lights. Sigh.

Virtuoso violinist Theresa Dick performs violin solo from Schindler's List.

Another reason I was upset was because I knew Theresa Dick would be performing and I wanted to film her performance. Theresa has been the orchestra and band director at Blue Ridge for many years--was, in fact, Dylan's teacher in junior high and high school--and was also the maestra of White Mountain Symphony Orchestra for many years before she decided to step down and hand her baton on to Ted Vives. 

Again, I had my cell phone and could have used it to film her, but for some reason my phone won't allow me to download video to my computer. Such a shame. Theresa's performance of the violin solo of the Theme from Schindler's List was simply perfection.

The "Protein Plate" at Darbi's was really quite good. Grilled chicken,

a boiled egg, cottage cheese, and avocado served with salad vegetables.

Sarah had a two-hour break between concerts, so we all piled into my car and went to have an early dinner at Darbi's. It's a good thing we were there before 5:00. The restaurant was already packed when we arrived, but we only had to wait ten minutes to be seated. By the time we left after six o'clock, the waiting area was packed and more people were waiting outside, since the Fall Festival shows had closed for the day to beat the approaching dusk.

As always, it's such a joy to see Sarah share her musical talent and to spend time together!