"Comme un Air de l'Opera" - Trombone Recital

Here's Léna at her recital the other night.

I was convinced after listening to her practice this piece for several weeks that she was making too many mistakes.

We heard 5 other kids at the same level playing the same piece during this recital and Léna was leagues above so I was relieved to realize she's doing better than I thought! Doubtful because Léna is a trombone prodigy (meaning she is *not*), but rather she benefits from her special school program which the other trombonists are not part of. At any rate, we exhaled slowly after the recital.

Armenian danse music: HOY, NAZA EEM"

This is the first piece of Estelle's orchestra for this concert held on March 3rd.  It was 3 hours long!  It was the final concert in a week-long Armenian music festival.  Estelle was in the first two numbers.  The conductor is her oboe professor, Charlotte, who had organized the entire festival.  Estelle is just underneath a microphone that is like a candy-cane shape, left of center. Thomas zoomed in on her at one point. She's a bit blocked by a music stand.

Armenian Concert March 3rd 2017

This is a 2nd piece, a dance piece, adapted for the orchestra.

Thomas could see Estelle but I couldn't. We figured that out towards the end! He took the camera and zoomed in on her right towards the end. Otherwise, you can see her sequined skirt. :-)

Sightreading

I was kind of surprised one day to find Léna sitting at the piano bellowing out the names of the notes to a song.  Apparently this is what they do in their music theory classes, called "solfege".

I decided to film her and asked her to do the song again.  I was so surprised to find out the name of the song at the end!

French Christmas song with Oboe Ensemble

Léna, clip from Jazz number @ Christmas Gala

Estelle, quick clip from Jazz number @ Christmas Gala

Estelle is far right = à droit

Léna dancing at Christmas Gala

Estelle's Oboe Recital

Well, here's another highlight from the past 24 hours....

Estelle & Léna playing during their dance show

Léna's trombone recital

Léna playing "Aire du Saqueboutier". 

Vous Serez Vraiment Grand

Last week, at the "Messe Aux Familles", this is the song that the children played during the Offertory.
We are so lucky to have this young dynamic and progressive Catholic parish next door to us!
The priests truly embody the spirit of real Christians who strive to treat all human beings with kindness, respect, tolerance, and they are transmitting that to the parish, especially our children. A good role model.

Oboe Recital

Estelle's Oboe Recital on Monday Nov 7th. She played this one piece, ironically entitled "La Jolie Julie" by Joubert. It has different parts to it, but is all the same piece of music. Something else to think about besides the new president.

Les Marins

Estelle's group singing a song called "Les Marins" ("The Sailors").  Her chorale teacher in black is named Natacha and she's from Russia.  Estelle had her last year too, she likes her very much.

Léna singing with a Oud player

Wednesday of this past week, both Léna and Estelle were on stage at the Conservatory.  This was the  first time this year for Estelle, and the first time ever for Léna on "the big stage".  
The concert was a little smattering of excerpts and vignettes of the entire programme for the season - lots of professionals performing but also including the young students.

Léna has only had 3 chorale lessons since the start of the school year, but they were on-stage none the less, accompanied by a professional "oud" player.

Arabian Nights

"Arabian Nights"    Oboes & Bassoons   Sat June 25th  Conservatoire de Nice

"A La Claire Fontaine" [French children's song]

A short video of Léna singing at a concert last night.

Léna in the newspaper

 This was just a few days ago on June 14th.  Léna got interviewed after school about "what is a Mayor?" and thankfully her response was spot on.  :-)  This is due to Christian Estrosi, who has been the mayor of Nice for several years, giving up his mayorship because his eyes are on bigger prizes.

On May 10th, Léna's school class sang in a big outdoor concert with classes from other schools.  That is her teacher Magali standing right next to her.  And on the far right, with cascading curling blond hair, is Michelle, who was Estelle's 1st grade teacher before she left her old school to go to the music school.

Isn't it sad that I don't post very often anymore!  But from my telephone I cannot post, and therein lies the rub.

RIP Prince

This post from October 2009 shows me dancing my head off to Prince, live, on French TV in Paris.

When I was 13, I went to see Purple Rain with my old neighbor Nancy.  Her mother had died, her father had remarried, and she had moved away.  But she and I met up, somehow, somebody took me to meet her somewhere in Burlington, and off we went to see Purple Rain, fresh out in the cinema.  It was a wild, grown-up thing to do.

I just showed the Purple Rain video to my uni students 2 weeks ago, for no reason at all.  Because I could.

What a wild performer, so full of energy.  I loved him to death over 30 years ago, still do.  Bummer, in every sense of the world.  Is 2016 the year music died?  Starting to feel like it and we're only in April.

Happy Birthday Joanie!