Notes on Piano Recital

I know that video and pictures were posted on Sunday, but I wanted to write down a few things about the recital too.

This was Sam's first piano recital. In fact, it was the first time he had to perform individually in front of an audience (there were maybe 30-40 people there). I was surprised when a few days before the recital he would just sit down at the piano and practice his piece, without anyone else suggesting it. And he could play it flawlessly.

But he was a little nervous on Sunday, which he didn't volunteer until after he was finished. You can tell in the video he made a few mistakes in the beginning but did much better the second time through the song. He was pretty proud of himself when it was over. When we got home, we gave each kid a small bouquet of flowers - Sam proudly took his vase from Ben and arranged it very carefully on the fireplace mantle where everyone can see it. All in all, it was a very rewarding experience for him (and us!).

Maria has done this before, but as an extra challenge she likes to memorize her piece and play with no music at the recital. This always makes her piano teacher very nervous, and there was some friction between them at Maria's last lesson before the recital, which happened last year as well. But Missy talked to Ben at Sam's lesson later in the week, and said she was fine with however Maria wanted to do it. We knew Maria was stubborn enough to do it the way she wanted to, and there was no way she was going to use her music. Also, we knew she could play it from memory at home - she'd done it many times. So the plan was to bring her music, just in case she decided she needed it at the last minute.

But when we got ready to leave for the recital, we realized that Maria had left her piano books in Ben's office at school (she sometimes practices there in the mornings). And we had no time to go back and get them. So we had no music at all at the recital - I'm not sure if Missy realized it when she spoke with Maria before the show or not. But her performance went well too - only in one spot did she have a slight memory lapse, and probably the only people who noticed were those who have heard her play it over and over, like we have. But again, she had a solid performance as usual. Now she is even interested in taking some summer lessons - if we can fit that in!