Concert Tour

Today, I got to chaperone Julia's Honors Chorus Field Trip, which was really a concert tour, performing at each of the 5 elementary schools in town.  Morale was high at the start of the day: "I'm SO EXCITED for the field trip!" Julia exclaimed as we walked to school, and I heard cries of "We have no school today!" from other chorus members upon arrival.  By about the third school, the energy had begun to wane, and during the last two performances, kids were looking like they might wilt off the stage, but Julia still enjoyed herself.  In her own words: "It was fun, but it was a LOT more exhausting than I thought it was gonna be!"

It truly was exhausting for all involved.  There were a LOT of kids to shuffle on and off buses and on and off stages; not only was the field trip for the Honors Chorus, but the Honors Band as well, and each group performed their entire program at every single school.  There were so many little budding musicians that I could barely fit them in one picture:

It's only natural that in giving multiple performances of the same music, the musicians will occasionally space out on things.  Something different went wrong in each performance, but the kids were able to brush off the mistakes.  Julia herself had a few zone outs.  My favorite moment was at the second school performance, when, during the applause following the chorus's first song, Julia looked proudly over at me.  I raised my hands to clap hard for her and she beamed at me, clapping back.  Apparently in returning my loving smile, she also returned the applause I was giving to her, giving the appearance of her being the lone chorus member to clap for her own ensemble.  The hardest concert of the day was the second to last.  This concert was in a stuffy cafeteria that had been converted into a performance space just for the sake of today's show, and it was the fourth performance of the day, so I can imagine Julia's attention span was shot.  I saw her off in space during the first song, missing an entrance and then joining in the clapping rhythm that the other side of the double chorus was doing.  I guess accidental clapping was her thing today, regardless of whether it was applause or a call-and-response clapping rhythm between two halves of the chorus.  After that particular song, I watched Julia intently studying a poster on the wall behind the risers, then gazing with steady focus at the recycling bin next to the risers, seemingly fascinated with the writing that appeared on its lid. Apparently a cafeteria is the kind of place that encourages one to lose his or her attention span, what with all the things like garbage cans and recycling bins to stare at.  Luckly, Julia regained her focus and energy after that song and kept her morale high through the fifth and final school they sang at.  I captured the penultimate song of the day on video, and while everybody looks pretty tired, they were champs and managed to sing their hearts out:




Bravo to the little singers and instrumentalists who got a taste of what a day on the road is really like!