Being Brave

About a month ago Adam and Leah came bursting through the door after school and announced that they had both signed up to audition for the school talent show "Showtime".  After auditioning they were both accepted and started some serious practicing of their pieces- Adam playing the Star Wars main theme on the piano and Leah playing "Beauty and the Beast" on her violin.

Adam isn't fazed by much in life.  Just tell him what to do and he does it.  Or he'll just decide what he wants to do and never looks back.  No big deal.  He is determined and confident and adorable.  And since the Ashland Ridge courtesy theme is Star Wars, this song was guaranteed to be a hit from the beginning.  That, combined with the fact that he was one of the youngest performers, is probably why he went first.  And he did great!  He had his song memorized and couldn't resist looking around at the huge audience as he plunked his way through the song.  Then he enjoyed his thundering applause and ran off the stage and into a big hug from his sweet teacher.  We were waaaaay in the back and didn't get to see him until it was over.

16 acts later it was Leah's turn.  A week before the show Leah came to me with wide eyes and said, "Mom, the talent show is in front of the whole school.  I have to play in front of the WHOLE.  SCHOOL."  I guess that little detail hadn't crossed her mind before, but she was plenty nervous about it now.  

But she practiced and practiced and practiced, and the night before the show she played the song beautifully- with all of the dynamics, the key change, and the strong finish all in place.  She was ready!

And she did a beautiful job.  She was focused and confident and sounded great.  There is a tricky key change in the middle of the song that would have made a lot more sense with an accompaniment of some kind, but she didn't have any.  And she stumbled a bit, then paused (which immediately solicited applause from the over-eager crowd), but she preserved and finished strong.  Later she told me that she had been confidently playing along, then realized she didn't know where she was in the music, she got flustered, her glasses fogged up, and she wanted to scream and run off the stage.  But she didn't!  She did an amazing job, and she finished!  Which was a lot harder than giving up and walking off stage when it got hard.  And Jason and I were just bursting with pride at the confidence, talent and tenacity of these two little musicians of ours!