Piano Recital

Grace started taking music classed at the beginning of March.  Her class consists of 4 children who are almost 5 years old and together, they learn music appreciation, to read basic notes, and do some keyboarding.   After only two months, she preformed at a recital today with about 25 other students who range in age from 4+ to about 15 (freshman in high school).

The recital was held at Kent State Univeristy's Fashion Museum.  I had never been there before but it was a wonderful surprise when Grace and I visited yesterday.  Kyle and I thought it would be a good idea to take her over and see the auditorium where she would be performing.  That all worked out fine, but I was surprised to find out that it is one of the biggest fashion museums in the country with over 30,000 costumes and 10,000 decorative pieces.  Before she posed for this photo, telling me, "I am going to pose like in a magazine", Grace and I looked at some Colonial American dresses, some Halston gowns from the 1970s, and some unique pieces like a dress made from dryer sheets!

I'll admit it....I was nervous.  In case you didn't know, I like to be in control. But music class is something that Grace and Kyle do together, so I didn't have much of an idea about what is going on week to week or what the plan was for the recital today.  Kyle is not one for asking questions so when I questioned him, he didn't have the answers. I tried to "go with the flow" this afternoon - not an easy thing for me.  But, it all turned out great.  Lesson learned.  I CAN go along for the ride and relax a little.

We told Grace that all she had to do was try her best.  She didn't have to BE the best, just try.  And she did.  Miss Nancy told the audience that she was the newest student and today was her first performance.  She seemed a little embarrassed about it, but she did a good job with her solo, ringing the bells to Mary Had A Little Lamb, and singing a song called Rainbow with her group.

Before she played her piece, Grace introduced herself.

Hello.  My name is Grace.  I will be playing "Lizzy's Cat".

After the little kids played once alone, their teacher 

accompanied them for a second time through.  

We didn't know this so Grace bowed and left the stage.

Miss Nancy had to bring her back for the second part!

We were so proud of her.  Both Kyle and I agreed that we probably would not have been able to do this when we were four!