Keeping with the theme of thinking back to my childhood, I'm going to pick one, special outing we had when I was in elementary school (wish I could remember which year - but it was after grade 2 - and I know this because I was already taking music class (organ) every week and I think my parents could tell music was one of my strengths and that's why they chose this as our first big outing). The outing was a Christmas concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at the Jubillee Auditorium. We had never been to a concert before or heard an orchestra.
We sat on the main floor, kind of in the middle, but to the right of middle. I remember that on the stage was 2 beautifully decorated trees. Some of the musicians were already sitting in their spots and tuning and as the rest arrived, the sound from the instruments got louder and louder, but no specific music was being played, they were all doing their own thing. Then, 1 man walked out with his violin and all the musicians stopped tuning and waited for this fellow to play a note, and then they all tuned their instruments to that tone - cool. Then, silence until you could hear someone walking onto the stage...the conductor.
I specifically remember them playing "A Christmas Festival" and "Sleigh Ride" - both by Leroy Anderson. I remember being in awe at the changes in volume and speeds and sounds that were coming from the stage. There were also 2 small performances by a couple of ballerinas. At the end, they played several Christmas tunes that the audience got to sing - FABULOUS! I sang as loudly as I could (and still do for Christmas tunes) and didn't even need to look at the program for the words, I already new the words to pretty much all the Christmas carols. Just before the end, Santa came out and walked down the aisle amongst the audience and up onto the stage. I remember the kids going crazy when they realized Santa was there.
I'm not sure I was able to sleep that night. The music kept swirling in my head. When it was time to start jr high, I realized that we were able to take "band" class and I was so excited because then I would be able to make beautiful music like I heard at that Christmas concert.
I continued taking my organ lessons (which I never really had to practice for) until about grade 10, at which point I started teaching a few young kiddos. I played the clarinet in the school band from grade 7 - graduation. I also didn't have to practice my clarinet but did decide to take saxophone lessons in grade 11 & 12 for something to do. I had grand plans of becoming a musician in a symphony...but once I realized that it meant doing auditions...that plan poofed - I was far too shy to be doing auditions.
But I digress - In grade 9, we got to play "A Christmas Festival" - I was never so excited about a tune. I got to PLAY the one song that had impressed me so much when I went to that ONE Christmas concert and had focused my experiences toward classical music. Even NOW, when I hear that tune, I can "play" along my clarinet parts by singing along with it. I think we played that song every year in high school and actually played "Sleigh Ride" a couple of years too - so fantastic!
This coming weekend, we are taking our 7 yr old to the Christmas Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra...I can HARDLY WAIT!!!! If he likes it 1/2 as much as I did, he's going to have a great time!
Here is A Christmas Festival
Here is Sleigh Ride
After reading your post and the mention of ESO, I had to investigate more. I too live in the Edmonton area and have gone the the Christmas concert put on by ESO. It is wonderful! I also looked up your profile & discovered you used to work for an engineering firm. I currently am working for WorleyParsons, an engineering firm. Perhaps we crossed paths? BTW, I got here from Shimelle's JYC forum.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to my blog, Jo-Lee!
DeleteWhat a small world that you live in Edmonton. I worked at Stantec Inc in the accounting department, so we might have crossed paths if you were ever part of the Stantec group.