Michayla and her Orchestra

Michayla's orchestra went on a field trip to see the Oregon Symphony last month.  I was asked to help wrangle the 110 students from our school who attended.  That was craziness!  But it was a cool experience for many of the kids who had never been to an event like that before.  And it brought back fond memories of the Oregon Symphony concerts we went to when I was homeschooled.

Michayla's orchestra teacher invited her to perform in a group at the Solo and Ensemble Festival a couple of weeks later.  I thought it was pretty cool and told her it was an honor to be chosen.  She grumbled that she hated performing in public and that her teacher only picked her because she was the only cellist left.  Regardless of the real reason, I was proud of her for doing it.  It was brave considering how much she really, really didn't want to be there.

I don't know why the video on my phone can't match sound and picture.  It's annoying and super obvious when the video is of strings players.  Oh well.  I hope you enjoy anyway!  I did!

Michayla is playing the cello on the very end.  Click here if you can't see the video.

The players thought they were done when they finished the song and started packing up.  But the judge surprised them by teaching them a little lesson and working with them by section and as a whole to improve the song.  Then he had them play the end one more time.  It was definitely better the second time.  I was impressed with the advice he gave them.