The School Clothes Concert

There was a concert.

It was the absolute most informal of occasions.  The orchestra was dressed in their everyday clothes.  The audience all came at less than two hours notice, about the same notice the performers had.  The instrument cases were scattered around the house of the auditorium, restricting the places where the audience could actually sit.  Not that it was really an issue.  At most, about a quarter of the house was filled.  The house lights weren't even turned off.

But the concert was really good.  Some amazing pieces.  Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet.  Elgar's Enigma Variation Nimrod.  Glinka's Russlan and Ludmilla.  Marquez's ever-uplifting Danzon No. 2.  Brilliant music.  Although maybe not completely rehearsed, still a very good performance by a very good orchestra.

I was in it.  That concert was known as PMEA District Orchestra 2014.

The Polar Vortex has been brutal.  The concert originally scheduled for the following day (today) had to be cancelled due to weather.  Just another casualty in this long, cold, winter.

I still really enjoyed the experience.  Not just the fact that I got to play with a really good orchestra.  The fact that I got to participate in such a concert.

I feel it served as a reminder the the audience that we all were still just high schoolers.  We didn't transform into different people when we went up on stage, as sometimes you see when you get the normal formal concert.

Also, it served to remind all of us that the concert is not the important part.  It's the playing of the music.  The only reason we would have done a concert was for the climax of the learning experience.  Although, we didn't get the climax, we still got the learning experience.

And the audience not being packed to see such beautiful music?  The Joshua Bell experiment all over again.  We may not be at his level, but people just couldn't pack the house at less than two hours notice.  But to be honest, it didn't matter.  We got the learning experience.  I got to play with a orchestra.  Who could ask for anything more?

-NM