choral concert thoughts

Jared is taking a general music class this semester at school. One of his assignments was to attend a concert of some sort that was at least 45 minutes long and do a report. We pushed this assignment to the very end of the term and went to the high school concert last week. He also had to participate in the jr. high concert, which was tonight. Both concerts were very good and it seems our local schools have a very good music department. However, I have to say I enjoyed the jr. high concert much more than the high school one -- and it had nothing to do with the fact that Jared sang a couple songs with his class. Frankly, I was a little underwhelmed by the high school. I expected more and the majority of the music was rather boring. However, they did have choreography -- woo woo! The music teacher has been there for years and years and is rather tempermental, apparently. On the other hand, the jr. high teacher is on the younger side of things and has a fun personality and sense of humor-- all the students seem to enjoy her class. Her song picks were much more entertaining on the whole, even though several numbers were serious, and the boys chorus even sang in Italian. No choreography here. Watching her conduct her choirs reminded me of my own high school choral experience and I realized that I was very fortunate to have a good teacher. She was well trained, excited and fresh out of BYU at the time. She worked incredibly hard to build a successful music program that the students would want to participate in and one that the community would support. She accomplished both goals. Thank you, Miss Reeves! I also thought about how lucky Michelle and Randy's students were/are to have them as teachers. They are both educated musicians who love kids and music. They are teaching their students how awesome and fun it is to learn and participate in music. That's exactly how it should be.