The Little Lady Plays a Minuet

A painter paints his pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. We provide the music, and you provide the silence. ~Leopold Stokowski

Friday afternoon was the rehearsal and Saturday afternoon was the Spring Recital. Because we live such a distance away and rehearsals were on Friday evenings, when I usually am making a run to the airport, the Princess was not able to participate in the opening musical portion of the program called the Bach Family Boogie.

We are truly blessed because Dr. Decker is not only a physician but a maker of harpsichords. Here he is tuning an Italian virginal he made that would be the instrument used in the musical. It was played both by Miss Trudy, the piano teacher playing Mrs. Bach, and his own son, who also was one of youngest students she had taken some years ago.

Although not in the musical, the Princess was selected to be the first pianist with two songs: Remember When and a minuet by Bach, one of many written for his wife. Miss Trudy said that she had chosen the Princess to the first one because she has always been a strong performer and remembers the proper way to do everything on the stage. It seems that if one child forgets something, like exiting to their left, then the next one will follow making the same mistake, so she wanted someone to start who rarely makes mistakes.

Adorable, isn't she? Still...little does Miss Trudy remember!

At this same small community theater, the Princess performed her first formal recital at four years ago. She was just turning five years old with almost a full year of piano lessons. She was quite adorable then also in the sweetest pink with white polka dots sailor dress. Her performance was quite... memorable. Not so much because she was so very young and played so well and had such poise, there was all that, but because of something else she did that was not part of the plan. You see, that time the children were to stay backstage before and after their performances, except for the youngest children; they were to join their parents in the audience after their performances. We parents were to stand up so these young ones could find us and then they were to come down the steps and join us. Well, the Princess started to walk toward the steps, but then saw me stand and got a bit confused so she walked to the edge of the front of the stage...and then, before I could say anything, she jumped off. The audience was on the floor! After it was over and I was helping to clean up, Trudy finally asked, "Did she jump off the stage?" My reply, "You know it!" Trudy then explained that she could not see it, being backstage, but that is what she thought probably happened when she heard the laughter. After that, for some time, it seemed that the Princess did some little thing at every performance that made people laugh and she was remembered.

I was concerned this time—to be honest, I am concerned every single time—because she talked about being nervous and she seemed to be genuinely nervous...until the actual performance. I keep thinking that one of these times she will be really nervous during the performance, but so far it has not happened.

There was nothing out of the ordinary that made her stand out at this performance, outside of her natural poise. Her performance was not absolutely flawless and yet it was really lovely. Just a bare hiccup in her first song and a bit of a timing thing in the second were the only flaws, not that anyone else would notice who had not been working with her for the last several weeks. This was the first time she performed without music, solely from memorization. I think she could have done it in a few prior performances, but she did not feel confident in trying it. This time I insisted.

Last month she was supposed to have been judged performing these same two songs and that required her to play from memory, but the judging was canceled because the mother of her piano teacher died. I felt that since she had another month with the songs, it would be good practice for her to do the same for the recital. The piano teacher said she used to have all the performers play without music at the recitals, but one year her high school students rebelled complaining of trying to prepare for tests at school and such. I would like to see the Princess perform without music from this point on.

This recital was to feature only the younger students and Trudy had quite a few of them, thirty-four to be exact, but she wanted to have Brandon perform in this one since it would be his last one and she was losing him as a student. Brandon is a very talented musician, but the instrument in which he excels is the trombone. He has been accepted as a joint enrolled student, where a high school student goes to college and still gets credits for high school classes, at Reinhardt College and so he will not be continuing piano this year. He, of course, did a duet with Miss Trudy which was beautiful.

However, there was a change of clothes for the the finishing touch on the Spring Recital, a performance to leave us all in stitches that was not on the program. They did a performance emphasizing just about everything Miss Trudy tells her students not to do during a performance, including chewin' tabaccy and a relaxation technique that involved such violent shaking that I was relieved to see they took the precaution of standing so far apart from each other. It reminded us of Carol Burnett's cleaning woman skits. I could not get a good photo of all this because of the lighting and all the exaggerated movements, but it was hilarious! 



The Princess also played for our church on Sunday morning. She chose Remember When and played it even better than she had at the recital...of course!

~ My Lord, I cannot express how amazed I am by this child's talent and I pray that she always uses it to glorify You. ~