Piano Recital

Last Friday Olivia and Austin had their first ever piano recital! They've been taking lessons with Jenny for about 3 months now. We heard about her through a friend and she's been fantastic! We just love her. She is great with the kids- she knows just how to motivate them and connect with them. She's just the right amount of fun + discipline. She teaches piano and voice and she has a music degree, so she teaches great foundational knowledge/skills too. I love listening to Olivia warm up before her voice lessons! It's so cute.

Olivia has actually been doing 1/2 piano + 1/2 voice lessons (she splits the time) but when we told her that she'd be singing at the recital (about 3 weeks beforehand) she suddenly decided she didn't want to do voice lessons anymore. I was so sad! She'd been practicing Taylor Swift's "Love Story" and it was SO good. She had it down 100%. We decided not to force her for fear of turning her off singing altogether. So we agreed that she only had to do piano at the recital, and begged her to continue singing. She has reluctantly and somewhat half-heartedly been practicing her singing since then. She's moved on to "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. I'm hoping she'll sing that at the Christmas concert, but we'll see.

She was very excited to get dressed up and look nice for her recital. She was also very concerned about who was coming to see her. She was overjoyed when she knew that some of her cousins would be able to come, and Nana, Papa, and Andrew. Here's Austin, Olivia, and Ashley with Landon and Whitney before the big show.

Ashley tries to coax Andrew into coming into the Recital Hall.

Olivia got to go very first of all the performances for the night. She played two short simple piano pieces, since she's still a beginner. One was "Animal Fair" and the other "Willy the Whale". I loved seeing the cute look on her face as she walked up to the piano, it's this kind of shy, everyone-is-looking-at-me kind of smile/grimace. I was proud of her for overcoming that fear and for playing in front of everyone. She did her pieces and gave a very quick bow as she walked to the steps. She sat down right next to me (on the front row) for a big hug.

Austin was not nervous at all and did not resist or complain about the recital one bit! (a little surprising). He actually loves playing piano now that we've found this new teacher, Jenny. He took piano last school year and didn't seem to enjoy his teacher very much and didn't connect with her. He hit a wall in his progress and started to argue with me about practicing and going to piano. So I let him quit for a few months (he was busy with soccer and swimming anyway). But I was very sad that he might not pick it up again, so I didn't want to delay too long in resuming the lessons. Jenny has been the perfect answer. She knows how to joke around with him, be funny, and keep his attention, yet expects him to practice and to follow up on what he's committed. He never hesitates now when I ask him to practice and he was counting down the days until the recital. It is a Mom-Victory really.

Austin's songs were "From a WigWam" (which he LOVES to play b/c of the chords that give it that Native American feel) and "Home on the Range". He played his pieces so quickly! I am sure he was eager to show his skills. He actually stood up before taking his hands off the keys from his first song, and started to reach for the music for his next song! Then, as he ended his pieces and walked from the piano, he didn't bow- he actually jumped off the stage and skipped the stairs! I think you can probably hear my gasp on the video. (if I knew how to load it I would put a clip here. I'm technically challenged). Ah, my son. Focus on the positive, right? He did a fantastic job and I am so happy to see him open to sharing his talent and learning more difficult songs and progressing.

The rest of the concert was all voice students! My kids were the only piano players in that session. There was a 2nd session after our recital with more pianists, I guess. I enjoyed many of the songs we heard that night. There was an amazing rendition of "The Climb" by a 10 yr old girl. I wanted to give her a standing ovation, it was so good. Two others sang country songs that made me teary (country songs always do that to me!) One was "Who I Am" by Jessica Andrews and the other was "Just a Dream" by Carrie Underwood.

I took a cute photo of the kids with Jenny on the edge of the stage after the concert but it's gone! I must have somehow deleted it. I'm sad! She is such a sweet girl, I just have to put in a plug for her. If any of you live in Utah County, she will come to your house if you live north of Orem/Provo, otherwise she teaches at the studio. She's the best!

Great job Austin and Olivia! And thanks to family members who came to see them, even though their pieces took about 5 minutes combined. It meant so much to them and to me.

And guess who had to take her turn at the piano too? Hmm, future blog post to follow...