The Big Recital

This is what we were getting ready to celebrate. Samantha's Book 1 Harp recital. (Held on Sunday, January 30, 2011.) Not a big deal to the rest of the world, I realize, but a huge deal around here. For those of you not familiar with the Suzuki method, at the end of each book, the students have their own big recital where they play through all of the songs in the book, from memory. So Samantha was the star of the show. It has taken years (literally) to get here and lots and lots of hard work (and tears) and maybe even some yelling by some of those involved (ahem). It took us a bit longer than the average, but she made it all the same. Throughout this process I have determined that although the Suzuki method can teach all children to play music, not all children are made to thrive with this system. (And this particular child may be one of them. But she is still learning discipline and hard work so it is not a lost cause.) Anyway we are excited to watch her continue to develop as a harpist and are especially excited for her to start learning some new songs.

A little pre-show warm up. (Shawn was trying to get the angle of his video camera just right.)

And several photos by my own personal photographers, Shawn and Michelle. (Thanks again for taking pictures since I was negligent.)

I just love having these photos. I don't know why I haven't really thought to take pictures of Samantha at the harp since it is a big part of almost every day. (Probably because it isn't always pretty. The practice struggle, I mean. Both the music and the player are beautiful in my slightly biased opinion.)

We were encouraged to be a little creative with the recital to better fit Samantha's personality - while still keeping it a little bit formal, so Samantha decided to draw the songs out of a hat instead of playing them in order. And if you know Samantha, you know any old, ordinary hat wouldn't do. So, this was the hat we decided on:
And when I think of Samantha, I think of bright colors and crazy patterns. (Both because of her personality and her clothing choices.) So I made 21 different flowers (plus a couple extra) each with a song title on the back. When it was drawn out of the hat, it was placed on a stem in the vase. At the end, we had a lovely bouquet of harp songs - and flowers, to enjoy. I guess the nice part is, they won't die and they won't make anyone sneeze.
Amelia was in charge of the hat, and of course, once it was empty, what could she do but wear it?
Afterward, we had refreshments and enjoyed the company of friends and family. Peter was in his element. In his mind, all of the visitors were here to see him. He made the rounds running up to different grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins with outstretched arms ready to be lifted into their laps.

I thought this was so cute. One of Samantha's friends made her this little harp out of candy canes and string. Samantha is the one who took the photo of it before taking it apart to eat it.

(And her harp teacher gave her the CD of jazzy harp music to listen to.)

It was a fun celebration, but I am glad it is over with and we have a little time before we have to worry about perfecting another book's worth of songs. ;)