Christmas Concert

For the first time in two years, the NWC music program put on a live concert. Elizabeth played as a member of the Honors Wind Ensemble and Emily sang as a member of the Honors Choir.  They both performed beautifully and the show was just wonderful, a welcome sign of normalcy.

From the soccer field to the music room - love these two.

Honors Choir

Acknowledging the seniors after their performance.

NWC Christmas Concert

Northwest Catholic's Christmas concert was just a few days before Christmas and the as usual, the performances blew us away. It's amazing to me that such a small school has such an incredible music program.  Elizabeth performed in both Big Band and Honors Wind and did a wonderful job.

Musical Revue

This year, Elizabeth auditioned for and made Big Band, which is her school's jazz band. One of things she was drawn to when we first visited NWC was that they had two flutes in their jazz band, which is unusual.  After putting in some work on jazz pieces over the summer, she auditioned and was accepted as a member of Big Band.  Two nights a week, she stays at school until 8:30pm for rehearsals (it's exhausting for these parents, let me tell you), but she really enjoys it and she loves the other musicians in the group.  Last weekend, they had their first performance, at a fundraiser for the school.  They sounded really good and she told us that several parts of songs were improvised, which is just amazing.

Chamber Music Recital

In mid-February, Northwest Catholic had its Chamber Music Recitals.  All students in Honors performance groups were required to perform at least one song during the recital - solo, duet, or larger group.  Elizabeth performed a duet with another freshmen and she performed with all of the flutes in the Honors Wind Ensemble, which is her music class.  Overall, the performances were very good and we were very proud of Elizabeth, who arranged the duet piece and then performed with her "flute nation" with very little rehearsal.

Pirates of the Caribbean

The German Dances

NWC Holiday Show

Earlier this month, we attended the Northwest Catholic Christmas Concert.  It was quite a holiday show, with several vocal and instrumental groups performing.  We were quite impressed with the various ensembles, including the Honors Wind Ensemble (Elizabeth's group), and the finale, which included all of the various groups, was quite amazing.

All of the performers wore some variation of floor length dresses or tuxedo shirts and pants. 

Honors Wind Ensemble

Sleigh Ride

All of the vocal and instrumental ensembles on stage together.

Studio Flute Recital

On Saturday, Elizabeth had her studio flute recital for students of Dr. Hopkins at the Hartt School.  She performed a difficult piece called Sonata in F Major, I. Vivace, by Georg Philipp Telemann.  Although she gets very nervous performing by herself in front of others, we thought that she did a great job.

Elizabeth was thrilled that her JPII music teacher came to support her.  We are so lucky!

Band & Chorus Concert

The girls' last band and chorus concert was a few weeks ago.  They did a wonderful job performing.  Elizabeth surprised us by performing a solo - her band teacher spoke about her scholarship to NWC and then Elizabeth performed one of her scholarship pieces.  She didn't think that it sounded good, so I'm not allowed to post it here.  The chorus sang some beautiful pieces, finishing with Home, by Phillip Phillips.  There wasn't an 8th grade parent in the place that wasn't crying.  I'm going to miss watching Elizabeth and her incredibly talented classmates perform in these concerts, but thankfully, we still have two more years with Emily.

Emily walking to receive her All State award. 

Awesome 8th graders. 

These two have been taking this post-concert photo together for five years. 

The Eliz(s)abeths 

Fabulous 6th graders. 

With Marie.

Live from Lincoln Center

On April 30th, Elizabeth had the chance to play at Lincoln Center with the Connecticut Future Musicians All State Symphonic Band.  They didn't actually play inside, but on the plaza outside of the Metropolitan Opera House.  It was a great trip and so neat to watch them play at such an awesome location.  I'm so glad that Elizabeth and I decided to take the trip together!

She loves the train. 

At Lincoln Center 

JPII representatives at the performance, with their music teacher. 

Lunch at Black Tap. 

A little bit of sightseeing before we headed home.