Showtime!

Violin week was last week and Lovey had 3 performances. She ended up with 1 first place & 2 second places. In the end she was disappointed at placing second. It was especially bothersome to her that the first place violinist was only 6 and it stung a little to be outdone by someone younger. All 3 played the exact same piece so the level of difficulty was the same and I thought Lovey's had been just as good as the first place girl. Murray thought Lovey's had more feeling to it and the other sounded a bit stiffer. It hit Lovey pretty hard. She was very quiet and stared out the window the whole drive home as she thought about it. We'll see if it motivates her to work harder and take less breaks next year or not!

One of the highlights was that she got interviewed and had her picture in the newspaper!

waiting to go up for her final piece!



all done for another year.

 and posing for me because she left after her piece before I could take a pic!

                                

She made careful notes on the suggestions from the adjudicator on the first day to prep for her last performance.

More music!

More performances for Lovey! She competed in 5 different events and got first place in 4 of them and 2nd place in the other. She had 3 solos, a duet and a trio to prepare. All her pieces were performed within 36 hours! It was a lot of running, a lot of practicing and a lot of sparkle hairspray but she loved it and was so pleased with her marks and comments from the judges.

She looked and sounded fabulous and she enjoys her spotlight moments! She got in trouble from her teacher because in the middle of one of her performances, she posed for the camera while I was grabbing a shot of her playing. She never missed a beat or bow stroke but made sure to look right at me for the shot (I was only going for an action shot and did NOT tell her to do that, I don't mess with serious violin teachers!!!)

She also appreciated everyone who made it in to watch her play. She loves her fans so thank you to all who came!

Duet

Lovey & Murray played a duet at the full house Christmas Eve service! There were so many people, I thought she'd be nervous. It was definitely the biggest crowd she's ever played for. As if that wasn't challenging enough, she asked Murray to request that they sing along if they knew the tune. Seeing as how it was Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, she got a pretty good participation rate! She's never played while other people sang and I was afraid it might throw her off and she'd get distracted watching the crowd and lose her place. She's a performing whiz however and never missed a beat and played through the whole thing perfectly with the biggest grin on her face the whole time. She loved every minute of it, especially that people DID sing while she played. Beforehand, she wasn't sure if they would or not and couldn't have been more pleased with the results!

Here's our little rockstar in the making, with her favourite accompanist, Daddy.

Easter Duet

Lovey has been working hard on a lot of her music lately! I thought it might be good for her to get some performance practice in while she's got so much material polished up and asked the minister to let us know if he needed any "filler" for upcoming services. Luckily he had an opening on Easter Sunday so Murray's parents and sister & BIL could catch the show.

As you watch her play, you can see how much she enjoys it. She started off completely comfortable in front of a church full of people! Then I saw her settle in to her piece. She closed  her eyes and smiled and had that bow flying along the whole way through Sunny Summer March. She especially enjoys having Murray accompany her on guitar. 

and since I had my camera handy, I got a shot of the kids singing during children's time! 

"Like a rock, like a rock, God is under our feet. Like a starry night sky God is over our head. Like the sun on the horizon, God is ever before. Like a river runs to ocean, our home is in God ever more."

Hope everyone had an enjoyable and blessed Easter as we did!