The Junior Symphany

Finally, the exciting news about my daughter. As I have mentioned before, my oldest daughter plays the upright bass and auditioned for the Mid-Michigan Junior Symphony and was accepted. I was so proud and excited because this group is made up of mostly high school children and daughter #1 is still in 8th grade. She has been learning so much more from this group than at school since the music they play is much more complicated.

On Thursday morning, the symphany got to play on the stage at the Wharton Center on the Michigan State University campus. This is the same stage that all of our local off broadway plays and productions are performed on.

When #1 and I got to the center, we were immediately directed through the Green Room that was filled with head shots and autographs of all the famous people that have performed at the Wharton. Behind the Green Room was the backstage area. It was huge! I've never seen so many wires, lights and pulleys. The ceiling had to be at least 50 feet high.

This was #1's first big performance. She has performed many times but always with kids her own age. It was interesting to see her finding her way. The first thing she did when she came on stage was to take the 1st chair bassist's spot on the front of the stage. I watched as the 2nd chair nicely told her that her spot was on the other side of him.

The students were asked to be on the stage two and a half hours early so they could practice. I had not yet heard this group play and was bracing myself for off pitch wrong notes. This was so not the case. These kids played as well as the adult symphony. They played Mozart, Beethoven, a Star Wars compliation theme and some Asian music. I had brought my book to read but was mesmerized by the music for the entire rehersal.

I took this one from the stage. You can see that the Wharton Center has a balcony level.
The pictures don't show the enormity of this place.

This one was taken during rehersal.
Most of the group was there at this point.

This is #1. Look how tiny she is. When she first started playing,
she had a much smaller bass because she couldn't reach
to the top of the strings. (I wish someone would have moved that chair.)

So, I've become a stage mom. How exciting is that? They have another performance on May 9th in case anyone is in the area. ;-)