Gifted Music School Spring Gala

Every year, the Gifted Music School puts on a few concerts. We have the Fall Concert, and the Spring Gala.  The Spring Gala is usually the bigger concert and it obviously happens in the Spring.  For these concerts, the Gifted Music School brings in a special guest artist to perform with the orchestra.  Sometimes, they will play with us, and other times they will be conducting the orchestra.

Some of the pieces we play are really cool.  We have played pieces like Piazzolla Primavera Portena, Gershwin's Summertime, and we even got to do a world premier called Lux Aeterna.  Another popular piece we have played is Summer from Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

This years Spring Gala is on Thursday, May 19.  Our special guest artist this year is Bill McLaughlin.   He is most well known for being a Classical Music radio host.  He plays the trombone and has played in orchestras, and also conducted orchestras.  Bill McLaughlin will be conducting the Gifted Music School orchestra for the Spring Gala Concert this year.  He came in the past to conduct the 2013 Spring Gala, and he has agreed to come back to work with the orchestra.  Apparently he liked us well enough to put up with us for a week.

Our Repertoire this year includes Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring, a Mozart piece, and my piano teacher and her husband (who are the founders of the Gifted Music School) will be doing a duet called Tango.  There will also be a couple more, but since I am not playing them, I don't know what they are.

My least favorite part of the Spring Gala is the many long rehearsals we have to have.  The String players have to rehearse every Saturday for about 3 and a half hours.  I join in for the last 2 and half hours for the Appalachian Spring.  The week of the Concert, they add 3 more rehearsals for 3 hours each so we can work with our guest artist.

The other thing I hate about performing is the Concert outfits we have to wear.  Boys just wear a tux and a bowtie.  The girls have to wear a black velvet top and a long black skirt.  If you wear a jacket over the top of the velvet top, you might end up with a bunch of pink fuzz stuck to it.  I know from personal experience.  The problem with the skirts are that they are so long.  I have had the same skirt since I joined GMS and I just barely grew into it.  I used to have to roll the top of it down so it wouldn't drag too much on the floor.  One year, we were walking out onstage, and I was wearing that skirt and too big shoes.  There was a little lip as we walked out the door and I tripped over it/my skirt/my shoes.  Luckily the pianists were in the back of the line and nobody really saw because my friend caught me.  I learned to wear heels to be a little taller, and make sure my shoes actually fit.

I am actually really excited for the concert this year because I am playing the piano part to Appalachian Spring.  It is such a cool piece, but there are those awkward pages where I just sit there and have nothing to play.

I hope a lot of people come to this, because I think that it is going to be a great concert.  The Spring Gala always has a pretty good turnout and most people love to come and listen.