Martin Luther King Day Celebration

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.
-Martin Luther King Jr.

Just a quick post to thank the community for a beautiful Martin Luther King Day celebration this Monday. I was so proud of the Lower Schoolers for their performance of Sally Rogers' "What Can One Little Person Do," especially our enthusiastic soloists who only had two weeks to prepare for the big show! If participation in the choir and drumming group continues to grow at this rate, we'll need to rent out a coliseum by 2012... it was quite a rush to play Brazilian rhythms with 50+ drummers and percussionists, from first-year Lower Schoolers to grandparents. The large gospel choir brought the audience to its feet. The words of Martin Luther King Jr. are every bit as relevant–and inspirational–as they were when he first spoke them. Hearing his words and those of other civil rights activists between heartfelt performances and worshipful silence was beyond powerful.

Before this year's celebration, I didn't know the history of the MLK holiday. One of our own teachers, Henry Walker, read a letter he wrote that was published in Newsweek in the early 1980s in support of the holiday. We also heard Ronald Reagan's moving words in support of the new holiday. I hope that communities far and wide will continue to work to make this day more than the tail end of a 3-day weekend, but a day of celebration, service, and reflection. And large drumming ensembles!

Middle School visits River City, and a shout-out!

It was a big weekend at the Middle School--months of hard work culminated in an amazing run of "The Music Man." All three shows were sold out, and we even had quite a few folks at our open dress rehearsal. The actors were amazing! I feel so honored and blessed to work in such an energized, positive, and talented community. As I told many friends and parents, musically directing this show was such a blast that it didn't even feel like work--except learning to play that darn scene change music at the last minute! During the shows, I acted as musical director/pianist/producer of sound effects... and performed my debut on snare drum, hitherto heard only on my drum pads for Rock Band 2 for the Wii.

One of my favorite parts of the MS show experience was the opportunity to work with Toni (director) and Henry (producer). I look forward to many more musicals with this team. I'd also like to give a shout-out to Henry's blog, where he publishes his wonderful poetry. His most recent entry, "giving enough time," includes a sweet picture of my little one.

Trimester 2 is drawing to a close, and our third trimester will begin right after Feb. parent/teacher conferences. I'll miss musically directing, but I'll have the opportunity to teach two new classes. In "Renaissance Consort," students will learn about the Renaissance while putting together a consort of soprano and alto recorders. In "That's Whack," we'll pretty much whack on things. Those things will include Boomwhackers (musical plastic tubes), small percussion, and "found" instruments. Both groups will perform late in the trimester. I'll also be teaching the remaining third of the first-year class in music rotation.