Thursday, December 22, 2011

Concert Week

Last week was concert week!  In about a week's time, everyone in our family (except Chanon and Sarah) participated in at least one Christmas concert.  I've already posted about Nathan's.    On December 13th, Dean and Emily had a choir concert at 6:45 at Nampa High:
This concert sounded better than the last one, but the choirs still stink (yes, that sounds like a heartless thing for a mother to say, but Dean and Emily said it first and they know that I don't think THEY stink.  Also, "One must never tell lies, right Dolores?").

One hour later, at Columbia High, Emily had an Orchestra concert.  They sounded lovely:



Two days later, Amy had a concert...I guess technically it was a band concert.  She plays the violin, but band and orchestra are combined, and of course the class is called "Band Class", so there you go.  My camera does not like this room.  I even changed the ISO, and the light setting to "fluorescent", but I can never get a good picture, and they always turn out blurry.  I readily admit that I am NOT a photography expert in any way, shape, or form.  It also didn't help that I was sitting on the wrong side of the room and had to zoom in.
(I took video this time though, so I wasn't too horribly concerned about still photos):

Waiting in "the wings":
 Getting ready to play:
I, myself, was also in a couple of concerts as the pianist for a choir that went to 4 prisons in Boise to bring a Christmas program to the prisoners on December 18th.  We had a Community concert/dress rehearsal on December 8th for friends and family members.  I had the most amazing experience at the prisons, and without a doubt it will probably be the highlight of this year's Christmas season for me.  I think it's pretty safe to say that each member of the choir feels the same way...I think you can see it in our faces:
(I am the 4th on the left.  Picture was taken after our last "performance".)
It was touching to see grown men weep, and we all learned more about loving and serving others.  It was interesting to be in that setting, but to feel the spirit of the Lord so strongly...I know we were being watched over and protected, and I always felt completely safe and unafraid even though we were among some who had committed serious crimes (we did go to a medium security facility, however, we did NOT go to a maximum security prison).  There WERE men and women in attendance who you could tell were good people but who just made stupid mistakes.  It felt good to bring some joy to them.  The prisoners were touched, so grateful we came, and many of them asked us to please come again next year.  Some had been looking forward to this year's visit ALL YEAR LONG.   I would go again in a heartbeat.

Our family will have our last "concert" of the year on Christmas day~  our Ward's Sacrament meeting Christmas program, which Dean, Emily, Amy and I will be participating in.

3 comments:

Dean Brink said...

Did you mean to say medium security prison? Did you mean Minimum? Just checkin'

Rebecca Brinkerhoff said...

Yep, I meant "medium". We also went to some minimum. Just no "maximum". We weren't allowed to go to the maximum, and I'm not sure I'd want to anyway!!!!!

Carolyn Smith said...

What a great opportunity. You all are definately blessed to be in Idaho!!!