We went to the family series concert by the Mankato orchestra. Can you guess who was the featured composer for this year's series?
Yes the red priest himself, Antonio Vivaldi. Today's concert was "spring." Vivaldi told us about his poem which inspired the music. How he wanted to make the music sound like the birds chirping, and the thunder and the lightening. After each section's description, the quintet played for us to hear what Vivaldi had explained.
The kids all sat and enjoyed it. It was a little hard to hear Vivaldi speak, because he spoke in such a high voice and his voice didn't project well into the room.
Unfortunately David wasn't able to join us today. He originally was going to, but Earl was called to his eternal home and was given Christian burial this morning. That meant the baptism originally scheduled for the morning was pushed till the afternoon, at the same time as the concert. So a friend of Hannah and Ellie came instead.
At the beginning and end Vivaldi sang a song; the first two lines being, "My name is Antonio Vivaldi, Under my wig I am baldy." And at that point he did this:
It made all the kids (and adults) giggle.
After about an hour, the concert was over and we were able to come up an meet Vivaldi. Nathan asked him for his autograph.
He wrote: "Happy Spring! Tony." I then took a picture of all the kids with Vivaldi. He is such a character.
We then walked over and talked a bit with the celloist. She told the kids a little about the cello and played a few notes for them.
It was a nice afternoon listening to "Spring" even though the weather outside isn't so spring-like today.
Vivald's "Summer" will be in June, I hope we'll be able to attend. I wish I had checked the symphony schedule earlier because Vivaldi "Autumn" was in September and Vivaldi "Winter" was in December. But "Spring" is my favorite, so I'm glad we heard it, and I'm also glad Hannah was given "The Four Seasons" by Vivaldi as a birthday gift from Grandpa and Grandma. We can listen whenever we like and remember our fun afternoon.
2 comments:
What fun! It sounds like a great reward! And it still technically school! (don't tell the kids!)
I really like the idea of Reward Day. As homeschoolers, due dates become somewhat difficult to enforce. It's hard for the students to accomplish school when mom is taking someone to the doctor. So the entire schedule is thrown off.
The types of activities that you've chosen have had great appeal for a variety of ages.
I especially like this reward. The "Children's Day at the Orchestra" that our local symphony performs each year is always terrific. Thanks for sharing!
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