A Send in the Clowns/All That Jazz Mashup

I didn’t have much time to blog last week about my musical family because I was too busy attending musical events.  First, we attended the Northfield Middle School winter band concert on Tuesday; Sebastian played trumpet in the middle school jazz band and the 7th grade band.  It was another impressive concert, despite the fact that it was bumped from the middle school auditorium to the gym.

(If I ran the world, I would have decided that comfortably seating the huge crowd of parents and grandparents who showed up to support the middle school musicians should take priority over working on the set for the high school’s Rock ’N Roll Revival production, which opens March 11.  But no one has yet invited me to run the world).

Two days later, we cheered Elias as he and the rest of the fourth graders at Greenvale Park Elementary put on a Circus of the States.  Elias was Mr. Alabama.  At the end of the 1 1/2-hour show, which included juggling and clown acts, all the kids sang the Fifty Nifty United States song. 

Elias as Mr. Alabama.

The end of last week was packed with not one, but two music-related road trips.  On Friday I chaperoned Sebastian’s middle school orchestra trip to a music festival in Woodbury.

Sebastian playing viola in the 7th grade orchestra.

And on Saturday, Steve and I spent several hours touring Mankato while Sebastian’s middle school jazz band performed at the Jazz Fest at Minnesota State University-Mankato.

We took Sebastian out for dinner and attended the concert that evening by the university’s jazz band, the Jazz Mavericks, and guest clinician Gordon Goodwin, an award-winning Hollywood composer and arranger.

The jazz concert was a fantastic conclusion to a busy week.  It left me feeling grateful that my kids have so many wonderful musical opportunities here in Northfield, and so many dedicated teachers who make it all possible.