Wednesday we went to our daughter Laena's last choir concert of the year. It was beautiful, and I had a great time taping it, and hearing music that was actually in tune. She's in an all girl's choir called Belles Voix. Together with their counterpart, Take Ten Men's Choir, they did a great job. : )
The choir director Kelly DeHaan, is amazing. I don't know if he knows how much of a positive influence he is, and has been, in our community over the years. He's been teaching for eleven years, and at the end of the night Wed, he had everyone who's ever taken his class, all the alumni who happened to be in the audience, come up on stage with the current group, and sing a couple of Christmas numbers with them. Seeing everyone again, he said he felt old. Old, but happy. : ) What a guy! He promotes such a feeling of community loyalty/togetherness. Laena is so lucky to have him for a teacher. I mean, he's a little cocky, but I think he's entitled. Such talent you do not run across every day. To give you an idea, Mr. DeHaan was in the Mo Tab Choir (Mormon Tabernacle Choir) for years, he directed the Day of Celebration in '05, leading a youth choir 16 thousand strong, (that alone is an amazing accomplishment), and he was recently recruited and sent back East to help with the 'new and improved' LDS Nauvoo Pageant in Illinois, which we saw every year when I was in High School. It's quite the production, a lot of work to put together. Anyway, I could go on for a while about all the plays and performances put on by Mr. DeHaan, but mostly I'm just grateful that Laena gets to be a part of all this. Such feel good stuff this is. : ) I also appreciate the fact that the kids at the high school have to maintain a 3.0 GPA to be in Choir class. This, coupled with the camaraderie and purpose they feel with their musical peers, is a powerful motivation for them to keep up their grades, promoting success for our youth all the way around. Wow. Our little girl has even thought about starting up a blog called Blog Voix, to document choir experiences, tours and competitions and the like. Cute idea. : ) Go Laenabug! La, la la, la la. : )
No comments:
Post a Comment