The next highlight for the girls was the local Music Festival. This was the first time the girls had ever played in the Festival, or any sort of competition for that matter.
The interesting part came when Marietta couldn’t decide what her second piece would be. She had two choices that qualified and we had told her to try play each of them and see which she liked better, but she left it until the last minute and then had to fill in the form and just picked one of the songs. Rob and I were still cringing when we heard her play the song just days before the competition. She practiced and she cried, and she practiced some more. If Marietta puts her mind to something she can do it, and so she needed some extra pushes to stop saying she couldn’t get it and to focus on getting it. If worst came to worst she could just not play. There were very few times we heard that song played without mistakes, but come competition day she did have it together pretty good … she had put her mind to it!
The Festival was held over a two-day period and Rebecca ended up going the first day. Rebecca is a quiet but quick learner. She has been quietly practicing away at her piano with a determination to catch up to Marietta … and she was doing a pretty good job of it, until Marietta suddenly realized how close her little sister was to catching up to her and this put some determination back into her step. While Rebecca does not like to perform, she did not have an issue when it came time to sign up for the festival, she doesn’t perform on choice but she felt this was just something she had to do (which she didn’t, but it was strongly encouraged by her teacher).
Both of the girls entered two pieces of music (you can only enter one piece for each category/music type). Since it was some time ago I cannot remember how it all went … I’m sure the girls could tell you … but if there were only three people competing they were guaranteed a metal. I think each time they competed there was at least four competitors, but I really can’t remember. The person who got first would perform at the final evening performance. I believe this is the third year they’ve had the competition, so it’s still relatively new, and it being a small town that means there wasn’t huge lines of competitors, meaning most/many kids received a metal.
Rebecca competing/being judge
After the judge had listened to all the competitors and decided the marks he would call each person up and give a few pointers about the song they did. He had an excellent way of doing this, giving fun and neat examples and making the kids feel comfortable and not put on the stop or feeling dumb because they did something wrong.
I’m not sure if the judge is easy with his marking … or the girls are just good at what they do … course I rather think the second, but I believe the first has something to do with it too :) Either way both girls did extremely well. Rebecca came home with two second place metals.
Marietta competing and with the judge
The first song Marietta had to do was Menuett in F …. the one we had been cringing over! Guess it all depends on the competition because she got first place … you know what that means … she was to perform it that night. Her overall mark was still pretty good, although Rebecca’s marks had been better and she had gotten seconds … again, all depends on your competition. The second song Marietta did she also ended up getting first. Thankfully they only allow you to perform one time if you take first in more then one category … wasn’t hard for Marietta to choose what song to play. Funny, she said she would never play Menuett in F again after the competition, but we still hear the song almost daily as she now prepares to play it for the year-end recital
Marietta playing at the Evening Performance
The Grade 5/6 class also competed and won (since we believe they were the only ones to compete I guess that makes a pretty easy win) and so they performed that evening also.
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