Beauty and the Beast

          Everyone knows the Disney classic Beauty and the Beast, but seeing it on a Broadway tour is a whole other story. Last night my mom and I went to McCain Auditorium to see the Broadway musical Beauty and the Beast. When we walked in the stage was all decorated with a sheer screen with whimsical vines like a fairy tale and behind was a huge pink rose. After climbing to our seats, which were right in the middle, the music started. They had their own orchestra that traveled with them, the lights dimmed and the show started. The very first character you see is the spoiled prince who sends the old witch away, and then you're wisped away to the quiet village where Belle and her father live. The most incredible thing about this musical was how much the actors sounded like the people in the Disney movie. Even just when she talked, Belle sounded just like the girl who played her in the movie. At the end of the village scene we meet the daringly handsome Gaston. He is totally encompassed with himself but is determined to make Belle his wife. Belle, however, wants nothing to do with Gaston and avoids him as much as possible. When Belle's father goes off to the science fair, Gaston decides to propose to Belle, but to his great astonishment Belle turns him down. Meanwhile, Belle's father has found refuge from the storm and wolves inside the enchanted castle where the spoiled prince, who was now a hideous beast, lived. Here is where we first meet Lumier and Cogsworth, and when Lumier invites the stranger in and allows him to sit in the master’s chair, things go wrong fast! The stage went dark for a split second and then there was the beast towering over Belle's father. He drags him up to the dungeon. After Gaston finally leaves Belle's house, his sidekick comes running in, does a summersault, and scoots up to Belle, when she sees that he is wearing the same scarf she had given her father for good luck she orders him to tell her where he found it. She runs off to find her father when she too stumbles across the enchanted castle. Everyone lights up when they see her, for only a girl can break the spell if she truly falls in love with the beast. She finds her father locked up in the dungeon cold and sick, but before she can free him the beast shows up and she makes a bargain with him to let her father go and take her as her prisoner instead. After the beast slams the door to her room she sings the most beautiful song called Home and wishes she could return to that poor provincial town. The storyline starts to pick up as the beast tries to act more gentlemanly to win the girl's affections. Day by day she slowly starts to care for him and invites him to dinner to make up for not coming the first night. This is where we hear the timeless song Beauty and the Beast sung by Mrs. Pots. Things are going well until Belle learns that her father is lost in the woods somewhere and to the audience's surprise the beast tells her to go. After returning home with her father, we learn that Gaston has cooked up a plot to ensure Belle will marry him. A man from a mental institute threatens to take Belle's father away unless she marries Gaston. When Belle replies she will never marry him, Gaston becomes mad and decides to kill the beast. The town's people march off into the woods and storm the castle. Belle runs to warn the beast of the attacking visitors and runs in just in time to see Gaston stab the beast, but in the process Gaston falls off the balcony and is never seen again. Belle kneels before the beast and comforts him, when the beast slowly slips away from her she says the words, "I love you," just before the last petal on the enchanted rose falls. The beast and everyone turn back into humans and Belle and her prince live happily ever after. The show was incredible and had many added in songs that are not in the original movie. This musical only proves that the Disney classic you watched when you were little is still just as thrilling on stage.

National High School Honors Ochestra

         

         

          The most exhilarating journey I've ever undergone with my violin was the National High School Honors Orchestra (NHSHO). This orchestra is through ASTA or the American String Teachers Association and is one of the greatest honors you can receive. Not everyone can just get in though, you must send in an audition almost a year before the conference. It is a nationwide audition and hundreds of string players, brass players, and even wind players audition. This orchestra only takes place every other year and it's only for juniors and seniors in high school, so really you only have one chance to get in. The first I ever learned of this orchestra was when my older sister auditioned for a spot. She was only a junior in high school and she played a section of Mendelssohn violin concerto first movement along with another piece called Scene De Ballet by Charles De Bariot. In just a few months a letter came, it was from NHSHO. We all held our breath as Megan gingerly slid her finger under the flap of the letter. She slowly pulled out the letter. She had been accepted! That spring we all jumped on a plane to Albuquerque, New Mexico. The performance was the best part of the whole trip; they played West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein. It sounded just like the movie it was incredible. Little did I know that four years later I would be trying out to go to Atlanta, Georgia, for the same exact orchestra. I auditioned with the same pieces my sister did and a few months after I sent in my audition cd I received a letter from NHSHO. I now knew how my sister must have felt when her letter had come. I slowly opened the letter, taking care not to rip the envelope, and pulled out the printed letter inside. I had been accepted!  I was going to be one of the eighty-seven orchestra members out of the fifteen hundred students who had auditioned.  In February, we all boarded a plane set out for Atlanta, Georgia. The hotel I stayed in for the conference was a memory in itself. There were forty floors and eight different elevators; when you looked up it seemed like the hotel went on for forever.  After three days of grueling three hour rehearsals it was finally time for the concert. This was it the moment we had all been waiting for and it was a huge success! We played Tchaikovsky's fourth Symphony. We had hardly finished the last note and the audience was on its feet clapping and whistling. This was truly the most amazing journey I've ever taken!

Violin #2

After a few years my older sister and I started taking lessons from a teacher in Manhattan. We continued competing in fiddling competitions but started playing also in a local orchestra called the Gold Orchestra. Traveling with this orchestra I was able to play in some amazing places. My very first year in the Gold Orchestra we traveled to New York where we would play in Carnegie Hall. Gold Orchestra has taken me to other amazing places as well including: The Grand Canyon and The Midwest Clinic, in Chicago. Gold Orchestra also introduced me to new people including a girl who would be my best friend. Two of my most recent performances was this last December when I soloed with The Kearney Symphony, in Kearney Nebraska. This story started in the spring of 2011 when my violin teacher told me about a competition where you play a concerto for three judges with an accompanist. The first and grand prize winner would recieve a plaque and the chance to solo with the Kearney Symphony. I immediately wanted to try for it. So when the time came my family and I traveled up to Kearney, Nebraska and I auditioned with several other students for this prestigious award. Then it was time. What we had all been waiting for. The time to announce who won. They called the third and second prize winners and then they paused before calling the first and grand prize winner. I won. I couldn't believe it I would be soloing with a symphony in December. It seemed like those months between the competion and the performance dragged on but finally it was time what I had been anticipating since the spring. My family plus my violin teacher and my best friend and I all traveled up to Kearney, Nebraska for the performance. It went off without a hitch and Rebek and I stayed up most of the night watching movies and celebrating.

Violin #1

Everyone has a passion and for me it's music. I have grown up around music my entire life. I started playing the violin when I was only four years old and have now been playing for thirteen years. I'm going to journey back through the years and share some of my favorite memories. My love for the violin started actually when I was about three. My older sister had been playing for two years and I decided I wanted to play too. I remember going to her violin lessons and doing little projects my mom had packed to keep me quiet and thinking I want to play the violin too. Finally it was my fourth birthday and my parents surprised me with a gift they had kept hidden till I had opened up all my other presents. I ripped the paper off like it was on fire and inside was a brand new 1/16th sized violin. I couldn't wait for my first lesson! I remember the entire lesson. She taught me the names of the strings (E, A, D, G), the parts of the violin and bow, and how to hold the violin correctly. Being four my attention span wasn't the best so after I knew notes I would just memorize my whole lesson go in and play it all in about eight minutes. I don't know how she did it but my teacher would always find a way to keep me entertained while still learning for a full half an hour. After I had played for a few years I learned my very first fiddling tune called Boil the Cabbage. My sister was in a group with my violin teacher's son and daughter who were around her age and also played the violin and two more of my teacher's students. They played for concerts all the time and once in a while I would be allowed to play Boil the Cabbage with them. The tune was loaded with antics and was a crowd pleaser. The boys would play behind their backs in one part and my personal favorite was when we all lined up and the person to our right would play our violins and we'd finger. Now since all of these people were at least four years older than me I was never tall enough so when the time came I'd climb up on a chair and continue playing. This is the end of my first post and I hoped you enjoyed it.