This week John and Shannon came down to see Beauty and the Beast and ended up staying through Sunday. Sunday we had a relaxing day driving around together. We first went to Yelm to that meat market and sampled lots of jerky, including ostrich and buffalo. The lamb was my personal favorite because it was moist and had great flavor. We purchased quite a variety to eat along the rest of our journey! We then headed to down to Centralia to McMenamins. We played three games of pool and thanks solely to Pat, we won all three games!:) Pat and I shared a great sandwich with shredded beef and we also got a beer sampler to try all of their brews..... And what day could be complete without some ice cream. Pat and John are huge fans of the Olympic Mountain Ice Cream which is served at Bayview Thriftway. We once again had many samples:) I went with the Pumpkin Praline Ice Cream, it was delicious. Pat had a scoop of that along with Malt Vanilla. It was a great day and so nice to spend some time with a fun couple!

Beauty and the Beast

Well it is hard to believe the show is over and done already!! It was an absolute joy to be onstage again! After that reminder I hope to start auditioning for shows in the area. Here are a few great pictures that have been sent my way. I am so excited to get the DVD. They are combining the best clips that they were able to get over the four nights!! How special to have that keepsake!

Thank you to all my friends, family and THS students and staff who came to the show!!! I was astonished to see so many people there!

I am so excited to be in a show again! I didn't realize how much I missed performing. I have directed, choreograhed, and musically directed about 15 shows in the last 5 years so I am enjoying this time while it lasts. I am musically directing Sussical this year not once but twice. Once at Tumwater High School and also at CTE this summer !

Beauty and the Beast is at Olympia High School

January 18th and 19th at 7pm
January 20th at 2pm and 7:30 pm

A Caroling We Will Go.....

Well December was a month filled with many concerts and caroling opportunities! This was such a blast with the kids! It is amazing how much they bond even if we are just traveling a block or two!!! Here are three of my girls at the Thurston Mason County Dental Society Christmas Party! This was our first peformance of the season. The venue was beautifully decorated but what made it even more special were are the friends that were there....Tyra and Josh, Don and Alice, Katie and Steve, Mrs. Hamilton !!!! It was pretty fun to have them there:) Another fun place to sing was the Clyde and Dale tree farm. We sang in the gift shop for about a half an hour and then we were pulled around through the tree farm and we sang to all the families as they cut down the trees. It was a blast! Many of the kids got their trees with their families right afterwards. What a great tradition!

Here is Bonne Chantuse! We sang at Top Foods. Unfortunatly our sweatshirts did not make it for the performance. So we attempted Holiday sweaters and scarves. I am in the front with phase one of becoming brunnette for Belle! It was an interesting venue because we were standing facing the salad bar! People would stop by for a song or two and then head off for their produce items. $100 was donated in our name to the Salvation Army so that was nice. They girls were real trooper learning all of the carols. There is so much to do at this time of the year but they are phenomonal musicans and dedicated students! By far my favorite place to go simpley because of the acousitcs is the L&I building. It has the most gigantic rotunda so the ring is unreal. I felt like I was back in some of the cathedrals in Russia and Latvia that I had the pleasure of visiting a few summers ago! The girls were blown away by the sound!

THS CHOIR CONCERT

December 14 2006

Well it has been a crazy couple of months around here! I had my first big choir concert at Tumwater! It was certainly one I will never forget! The concert was the night of December 14th....and if you can remember that day.....it was the night of the big storm. My princpal announced at the begining of the concert that if the power were to go out that we would all leave and sing "Silent Night" on the way out:) All started according to plan. My Women's Choir sounded wonderul on some very callenging literature then the THS Noteables were a delight as they sang "You Raise Me Up" made famous by Josh Groban, a THS standard Toomba and then "A Charlie Brown Christmas Medley"!!!! These are the new outfits for the Noteables! They are so gorgeous on stage. I especially like havingthe boys in black with their great green tie! It is really sharp! This was the last moment of normalcy at the concert. As I was talking after the THS Noteables ......the power went out!!! As I said before the plan was to head home but the audience was not about to leave. Flashlights were pulled out all around the auditorium, a headlamp was given to my amazing student accompanist, beams of light from flashlights now dimly lit the singers onstage. As they say.....The show must go on!!!!! The kids were amazing! It is amazing the feeling of community and support that was in that room. We could not have had such an amazing experience without that audience. The last half of the concert was in the dark! Bonne Chanteuse was the first choir in the dark. They were spectacular. I feel so blessed working with them. They are phenomonal singers and people! Concert Choir was the last choir onstage. They perormed one of my all time favorite pieces of choral literature, "Five Hebrrew Love Songs" by Eric Whitacre. Accompanied by piano and violin, the harmonies in this piece are increadable! Our final song is in memory of a student who lost her battle with cancer in 2000. We surounded the audience and sang as theylit there candles. They then hummed the tune again as they excited the PAC. It was a truly magical moment. The audience sat in awe for a moment and then erupted in applause!