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Welcome to Middle School Monday! We're enjoying a bit of a break from schoolwork, and Kennady enjoyed an exciting trip to New York City this past week on her break. Last year her choir's performance at a festival earned high grades and an invitation for the choir to be a part of the National Children's Festival Chorus performing at Carnegie Hall. The chorus members that were travelling to New York for this performance put in many hours of extra practice time learning and rehearsing the music selections. (And they and their parents spent quite a bit of money on the trip too!) On Thursday, the NYC adventure began with a four-hour (give or take) bus trip. As soon as they arrived at their Manhattan hotel, the kids headed straight to their first joint rehearsal with the other participating choirs. Kennady says that first rehearsal was four hours long! They worked very hard to be prepared for their performance!
While the choirs did have to devote time to rehearsals on Friday and Saturday as well, they also had time to do some exploring in The Big Apple. On Friday, they spent some time at Central Park.
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
I love these shots - Kennady found a rose that had been left at the 'castle' in Central Park.
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
After dinner, they took in the Broadway show "Aladdin", which Kennady assured me was "amazing".
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
The kids were in groups of three to five assigned to a chaperone, and during the free time for sight-seeing, each chaperone group could decide what they wanted to do together. Kennady's group and another group stuck together and their choice for Saturday morning was to visit the Empire State Building.
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
One of the pictures Kennady tried to take from the top floor had an unexpected intruder, and her camera focused on this insect rather than the horizon or the city far below.
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
And the city was definitely VERY far below!
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
I chose the least goofy of all the selfies she took from the top of Empire State Building to share here.
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| Selfie credit: Kennady |
Of course, the "I'm squishing the building" pictures were popular too.
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
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| Photo credit: Kennady |
As they walked around Manhattan, they found several of these small Statue of Liberty photo ops, so it just made sense to get a photo with Lady Liberty.
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| Photo credit: Kennady's chaperone |
After Saturday lunch, it was time for a final rehearsal, and then the kids had some time to get something to eat and get ready for the concert. Here's my favorite performer ready to go!
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| Selfie credit: Kennady |
The hubster and I had traveled to NYC for the day along with two buses full of other proud chorus parents and family, but we didn't get to connect with Kennady until shortly before the concert. I was able to get this picture of Kennady in front of the concert poster.
As you might expect, taking photos during the performance is not allowed, but it was okay to get a picture of the performance hall as we were taking our seats.
And during the intermission, I was able to get one photo of the choir as they were filing off the risers. The quality isn't great, but at least it is focused enough to recognize Kennady, on the lower right. She's in a black gown between two girls in red.
NATIONAL CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL CHORUS
EMILY ELLSWORTH,
Guest Conductor
BEN BAKER,
Piano
TRADITIONAL HYMN How Can I Keep From Singing?
arr. Walker
GEORGE FRIDIRIC HANDEL "O Lovely Peace" from
Judas Maccabaeus
arr. Kesselman
FELIX MENDELSSOHN "Lift Thine Eyes to the Mountains"
from
Elijah
Astor Piazzolla Libertango
ed. Escalada
TRADITIONAL FOLK SONG Shenandoah
arr. Basler
BEDRICH SMETANA "Opening Chorus" from
arr. Ellsworth
The Bartered Bride
Pretty fantastic trip to finish off her middle school years, don't you think so? By the way, I'll share the pictures from our day in NYC in a separate photojournal soon.
Each week I invite bloggers to share their posts about middle school here on Middle School Monday. The link is open through Friday, and I will do my best to visit, comment, and share your posts. Please grab the Middle School Monday button to add to your post or to your sidebar when you leave your link below, and please visit the other links and comment or share. I look forward to seeing what you and your middle schoolers are doing!
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