Well, here I am, folks, trying to catch up on everything that happened in the Lambson family since way before Christmas. Sigh....
Christmas music activities
As I journey through my first year of teaching at Rock
Bridge high school, I am continually reminded of the similarities as well as
the distinct differences between Hickman and Rock Bridge music programs. A tradition with both the high schools is to
record the choirs, orchestras, and bands playing holiday-themed music early in
December to be broadcasted over the local television stations throughout the
month. This has gone on as far back as
when Julina and Emily were in high school in the early nineties and I am sure
it had been going on way before that.
This music is again performed in the Rock Bridge combined
choir/orchestra holiday concert later in December. I selected three numbers for the orchestra to
perform: Ralph Vaughan William’s Fantasia on Greensleeves, Mother Ginger from Tchaikovsky’s
Nutcracker Suite, and a string orchestra arrangement of Chip Davis’s (Mannheim
Steamroller) The Holly and the Ivy. The choir director also asked if we could
accompany the choir in a Hodie and in
Leroy Anderson’s Sleighride. So, we had five numbers to work up, three by
early in the month to be video-recorded for television – NO PRESSURE! As for the result of the taping, I confess I
have yet to watch. No time when it was
on TV and no courage to look at the DVD.
And, it is not about how the kids sounded – it is how I looked when
conducting! Isn’t that vain? I think we did OK. I know we did fantastic on the concert on the
18th. I was extremely proud
of all the performances that night.
I played cello twice at Candlelight – one time with
Tamara Kitchen and Dustin and Briana Frieda for an afternoon program of carols
and the other time for the annual Christmas program which is held much closer
to Christmas. Kirsti was home by then so
I roped her into playing second violin with Tamara on first. I enlisted Grant Bradshaw to play viola and
we four not only played carols but we also sang.
It was fun. That is Ryan sitting in the back ground. Hi Ryan!
Speaking of singing, I rounded up willing family members
(Steven, Sarah, Kirsti, Ryan, Steve, Melanie) and ward members (Erica Sheheta,
Ronald Davis, and Ryan Quade) to ring and sing for the Salvation Army outside
HyVee on the Friday before Christmas.
They asked for a 2-hour commitment and we managed all right the first
hour but it was SOOO COLD that by the second hour, we were popsicles. Some kind soul paid the folks that run the
coffee bar just inside HyVee to give us hot chocolate and it was heavenly. Too bad the warmth didn’t get down to our
toes. Aside from the temperature, it was
great fun. Our four-part harmony sounded
pretty good and I loved the responses we got.
This will be a tradition.
The Bear Creek choir director enlisted me and Tamara and
Savanna Kitchen and a flute player to do a quartet accompaniment for the ward
choir on the second Sunday of December and I thought my involvement in ward
music was over for the month. Nope. The musical number for December 23rd
cancelled so I was asked to play Still
Still Still on my cello. At least it
was not the whole family in the “Lambson show” like other years, right?
Finally, a more somber request was made for Prairie
Strings to play for a funeral the day after New Years. It was for a woman who was very involved in
classical music here in Columbia so the congregation was filled with her
colleagues – a who’s who, so to speak.
Thankfully, I did not have to find substitutes because our part was more
like a concert than background music.
Whew! The pressure was on and we
sounded good.
