POPpers and Balloons

Written by Karen Allendoerfer
Published: June 15, 2009 at 10:32 PM [UTC]

Last week was quite a week.  The last soccer game, the 4th grade send-off, a karate belt test, an open house, two 4th grade concerts, my boss' 60th birthday party, and a case of the flu (not me).  And, the POPS concert.

The Arlington Philharmonic's yearly POPS concert is in the Arlington Town Hall, which is a really beautiful old building.  There is a strawberry festival beforehand and some people eat strawberries and ice cream sitting at tables on the main floor.  Both the chorale and the orchestra perform, separately and together.  My husband had a unique vantage point from the balcony.

The Disney solo . . . turned out to be a little anticlimactic, in a good way.  (It's only 4 measures, after all.)  I was worried about two things:  a shaking bow and going sharp  on the last shift.  So my bow didn't shake much at all, and I did go a little bit sharp.  Not horribly so, but enough so I noticed.  I think that 6 months ago, I wouldn't have noticed, so there's progress.  I can't expect a habit that was 30 years in the making to "magically" disappear overnight.

The last piece was "Stars and Stripes Forever."  Apparently the orchestra does it every year, which means I've done it all of twice now, but it is a lot of fun.  People got to shoot off the remaining poppers that didn't get used in the 1812, and balloons came down from the balconies:

From violinist.com blog

I won't mention her by name unless she says she doesn't mind, but a violinist I met here on violinist.com also joined the Arlington Philharmonic for this concert.  It's a great feeling to meet people on the site and then get to meet them in person.

I'm sorry the season is over, but looking forward to summer!