Piano Recital

On Saturday, our family attended the boys' end of the year piano recital.  They had both practiced really hard and had memorized their pieces.  The recital took place at Grace Baptist Church in Old Hickory.  The boys performed on a black grand piano in a very large sanctuary.  The room was pretty intimidating.  Will loved the sanctuary and spent most of his time running up and down the aisles with Michael hot on his heels. 

Before the performances began, Mr. Richey, the boys' piano teacher, encouraged the families in the audience to clap and cheer for each child as though they had just scored the winning touchdown.  This made the performance so much for the kids and it really eased their nerves.  Sam took the cheering to heart and when it was his turn to play he walked up to the piano pumping his fists in the air.  It was so precious.  He took a deep bow and then sat down at the piano to begin his piece.  Sam has practiced his piece for weeks.  He had completely memorized the music and didn't need his sheet music at all.  Well, even though he didn't show it, I guess he let his nerves get the best of him.  Some how he didn't start on the correct key with this right pinky finger and never recovered.  Much of the song was completely out of key and made no sense.  The funny thing is that Sam didn't seem to notice.  He didn't let on at all that he had completely bombed his song.  He didn't make a sour face, he didn't stall, and he didn't slow down.  After completing his number, Sam took a bow and then lept off of the stage to thunderous applause. 

Finn's piece came later in the show.  He played two (2) pieces that I thought seemed pretty difficult.  Finn did a great job.  I could see that he was really tense though.  His jaw was clenched and his arms were stiff.  It was the first and only time I have ever looked and Finn and thought that he looked like me.  

On the way home Sam asked me to play the video of his performance.  Sam listened for few seconds and said "that doesn't sound like my song."  I told him that I thought he may have stared with his fingers in the wrong position.  He looked so sad and said, "I guess that means I did terrible!"  I tried to encourage him, but he was pretty upset about it.  Granted, he got over it in about a minute. 

After the performances we took group pictures and a few posed individual pictures.