It seems like everybody's running around getting ready for the holidays but had to check in and say that the Lakewood City Schools concerts have been amazing, the one thing that restored my sense of what Christmas is about in the midst of all the shopping.
I attended Harding's holiday concert and was amazed at how great the playing and the singing were-- a lot of hard work, a lot of talent, and a lot of amazing organization to pull that off. The other thing I noticed was how happy the players seemed-- they seemed like they were celebrating.
A week later at Grant with the little kids I felt the same thing-- which made sense because instrument-wise, the same people were involved, Mr. Griebel and Ms. Tabaj teach at Harding and Garfield, but between them and working together, they cover instrumental music for all of the elementary schools, which is no small feat. Mrs. Smith, the music teacher at Grant, picked fantastic songs for each grade, highlighting the strengths of all of them. Some songs had the whole room laughing, and some had everyone in tears, they were so moving, sung by such earnest little people.
Again I was reminded of what the holidays are supposed to be about, and was very grateful to all of the people in our schools that came together to make that feeling of celebration and togetherness possible.
Here are some very bad pictures I took from far away with my phone. (I forgot to mention, every concert was packed, standing room only, with parents, grandparents, siblings who graduated long ago but remember the teachers, neighbors, who all wanted to come out and hear the kids.) The video is better but I haven't figured out how to do that yet.
Betsy Voinovich
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Mr. Griebel conducts the Harding Sixth grade band, as they play "First Winter Sleigh Ride" at the Civic Auditorium. He is retiring this year and will be sorely missed.
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Mrs. Smith conducts a first grade of snowflakes at the Grant Holiday concert.
I don't have the video but here's one of the songs the first grade sang, that had everybody laughing. The choreography was spectacular, they were shoveling in unison, and on the instrumental breaks they all rocked out on air guitars.