Diverse Interests

Matthew had another concert this evening, this time the one to showcase the numbers the kids will play in all their festivals over the next month. Daniel was able to come down for the performance and Matthew was so, so pleased. Daniel has never heard Matthew play with his ensembles because Daniel lives just far enough away that it can be hard to arrange the travel time around his own school and work responsibilities. But his schedule was amenable tonight, and we are all so glad he was able to come.

This was a big night for Matthew because, after a year and a half of expressing his desires, he was given an opportunity to sing as well as play his trumpet. One of the numbers the jazz band played is “Children of Sanchez,” a jazz number that features an acoustic guitar and a lengthy vocal section at the beginning. They played the second part of the number at the Valentunes Gala a few weeks ago, but tonight was the first performance including the guitar/vocal solo at the beginning. Matthew did a great job. Seriously, he is a pretty talented kid, and his interests are very diverse which can make choosing hard. He loves jazz band but also wants to sing in the jazz choir next year. He also loves stage tech and the theater teacher would love to have him in the musical theater class as well. So, there are three teachers that would love to call Matthew their own and frankly, they will have to share. Matthew will pick and choose what he wants to do and since he has limited hours in the day and a mighty great need to graduate, he won’t be doing everything all the teachers want him to do. But hopefully he will be able to do his top three-jazz band, jazz choir (auditions are coming up next week), and stage tech. 

It has always been fun to watch our children learn and grow and this evening was another opportunity to see the results of all the time and effort Matthew has put in to improving his talents and skills. He finds joy in his music, and I hope that he will continue to do so for many years yet to come. Sometimes the stress of being overscheduled, the social drama that accompanies any high school anything, or the expectations or choices of teachers can take that joy away. (We definitely saw that happen with Nathan and it made me so, so sad.) But my own personal experiences are that the joy found in the music can overshadow all the negatives. I hope that Matthew’s experiences will also fall into that category.