Back from the concert
Maybe I’d forgotten that things evolve. Perhaps I’d placed such a halo over the head of the last musical director that I figured we’d be in for something worthy of bronze. Instead, tonight’s concert by the bands and choirs and orchestral groups of my son’s school was one of the best in years.
The school has had a dedicated music program for the last two decades, most of it spent with the same director. The bands were shaped to his vision, and his tolerance for sloppy technique approached zero. That helps an instrumental program, but it doesn’t leave much room for change. His retirement was enough to provoke worry, given that I have a visceral involvement – my three sons, with the cadet still in a chair.
Tonight, the younger players shone. Those who don’t know “the old ways” are quick to adopt the new, and there’s a different gunslinger at the podium. The choirs were trying new things, the advanced band had lost nothing, and the stage band is the best I’ve heard from the school since we began doing our part as audience. Tight, a great percussion section, soloists that did their bit and stepped aside for the next in line. A band after my own heart.
Something tells me that “if the current tendency continues”, this school will have concerts that will be worth attending, long after the consanguinal link has been broken. I might become one of those people that goes to school concerts because I can. Now if I could just find a way to sit in with them.
