Our grandchildren drew us to four different stages in the last week and what a delight it has been! Here's a little photo tour to preserve, on some level, the beauty of the music Parker, Anna, Joe and Timo created. I hold the music in my head and my heart. I revisit it through the tinny speaker on my iPhone. Knowing the videos will not preserve on this blog, I will trigger the memory and the sound with photos. You'll have to take my word that the music far surpassed the quality of the photos I took on my little iPhone.

PARKER

Cool Hip Cats
Farmington High Jazz Band
Parker on drums

Occasionally Jazz gives way to Rock and Roll

Parker is most comfortable with one of two things in his hands - a set of mountain bike handlebars or a pair of drumsticks. We have two killer drummers in Clan Connors. Park keeps the beat with the Farmington High Jazz Band, as well as a side band that rocks various stages around town. I am always stunned at the musicianship of these kids. I have to keep my eyes wide open to remind myself they are just kids. Parker is a lover of music, especially tasty jazz. That he actually gets to create it is a gift. It's tough to get a good shake when you are part of a very large school, and we are grateful for the determination and dedication these kids have demonstrated that placed them on these stages. Barvi, my littles!

ANNA

Owning a song from Hadestown.

Stirring up music from Waitress.

Back in the day, when Anna and her cousin Ruby
dipped their toes in musical theater in Sarah Asplund's
summer musical theater camp.

Musical siblings unite!
(Timo and Anna)

Anna has been pinch-me-blessed to be trained in the musical theater class at Mountain Ridge High School under the tutelage of Kelly DeHaan. What an incredible experience. I remember when I first encountered Kelly, before I knew him on such a personal level (he now plays my Christmas shows with me) I told Sarah she should consider moving to South Jordan so her kids could have Kelly DeHaan for choir. I couldn't believe he was a high school choir director, knowing all the other remarkable music jobs he had. As fate would have igt, Mr. DeHaan moved to Mountain Ridge High when it was built, being able to create from the ground up a musical program for a first rate school. Timo grew under his direction, and now Anna is too. Saturday night was the Musical Theater Broadway Review. Anna sang in all the group numbers, in a trio, and did a magnificent solo. Out timid girl blossoms on stage.

JOE

Dr. Ralph B. Woodward founded and still conducts
the Salt Lake Children's Choir

Musical siblings unite!
(Anna and Joe)

Sunday night we spent in the historic and magnificent Tabernacle at Temple Square at the “Sacred Evening of Dances, Music and Prayer”, hosted by Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable. There our community united in diversity as dancers, singers, bagpipers, and many others represented their various religious devotions. Ten-year-old Joe, with the angelic choirboy voice, sang with the Salt Lake Children's Choir. They make such divine music. The whole program was remarkable. I'll include photos of additional groups that performed last night. It was a most beautiful and stirring event, causing me to rejoice in our mutual respect and diversity. Every single performance this choir has been part of has been beautiful. They are invited to perform in a lovely variety of venues and programs, which is unusual and refreshing in this territory.

TIMO

Lyceum Philharmonic Orchestra

Musical families unite!
(Timo and his mom)

Then today we spent in the beautiful Maurice Abravanel Hall, AKA Symphony Hall, where Timothy worked up a mighty sweat playing percussion for Lyceum Symphony, followed by a real workout playing timpani for the first three movements of Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Lyceum Philharmonic Orchestra. What a performance! I laid y head back in the soft velvet seat and gazed up at the lovely chandeliers in that divine space, the light sparkling off the crystals like stars in the firmament. I told Dave afterwards that you know when an orchestra is doing their job well when you can fall into a peaceful rest during the third movement. I never could stay awake in the symphony. I used to beat myself up about that. Now I embrace it as heaven breathing down on me and allowing peace to enfold me to the degree of losing consciousness. Anyway, it surely was divine.

One of the most thrilling parts of all was that Dave was able to attend today's mid-day performance with me without having to take a vacation day or get someone to cover his court schedule. Huzzah!

We celebrate the fact that the generation two branches below us is embracing the power of music. Makes my heart vibrate with joy.

Other performers in the Interfaith Celebration