herbiehancock

Not too long ago, I showed you this picture of a pretty tree in my neighbor's yard. Well, now that tree looks like this, and after all the high winds we have had this week, my back yard just to the right of this tree looks like this. My front yard, not to be outdone, looks like this. Can you see all of those leaves on the ground?  It looks like I'm going to be spending the weekend with a rake in my hand. While I am out there raking, I've left a couple of things here in this post for you to do. First, if you'd like to, you can listen to my son's string quintet play the song, "Michelle."  He's the one standing  up in the back on the right playing the double bass. Second, you can look at a pretty drop leaf table or two, or check out what is for sale at any of the stores under the CSN name to see if there is anything there that you might like to buy with a $55.00 gift certificate.   Why am I suggesting you do this?  I am suggesting it because the...

   My son has been doing well with his music.  The string quintet he is in performed at a birthday party at the local country club for an 80-year-old's birthday recently and also at a local fundraising event.  They are booked in the near future for a wedding and three different Christmas events. (One of the Christmas events happens to be at our local library.  I can't imagine how the group managed to get booked there!  *Looking at the sky, and whistling innocently*)  He is also keeping busy with the Toledo Youth Symphony, and his high school orchestra too.      I wanted to share with you this video of a duet he did with his girlfriend at her church with him on the upright bass (also called the double bass) and her on her violin.  It is called, "Concertante."  I missed the very beginning because the usher came around with the collection plate right at that moment, and I had to fumble in my purse for an offering instead of have ...

This past Sunday I traveled to Toledo, Ohio to the Peristyle Theater of the Toledo Museum of Art to hear my younger son play the upright bass as part of the Toledo Youth Sinfonietta. It was an exciting day. In the photo above is the program booklet which has MY son's name in it. ( Yes, I'm boasting and grinning. Thank you for reading this and kindly indulging a mother's pride. ) This is what the stage looked like before the musicians came out on it. Click on this link: Peristyle Theater , to see a view of the inside of the theater from the rear of the auditorium taken by a photographer who obviously knows what he is doing. It is a spectacular place. The members of the Sinfonietta made sure their instruments were tuned and spent some time warming up before the concert started. My son was second chair upright bass. He is the one standing second from the right with the glasses and red hair in the photos below . The concert is about to start. I made videos of the song...

I hope you all will forgive me for beaming with pride, but I wanted to share with you some of the music I heard this past Sunday. My younger son played his upright bass in the local high school orchestra concert that day, and I was in attendance. His girlfriend, also in the orchestra, played the violin. They were in their formal wear for the performance as you can see. I made videos of three of the four songs they played during the concert. My son is in the back on the right hand side of the stage playing the upright bass. You can see just the top of his head occasionally above one of the music stands. His girlfriend is seated, playing the violin, just to the left of the director in the middle of the stage if you want to watch for her when I turn the camera over in that direction. The quality of these videos, taken with our inexpensive camera by me---the one with NO camera skills, is poor at best. I think I managed, unknowingly, to cut off the beginning of one of these songs a...

You may remember that a while back my fifteen-year-old son was hoping to form a string quintet along with his girlfriend and some of their friends. That quintet has been formed, and they have been practicing the last few weeks. This morning, they had their debut performance when they played two pieces for our church service. My son is the one standing and playing the upright bass, and his girlfriend (although not much of her is visible) is playing the viola and is sitting to the left of him. I think they did a great job, and I am quite proud of them. The first song they performed was "Shepherd's Dance" by Schubert. The second song they played was "You Raise Me Up." The music for this piece was written by Rolf Lovland and the lyrics were written by Brendan Graham.

The last two evenings, my younger son played his upright bass in concerts at his school. Unfortunately, I was working both nights and missed the performances. My husband was able to go, though, so I am borrowing the photos he took for this post. On Monday night, he played with the junior high orchestra at their spring concert. Last night the eighth graders were invited to join the high school orchestra on stage for their spring concert. He is in the center of this photo on stage at the Arts Center holding his bow down to his side and waiting for the cue from the director to be ready to play. You may remember a previous post when I mentioned that he was auditioning for a scholarship for summer strings camp. At last night's high school concert, the winner was announced. No, he wasn't the one chosen, but his girl friend was! In this next picture, he is making a pretend pout face because he didn't win and she did. Actually, he was very happy for her, as we all were. She...