A Week of Music and Valentines

This is going to be an out-of-the-ordinary week for me. I'm starting it off in Fort Smith, Arkansas, where I play with the Fort Smith Symphony. Playing with the Symphony is not really unusual, it's the fact that this concert is actually a concert series that we play during the week called Earquake. Hundreds of 5th and 6th grade students are going to be bussed in to see the Symphony over the next two days, first in Fort Smith, then in Bentonville on Tuesday. There will be four concerts all together. The music is fun... exciting to listen to, as well as to play. Big blockbuster orchestra pieces are featured, such as John Williams March from Raiders of the Lost Ark, as well as the William Tell Overture (aka the Lone Ranger Theme). One unusual piece on this concert is a piece by a featured composer entitled Vox Humana. It includes out-of-the-ordinary musical and non-musical elements, and finishes with a 3-minute segment with a taped recording of cat, lion, and tiger sounds, as well as instructions to the orchestra for some people to stop playing and start talking on their cell phones while wandering around the stage. Meanwhile, the lights are dimmed, and neon light sticks are passed around the audience and onstage. The whole effect is eerie, unsettling, and completely bewildering for most of the members of the orchestra. But it is fun.

After all the Earquake excitement is over on Tuesday, I'll then travel to Monett, Missouri to rehearse the Mozart Concerto in A Major with the Ozark Festival Orchestra for a concert to be held next Sunday, February 15. I am the featured soloist on the program. This is a big deal for me. Even though the orchestra is small in size, and mostly amateur in playing ability, this is the first time I will have played a concerto accompanied by orchestra. I have wanted to do something like this for many years, but have never had the opportunity until now. It makes me very nervous, and since I have a propensity for stage fright, I am anxious about my ability to handle the effects of performance anxiety that I have struggled with when performing for as long as I can remember. I think the rehearsal Tuesday night will help me shake off the biggest bunch of the nerves (I hope), and then another dress rehearsal on Saturday should help me feel at ease. If all else fails, I have some medicine I was able to get to help with my heart palpitations and shaky hands. I have performed while using it a few times, and I feel confident it will help me handle the surge of adrenaline that always seems to come when I perform as a soloist.

I am taking the entire week off to prepare, even though I have been practicing and preparing for this for many months. I hope I will be able to focus, make good use of my time, and perform with confidence and poise. I bought a beautiful formal dress... a floor-length black skirt and a wine-colored satin-like blouse that will be elegant and appropriate for a concert held the day after Valentine's Day. I am getting my hair done on Wednesday, and hope to put my best face forward for a beautiful rendition of one of my favorite Mozart concertos.

And in the middle of all this comes Valentine's Day. I have not often looked forward to Valentine's Day. Last year was dreadful, having just gone through a painful break-up. The one before that is not even memorable. I know I was married, but I'm guessing perhaps Chad was out of town, because I have no memory at all of our only Valentine's Day together. The year before that I believe I was in Utah, or about to be in Utah. Valentine's Day three years ago came just a few days before my divorce from Danny was final. Needless to say, it was probably the worst Valentine's Day I could have imagined. I don't remember a lot of other V-Days during my first marriage. I know there were cards, because Danny always remembered cards, and there were probably chocolates most of the time. The only gift I vividly remembering receiving was my first Valentine's Day with him. He gave me a marble rolling pin. To this day it makes me laugh, as well as wonder what possessed him to give a gift like that to his wife on our first Valentine's Day together. Over the years many suggestions have been made as to what I should have done with that rolling pin when I received it. HA!

This year, I have a sweetheart. We are both looking forward to celebrating the holiday together, and to thoroughly enjoying the fact that we have each other. Craig is a very good man. I am impressed by his love for family and home, as well as his steadfastness in the gospel and his righteous desires. I'm very happy that he is sharing this time of his life with me, and look forward to more time with him. So, I know it's a bit early, but I think this year I'll enjoy a whole week of Valentine's Day feelings and fun... Happy Valentine's Day!