Hannah and Sasha's Piano Recital

Last weekend Sasha and Hannah had their first piano recital of this year.

They have both had a great year of  piano lessons.   Somehow, I managed to find them a fabulous teacher who had just moved here from Calgary and was just starting to build up her studio.  The best part?  Lara comes and teaches their lessons at our house!  It's awesome!  I can be in the kitchen making supper or doing homework with Ellie while the girls are having their lessons in their own living room.   Anything that reduces the number of times I have to drive anywhere makes me very thankful.  It's also nice to be able to eavesdrop on their lessons from another room.  There are no secrets here.

This was Sasha's first year of lessons and to say she loves playing piano is an understatement.  She LOVES playing piano.  She actually asks to practice piano.  Yes, I know, this will likely change.  I've been through this before with Hannah, remember?  It's always fun at the beginning.  I'm just enjoying it while it lasts.

Hannah has enjoyed lessons a lot more this year as well.  Last year's teacher and lessons were not her favorite things in the world.   Lara has managed to bring some of Hannah's love of music back to her this year and has incorporated a lot of great repetoire.

Lara booked an activity room at a personal care home for the recital.  She finds that this gives her a great big room to use, but it also gives the residents something to listen to as well.  I think that's a great idea.  Sasha was so nervous as we were driving over to the care home.  She's been at a million of Hannah and Ellie's recitals over the years, but going to her first one was a very big deal.

When we walked into the room for the recital we saw an old clunker of a piano waiting for the girls.  Mike isn't sure it had ever been tuned.  Well, maybe it had been, but you couldn't tell by the way it sounded.   Lara had each of her students introduce their own pieces to the audience.  I think this is a great learning opportunity for speaking in front of a crowd - especially for shy kids like mine.

The best part of the recital was listening to the residents humming and  singing along or making comments to the performers after their pieces.  Music really does make people happy!