The Lee Family: The Girls Piano Recital

Yesterday afternoon the girls had their summer piano recital which was also Olivia's very first time playing in front of a crowd. Several weeks ago Sofia picked out her recital piece, the Imperial March from Star Wars, which she has absolutely loved to practice and play and ended up memorizing her music. She got the opportunity to play it at school during the last days of school when each of the classes got to show off their talent. She was super excited to play in front of her classmates and was so happy to announce that all the boys cheered when she started to play. She said they were ready for some frilly piano piece and were so excited when it "was something good." She became very comfortable playing it and it sounded awesome! Meanwhile, Mr. James our piano instructor had asked if we wanted Olivia to play in the recital and I asked him to suggest it to her, rather than ask since I figured she would shy away from playing in front of others. At first she said she couldn't do it but promised to play in the next piano recital. After about two weeks, she decided to play in the summer recital! I asked James what changed her mind and he said he told her she could pick whichever music she most liked and when she came across "Yankee Doodle Dandy" she said she wanted to play that in the recital. Plus, I think she heard how good Sofia sounded and probably didn't want to be left out of the experience.

In the past weeks they practiced regularly and got more and more comfortable with their music. Olivia had a habit of rushing through the first part and slowing down too much for the second part. Sofia was really good about working with her to get her timing right and she got it down just in time for the recital. As we drove to Metroplex Piano in Keller at 3:30 yesterday afternoon, we were wondering how Olivia would react once we stepped inside the room with all the parents and kids. She's much more shy than Sofia and doesn't normally like the spotlight on her, so we thought there might be a little stage fright. Sofia's first performance came with a serious case of stage fright and she tried to turn around and walk out as soon as we walked into the room! CK calmed her down and she's been fine every recital since then. I took a few photos of the girls by a beautiful (and very expensive) piano and then we all headed into the performance room. Sofia led the way and Olivia followed like a little duck. They both walked right up to James, were told were to sit and were completely fine! CK and I sat next to Stacy, Marco and Marco's aunt Dora and I sat with Patrina. As we parked Patrina and Victoria caught our attention and we'd completely forgotten that Mr. James is Victoria's piano instructor too! We haven't seen them in ages and it was so fun to see them and talk briefly. Sofia and Victoria gave each other a huge hug and Sofia immediately turned to me and asked when they could come over!

The recital started and Olivia was the second student to go following two guitar performances. It was soon her time and she approached the stage like a pro! I stood in the walkway to take pictures of her while CK stayed in his seat to record her play. She started "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and played it perfectly (to my non-professional ear). She kept the right cadence and it sounded great. She played with her little tongue sticking out most of the song, which I didn't notice until I watched her on the video this morning. She does that when she plays soccer too and I think it's what she does when she's concentrating. So cute! She finished and smiled as she walked back to her seat! So proud of her very first performance and how calm she was throughout! The next performer was Antonio who played "Orion the Hunter," which was a great piece of music and he played it really well! He sounded great! Then it was Victoria's turn and she played "When the Saints Go Marching In" and also did a great job. The students continued to play and got more and more complex as the students played. Soon it was Sofia's turn and she headed up onto the stage, sat down with her music and played her heart out. She really gets into the music with her whole body and she sounded great, especially on the professional piano. I tried to get pictures of her looking down at the keys and also reading her music, but it became clear that she'd memorized the music. She only looked up once or twice during the entire performance. She sounded awesome and did a great job!

At the end of the recital, James played the piano while his wife, Nancy, sang the song "How Far I'll Go" from the movie Moana, which is a beautiful song that they performed perfectly! It was fun to watch them perform and listen to James play and Nancy sing! After their performance, we took a group photo and then took a photo of the "Waldon Street Crew" with Mr. James. As we left, I asked the girls if they were nervous and Olivia said she was nervous the whole time until she was done and Sofia said she was nervous when she first took the stage, but was fine after that. Such a great performance from everyone and a fun afternoon. We headed home to host a party for Michelle, Jacob and Milani who are moving to San Francisco in two weeks.

Sofia and Olivi are ready to perform