noontime orchestra concert and the dance parade

on the way home: another treat from amorino's . . today i had limone, cioccolato e vaniglia. chanda had fragola, cioccolato e vaniglia. university place was cordoned off for nyc's dance parade 2014 which wended it's way past union square down to 8th street where it turned and headed to tompkins square park for a dance fest. chanda and i waved to my friend alex who had grand stand seats with three of her boys. . and morgana and i caught part of it when we walked to the green market for the children's garden plants.


pretty wild, eh?

sinfonia rehearsal and dyeing chanda's costume

 the sinfonia orchestra has been rehearsing for their concert a week from today.

 it was incredibly warm on the way home so we couldn't resist stopping for an ice cream at "amorino."

 you can have as many flavors as you like. they shape the scoops into a flower on the cone. i chose chocolate, coffee and pistachio. chanda had coffee, pistachio and lemon.

the wisteria was in bloom today.

 after chanda's acting class, we began dyeing her costume. first we did the pants in royal blue and dark green.

 the dark green rinsed out well with hardly any bleeding.

back breaking work!  i was happy to let her do the honors.

 then we overlapped the royal blue . . 

 we used a bit more powder and over saturated the pants a bit with this color. she just had to wash it out longer.

after dyeing the pants (which were polyester), we dyed the cotton leotard. the cotton takes the color better and is a bit brighter. i was a little worried while the garments were hanging up, drying. the leotard looked too bright.

 but after everything dried, it looked alright together. the elastic on the pants needs to be tightened and taken up an inch.

orchestra rehearsal, sunflower seed crackers and pickles

since greg had to go to work this morning (they had to move a bunch of phones in his building) i worked quickly to get the compost to the green market before meeting chanda and walking to third street. here they are reheasing a new piece i'm not sure the name of yet. 

i usually knit while i listen to them practice, but lately i've been falling asleep once i start and knit a few stitches. this is very annoying to me.

greg and morgana were both gone for dinner so chanda and i ate late as i got involved with putting nuts, seeds and dried fruit away. it had all been in plastic bags from the coop scattered on the kitchen counter, and i switched it all into jars now stacked neatly in the pantry. i also finally pickled the cucumbers with 1/2 tbl mustard seeds, 1/2 tbl seasalt, 2 tbl whey, and 1 tbl fresh dill. the crackers were made from sunflower seeds, three cloves of garlic, and a cup of sesame seeds. the sunflower seeds had to be soaked and dried on the lowest setting in the oven first. then they were ground into a coarse flour with the garlic and seasalt and sesame seeds in the food processor; rolled out and baked at 350 for fifteen minutes. they're a little bitter, but not too bad. they're tasty with the ghee you see in the jar on the left. we made that also, by melting a pound of butter in a pot and simmering for about twenty minutes. so much work. i miss opening a package of pasta and sauteeing garlic with spinach or broccoli or zucchini.

concerts, auditions and plays

chanda was up early for a ballet class which greg walked her to, before going uptown to look for his wallet which he found he had left at his office. morgana was up for a 10 am acting class, and korrina slept in.

the trees are still bare in the west village, and flowers have not really poked their heads up yet along the sidewalks. the weather has been consistently in the middle 30's and low 40's. compared to last year, it's been a decent winter.

the days have been primarily grey.

i met chanda at 10 am to walk cross town with her to third street.

this morning she had an orchestra concert.

they played four pieces, two of which had four movements each, so it was one of their longest concerts.

this is an excerpt from plink, plank, plunk by leroy anderson.

they also played capriccio espagnole by nikolai rimsky-korsakov, four royal dances by eric ewazen, and roisin eating ombies from outer space, by richard meyer (!)

afterwards, chanda had an audition at new york city center for a summer ballet intensive, and then we went with morgana to meet our friends and see henry the iv, part i at the pearl theatre on 42nd street.

candlemas day: concerts and a birthday party

it was such a busy day today. chanda performed in her music hour beautifully, and not so beautifully. she faltered at the end and lost her place in the song. she found it again, and ended well, but she was a little upset. unfortunately, this music hour was a little rushed. she could have used another week to work on all the details. the next one is in march and she'll begin working on the music monday, so she'll have more time to prepare.

 

while she was in repertory and orchestra, i walked to barnes and noble at union square to pick up a book about the hobbit movie for my friend's son, gabriel. he had a party this evening for his twelfth birthday.

the school had two orchestras visiting from philadelphia today. chanda played with the intermediate one.

they performed two songs by eric ewazen called four royal dances conducted by their teacher, steve rochen.

they performed "a spanish piece by a russian person" that was conducted by the philadelphia school's teacher (capriccio espagnol by rimsky-korsakov), and plink, plank, plunk, by leroy anderson.

the advanced orchestras performed with a composer who played the bandoneon.

his composition was one of the most beautiful pieces of music i've ever heard. today was a rehearsal, so i'm hoping to hear the piece again for the philharmonia concert in may. hmm. i just looked at third street's calendar and i see this concert is may 11th from 1 to 2:30. our friend deychen is also having a concert on this day; at noon. it's a special solo concert and she's supposed to play several pieces, totaling an hour. this is a big conflict! stay tuned!

in the evening, after the "playthrough," we quickly walked to gabriel's birthday party.

the goodie bags, decorated with drawings from the hobbit.

janet made a delicious salad and sloppy joes.

for christmas her mother had given her a computer dancing game. she was a little concerned when the package was first opened (not being big on computer games), but the children had so much fun with it and danced together for hours! so, it was a big hit.

after playing several group games, the dancing game was put on and it was fun to watch them.

getting the cake ready.

bilbo's hobbit hole! it was a chocolate cake with marzipan decorations. 

then it was time to sing happy birthday.

what should gabriel wish for?

he blew his candles out carefully, one by one.

now . . how should one cut such a beautiful cake?

camille played music from the lord of the rings on the piano . .

this is the special "shire" theme.

on the way home, we found it had snowed!

morgana slept over with the other children, but chanda felt very tired and came home with me through the snow. she'll return in the morning for the craft and pancakes.

pumpkins and sinfonia update

it's a beautiful fall with lots of pumpkins and . . 

scarecrow dolls . . 

yellow locust trees . . 

a normal sight . . chanda reading . .

finally . . reading the proper required reading!

practicing for a concert in november and december.

sinfonia orchestra concert

third street music school had a two orchestra concert today at noon. sinfonia, the orchestra chanda plays with, performed four pieces: sonata for strings (william hofeldt), arrival of the queen of sheba (george frederic handel), lion city (soon hee newbold), and lady gaga fugue (giovanni dettori). below is an excerpt from lion city (referring to the city of singapore).

their next concert is in april with third street's philharmonia in the church across the street.

after the concert we had tea at veniero's. we had an hour and a half until music hour, at which she would play a gavotte by bach.

chanda had a lobster tail, and i had a rainbow cookie and pignoli cookie.

on the way home, we passed some snowdrops. it's been so warm, they're already quite big.