Christmas Concert at the elementary school

Click to watch our video!

As you all may have known, we at La CoffeeMelodie Suite are a musical family. Both Ralph and I were trained as opera singers. Our eldest son Brendan has performed -in a house that seats more than two thousand- throughout his boyhood. Now, as a college student studying medicine, he takes up performing on the side and is having the best time of his life (up 'til now, anyway). Nicholas, our second child, made his first appearance on main stage in the premiere of an opera when he was six years old. He appeared in three or four scenes with actual singing lines, "Ha, ha, ha.", "Ha, ha, ha, ha.", and, "Father, the fair! I want to go!" But poor Nicholas never made it to the curtain call any night and we always found him asleep, offstage left. He told us later that his passion was not, and never will be, for the stage, "It's much too late for me. And, there's already so much singing around the house, I don't need to sing." But Nicholas still sings- he just doesn't advertise it. As far as Justin, for a few years now his interest has focused on anything that involves history. His favorite channel- besides cartoon channels- is the history channel, and he reads all kinds of history books. When he was in third grade, his teacher named him 'professor;' and, in fact, printed the word on the back of a t-shirt for him. Now in sixth grade, if I were to let him he'd launch into a history lesson anytime and anywhere. When it comes to singing, though, he'd rather keep it private -the same as Nicholas: "No audience please."


Like every parent, as our children get older we find ourselves voluntarily and involuntarily involved with their activities. Last year, it was all about Brendan getting ready for college. It was Kailtyn who brought me back to other members of the family, with her gentle tug at my elbow, "Mommy, next year I can finally join the chorus and I would like to do it."








My sweet Kailtyn has always loved to sing, and she often says to me, "I'm happy when I sing, and singing makes me very happy so I sing even more!" Since the school year started she was very excited about chorus, "I can't wait until the try-out." After that, twice a week, she'd say, "I can't wait until chorus tomorrow." Soon after, she'd say, "I'm so excited to sing at the Christmas Concert!" This would be her very first appearance at the elementary school, and Ralph and I got excited with her. Then came, "I will audition for the solo part, mommy." After school one day she gave me a hug and said, "Mommy, I was very shy today so I didn't get the solo." Not certain how she felt, I was searching for words. Then, she smiled and hugged me even more tightly, "But it's okay, mama. I am just as happy to sing even though I didn't get the solo. And there is still the next concert in Spring." I smiled and hugged her back, and felt very much relieved and proud that Kaitlyn was being a grown-up and wasn't bothered one bit by the I-didn't-get-the-part factor. She later asked me if I could give her voice lessons, and my response was that I would love to teach her, and couldn't wait until she would be 'physically' ready. She thought about it and said, "I will start my lessons with you when I turn sixteen, because I should be 'siphycally' ready by then."





We dropped Kaitlyn off at the time specified by her chorus director and went to find seats in the school gym- which also serves as an auditorium. We sat in the middle of the house (gymnasium) as it was crowded. I had my hand-held video camcorder ready and would be filming at my seat, so I hoped that the audience members wouldn't get up too often during the performance.





The performance went very well, and the children were so eager and looked happy to be sharing their joy with us. They all were adorable and sounded like little angels- well, for the most part- but that made us parents smile. Big applause goes to Mrs.Shauna Kahn who put the concert together and directed&conducted it. I personally feel that teachers in lower grade schools play a very important part in helping us bring up our children. They have to love what they do with a lot of kindness and patience; and, at the same time, be able to teach. Too often, these great teachers' efforts go unrecognized. Therefore, dear teachers, you are in my personal hall of worthy people. Not everyone makes my list, but teachers are right at the top.


In this video there's a little clip of Kaitlyn's introduction with her singing "Somewhere in My Memory" in the background. The recording of the singing was made -without any prior plan- a day before the concert. She came home as I was putting together a Holiday Greeting video for the family, and was going through a collection of instrumental Christmas music. Kaitlyn ran into my office and started to sing along. Being as I am a person who never lets a good opportunity slip through her hands, I asked if she'd like to make a recording of the song. She eagerly agreed. She took a big sip of my water and started singing as I recorded. She made faces here and there because it was the coldest day we had yet this year; we put on the heat so the air was very dry. It doesn't matter, the fact that our family would hear her voice in our Holiday video makes it worthwide.





The soloists' names are announced on the video and I'd prefer not to display them here. The sound was quite good and untampered. -I was able to trim some of the not-so-pleasant sounds from the audience. Unfortunately, coughing and throat-clearing while the performance was taking place could not be eliminated. The purpose of filming this was for our family to see Kaitlyn in concert. And, Kaitlyn is about all you see. However, I do have separate audio files just for your listening pleasure.





Make every moment your precious moment. Happy Holidays to all!

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This is Primrug Kailtyn Schatzki's very first Christmas Concert at the elementary school. She was excited and looked forward to this occasion. Click to watch our video!

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