Piano Recital

On Sunday Ben had his last piano recital of the year. His teacher reserved a beautiful room at Emory's Carlos Museum for the recital.

The piano was an old Steinway and it was incredible to play. It felt almost magical to play such a lovely instrument that responded to the slightest change in pressure. The sound it produced was rich and wonderful...

After making a mistake at the last recital, Ben did not want to play at this one. I didn't want to force him... but I cajoled until he came up with a solution -- he would only play at the recital if I would play. Yiykes. I don't get nervous on stage, I don't get nervous speaking in front of people, but I was terribly nervous preparing for this recital. To help calm our nerves, Ian and Gamma bought us some balloons.

I have grown up believing I have no musical talent whatsoever... not just no talent but no ability as well. As a child I tried and failed at several instruments... imagine my surprise when I have actually been doing pretty well at learning the piano. My teacher complemented my phrasing a couple of times but I thought he was just being nice. I was shocked when several of the adults came up to me afterwards and told me how beautifully I played! The best praise of all, though, was Nik. As soon as I finished playing he piped up and said, "That was my mommy!"

Ben has gotten over his fear of recitals after this one. He made a couple of small mistakes but he didn't hesitate and he didn't get flustered -- he played right through them. He also wasn't too upset about the mistakes afterwards. We had a wonderful celebratory dinner that night of pasta with chicken and spinach and strawberry and yoghurt verrines.

4 comments:

Tina in CT said...

Congrats to both of you!

Anonymous said...

Wonderful!
Congratulations!
Olga

MoscowMom said...

Congrats, Katya! That's great! Did you make the yummy dinner at home or eat out? You must feel so relieved!! Oh -- and really pretty dress! You look great!

Elle said...

Awesome! So proud of you, and I wish I would have known so I could have attended :) What a wonderful Momma and Son experience!