Tampa Through My Lens #4: Concert Day

Welcome back to my "Tampa Through My Lens" series. You can find the first three posts here:

• #1: Alive on Arrival
• #2: Solo Wanderings
• #3: An Evening with Friends

It's been a week, but I was waiting to see if anyone would upload video of the All State middle school chorus performances to YouTube. No luck yet! 

On Saturday morning, Dad and six of the brothers and sisters drove over in two cars. Finding the hotel and then finding parking can be super tricky, so I stayed on the phone guiding them in. It's a good thing I had gotten so familiar with the streets while walking around downtown the day before! I even walked over to the parking garage where my van was to see if there were any spots left - yes! They all made it in time before the concert started.

Performances were at the Marriott.

We ended up near the back of the room, so we couldn't see Naomi during the performance, but the singing was awesome! My favorite piece is Tshotsholoza, a South African folk song featured in the movie Invictus. 

Over 300 students in the
mixed chorus - and just as many
in the treble chorus which sang before that.
I went to both concerts, since Naomi's friend
was in the treble group.

Want to listen? I finally managed to get the audio from my iPod imported in to movie file and uploaded to both YouTube and Facebook.  You can hear it here:



They also sang "Hine Ma Tov" (Jewish folk song), "Afro-Celtic Diddle", "O Praise the Mighty Lord" (Handel sacred piece), "Until I Found the Lord" (African-American spiritual),"Traveling Home", and "Tell My Father" (Civil War ballad - Naomi's favorite, sung by the males in the choir).

Naomi with Dad and Mom after the concert

And all of the pictures with her brothers and sisters!

The Tampa skyline
from the roof of the parking garage

Several of us were planning to drive down to Sarasota to see the Ringling Museum of Art, but it took us forever to get out of the parking garage and then to find the Chick-Fil-A. When we finally stopped for lunch, we realized we were way too tired for the extra few hours of excursion. Good call, because I was fighting to stay alert enough to drive (thank you, caffeine), and was wiped when we got home. I plopped in bed a few minutes after I walked in the door, and was out for hours.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. I am so proud of Naomi and how hard she worked to get into All State!

Grace and peace,
Virginia Knowles
www.VirginiaKnowles.blogspot.com