Festival

Carl compteted in the FM Music Festival today. In his particular division, he was required to play two pieces--both memorized--for a judge, who would critique the pieces and give him a rating from the following: Superior (5 points), Excellent (4 points), Satisfactory (3 points), Fair (2 points), or Needs Improvement (1 point). Once you earn 15 points, you get a gold cup, so the shortest time in which you can earn 15 points is 3 years. Carl and I both earned our first gold cup in our first 3 years of participating. Since then, Carl has earned two more consecutive Superiors, so this year was a pretty big deal, because if he got the Superior, he would get his medium-sized gold cup. As you can imagine, he was rather nervous today. His judge was a college music professor who apparently didn't give out many Superior ratings.

However, that didn't seem to faze Carl. Even though he was nervous, he played extremely well. He thought he had left out a part in one of his songs, and was upset at that thought; he asked me if I thought he had left out the part, and I didn't think so (and believe me, after hearing the same songs day after day, I think I could play them!), but then, I didn't have the music, either. He finally got his music back, along with a card inside the book saying what his rating was. He wasn't really sure he wanted to see what he had gotten (which I can totally relate to), but when he finally looked, he grinned up at me. So stay tuned for pictures of his new gold cup!

And for those of you who may be wondering--no, I do not compete in the Festival anymore . . . but that's a whole different story. Actually, it's a story that's worth telling, but not now. Right now, it's Carl's time to be in the limelight. Way to go Carl, on getting your Superior! We are so proud of you!!!!