Multi-Piano

For the second time, Carl participated in the Multi-Piano Festival, which was held this past weekend. Basically what it is is twelve kids (six duets) playing the same duets at the same time, with a conductor keeping them together (you hope). Carl and I both participated in it two years ago, and we had an awesome time. The worst part was the auditions, because you pretty much have to be perfect to get in. And once you're in, you have to be really tough to stick it out. Mr. Cole, our conductor, is the nicest man you'll ever meet; except when he's directing this! Then, to a lot of people, he gets way over the top extreme. He has no problem yelling at you and making you play your part over and over in front of everyone until you get it right (to be fair, I should say that he tones it down for the younger kids, thankfully). For a lot of kids, the thought of that alone is enough to keep them from ever trying out or performing--with good reason. But Carl and I have played team sports forever, so we're used to being singled out and yelled at for messing up. (Never mind the fact that we're both pretty thick-skinned to begin with.) We also love performing, and that outweighs any negatives about working with Mr. Cole. So we stuck it out, learned SOOOO much from it, and got to show off in historic Fargo Theatre in the process! :) This year, though, obviously I couldn't play with Carl, so he auditioned by himself. He got in (in the most advanced group; like we did last time), and they performed SUPER well. I really enjoyed listening to all the performances, and Carl did a fantastic job.
So here are a few pictures from the day. Carl's in the red shirt on one of the back pianos. (And I will point out that he was the ONLY guy in his group--and there weren't any guys in the group before him, either. Way to stick it out, Carl!)