Kids Sing

Two shows down, one more to go. Phew. Starting of children's chorus, Kids Sing, has been an exciting venture for my sister in-law Denise and I. We've learned a lot and overall, I would say that for our first season we have been very successful. Our K-3 group has 30 kids, and our preschool group has about 10. The K-3 group performed a seven song show, with narration and props, at three different venues. Our first show was at the Old Poway Park's Christmas in the Park event. There were HUNDREDS of people there watching us. In hindsight, we should have started with a little smaller crowd, but the kids handled the large audience very well. In one of the songs, there's a kickline, and the crowd went wild! Note to self: Always include a kickline in the show. And their costumes looked fantastic!

Our next performance was one we put on ourself, and was held at an elementary school auditorium. It was nice and we had about 200 friends and family members in the audience. Our stage was decorated with two Christmas trees (Denise's and mine), balloons, and garland. We both literally picked up the Christmas tree from our living room and shoved it in our car. We felt very Grinch-like. 

Our final performance will be this Wednesday at a nursing home. I think it's a good way to close. Low pressure and it will bring a lot of joy to the folks there. And I think it's a wonderful thing for these children to learn to serve others. 

Our goal was to enrich lives through musical performance. I think we did that. The kids enjoy coming to rehearsal, they made some new friends, and improved on their performing skills. It's been exciting to see the kids that were once so shy, really come out of their shell and volunteer to sing solos by the final week. It's been A LOT of work, but I hope that the work we put it now, is building up something great that will be serving children and their families in the community for years to come. I know my chorus experience as a child was incredibly transformative in my life. But I'm glad that after next Wednesday, we'll get a little break. 

I am so thankful to be doing this with Denise. She's so talented, calm, and patient with me. Without her,  my group would consist of three children (she did most of the recruiting), I would have had numerous panic attacks (can't count the number of times she said, "It's fine. That's not a big deal."), and we wouldn't have the awesome rehearsal space that we do. The kids are lucky to have her and so am I.