Billy Elliot

Recently, I had a chance to see Billy Elliot. What a wonderful production. It was interesting to see how a movie could be translated to the stage. Obviously, some of the staging had to be changed since it would not be possible to travel as from place to place like Billy Elliot does in the movie. The production was excellent and I also enjoyed the fact that it was free. Now, when I say free that means that some of my money paid since we were invited to attend by our financial advisor.
Will try to get to more events. If Michael is unable to attend, I have found that there are others ready to stand in his place.
We had a lovely meal and appetizers before the show. Cathy from tennis, my guest and I decided to walk over to the theatre since it was not too far. Good idea since we were not wearing shoes that were impossibly high heeled. Cathy is ready to be a stand-in.

Concert

Last night, I conducted my band again. Hard to believe that 5 years after I retired, I am still conducting. What luck! The band members were wonderful and I am pleased to have been part of this experience. Each of the pieces had a number of soloist which was a nice touch. I am glad that students had a chance to be featured.
It was also nice to see students who I taught in the past. This seems like another phase of my teaching career which it is.
After I finish the thank yous and follow ups with students and others, it is time to move on to other projects.
Hope that all of you find things that keep you interested and active.

Furnace

Time to have the furnace replaced. This is a big job especially when you have hot water rads. Spoke to one of the neighbours and she mentioned that they are going to move sometime in the next year. Reason to not change their heating system. They still get oil to heat the house. Within the next year, they are going to sell to a developer not even bothering with retail sales. Sad since the house is good. They expanded. I think that will definitely help Michael decide that we should move. Guess we will be happy that we got a new furnace but not sure how long it will last. The neighbours have one daughter settled as a doctor, another is in finance. The son is the problem, he has a job at Home Depot but that is not full-time work. The challenge is for him to get more work. He has to decide on what he would like to do but that is hard. He did not manage to finish university. The courses that he enrolled in did not suit his needs and interests.
They are working on the furnace as I type. Do not want to interfere so I am watching TV, and computing. Hoping that they will be done this afternoon. Feels strange not to be able to go downstairs when I have the rest of the house. Problem is that there is no water. Wish that I had been warned. Guess that I should have guessed when they said that they would drain the rads. Problem is that I did not associate that with turning off water.
Here is hoping that they finish early this afternoon.

The Promise of Music

On Friday, I had the pleasure of attending a one-day symposium on Music Education. It was interesting and had many good parts to it but there did not seem to be anything uniting the symposium. First of all, there did not seem to be a point at which attendees got together. At lunch, Natalie and I had the opportunity to sit with a music educator who chose to sit with us and we discussed this conference and last year's. Last years had break out sessions and information posted for attendees. This year, there were presentations both musical and discussions. However, there was no over riding theme and no chance to talk to others.
The theme is apparently "Discover what can be done to make the Promise of Music a part of very child's life in Canada." A worthy theme but I think that the symposium failed at this goal. Some ideas were tossed out but at no time did the presenters get to the point of explaining how music could become part of every child's life.
Maybe next year?

Cleaning!

Cleaning is obviously not my favourite activity but I have started this week. It seems that I no excuses. My meeting at Toronto General Hospital was cancelled. It will not happen until the end of the month. That excuse is gone. Tomorrow, I will see my brother and take him for coffee. I will also get the dry cleaning done. Not enough to keep me from doing some vacuuming, dusting and scrubing. It will be nice to have the house clean before we enjoy the long weekend.
I am going to try to keep things tidier. There are rooms that are very tidy but other spaces that have become very scary. Time for a change.
Wish me luck.
Tomorrow, I will write about a conference at the Royal Conservatory of Music. Was there on Friday.

Toronto's future culture shock!

Creative Capital Gains is a report that was tabled last week at City Hall. I hope that the mayor and council were willing to pay attention.
One of the conclusions of the report which is co-chaired by Karen Kain is that private sector support definitely can not replace public investment. Private support follows public investment. This runs contrary to Rob Ford's suggestion that funding the arts should be entirely left to private benefactors. The report asks that the city stand by its goal to increase its spending on culture to $25 per capita from the current $18 per capita by 2013.
The report's main theme is "Don't think of the arts as a fringe benefit that makes life in Toronto nice. Instead, think of culture as a magic business engine that represents out best shot at being one of the world's most successful cities in the 21st. century."
There is overwhelming evidence that the arts are a catalyst for economic gains in Toronto. Toronto's cultural economy contributes more than $9 billion a year to the city's GDP and employs 130,00 people-almost as many as Ontario's auto industry. Wonder how much many of the people in the arts earn?
Toronto has 66 per cent more artists than any other city in Canada and 25 per cent of the creative industry jobs in Canada are here.
These reasons should be enough to convince Rob Ford to support the arts. Time will tell.

Violins help Kids Change their tune

I was fascinated to read an article about a string programme in the Jane Finch area, "Violins help kids change their tune". Why I read with interest is that the schools are supposed to have music programmes but this is a programme started by Moshe Hammer, a wonderful violinist who is not a certified teacher. The programme is wonderful and giving students an outlet. What is disappointing is that the programme has come from the outside. Part of the problem is that many schools do not have music teachers who can present these programmes or because teachers at the elementary level are supposed to be able to teach anything, they do not have the talent needed to offer these programmes.
This programme is much like ones that are offered in the United States which has a different system. Is this telling us that we are going the same direction? We will have people who are not teachers offering programmes.
I hope that there will be more programmes like this one but I also hope that the teachers are not ones who are not part of the system but outsiders who run the programme independently.

Spring has arrived

Yesterday, we finally spent time in the garden. It was not raining, and the temperatures were lovely. I nearly cleared up the front flower bed. Transplanted some of the plants to the back. It is fascinating how some plants are very invasive and others just have there spot and do not invade other areas.
I am amazed at how many of the hostas survived the winter. They are popping up and inspiring me to get more. We are going to a nursery next Saturday with Michael's aunt and uncle who live in St. Catharines. It should be a nice day of nursery shopping and lunch. Time to clean out the car's trunk so that there will be room for the walker and plants.
Today, I am going to do more gardening. Still need to clean up the flower beds and transplant as well plant plants that I grew indoors.
I am so glad that the weather is finally pleasant.
Here's hoping that the heat wave that the weather man is predicting does not happen.

Back to normal

Now that the wedding is over and the happy couple is off on their honeymoon, I can get back to getting things done and write on my blog. Last week, in addition to the wedding, I had an AGM, practises for today's concert at the McMichael as well as practising for orchestra- had a concert last night-Beethoven's 6th symphony, Mozart overture and piano concerto. The concert was very successful. The garden club has a board meeting, I got all my mail caught up and got taxes done for my brother. He has only one source of income and one additional source of funds, interest from some GIC's and the taxes were a pain to do. I thought that they would be very simple but no. I think that the government has created a plot to make it almost impossible to do taxes painlessly. Oh well, everything is done.
I am sure that your week was equally busy.
Enjoy the thought of the couple relaxing before you get back to your busy day.