Essentially Christmas: An Online Recital

Because it wasn’t feasible in December, 2020 to meet together in person for a Christmas recital, we started a new holiday tradition!

Students and families rose to the occasion and provided us with some Christmas spirit via home videos. It was a joy to see how families came together to record and share their music with everyone.

If you missed it, or if you wanted to watch it again, visit our YouTube channel linked below.

Watching the Wheels

Post by Erin Oliver

I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch ‘em roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go.

- John Lennon, “Watching the Wheels”

In so many ways, 2020 has felt like a year of waiting. Events cancelled. Family reunions deferred. Travel postponed. We approach the daily headlines with an apprehensive, “now what?”

At the same time, however, 2020 has enabled me to strip down to what is “essential” in my life, my home, and my teaching. Essential. If that isn’t the word of the year, I don’t know what is.

So in mid-March when The World stopped its forward (ahem) march, for a while we stumbled in uncertainty. We grieved. We posted shows of solidarity for our healthcare and essential workers online. We shared memes and posts and music that had meaning for us, messages of hope in the sadness and solitude. We made music through virtual choirs (and more virtual choirs), held virtual graduation ceremonies, created virtual recitals.

And I came to realize, for myself at least - I was too busy. In my mind, and in my habits, I was too essential. Too overcommitted, out too many evenings each week Doing Things, out on weekends Doing More Things, and in general making too many withdrawals from the finite bank account of Time and Energy.

So when the opportunity came to hit the Reset button - I did. I had a choice: to stress about what I wasn’t able to do, or to just let it go. I chose to let it go. I’m no longer riding on the merry-go-round. It will be waiting for me when this pandemic fades - and this will fade eventually!

I’m so very blessed in that I can continue to do what I love - teach and share music - and do it safely during a global pandemic. My family has remained safe and well, despite 2 of us being essential workers in the workforce. We have spent more time together this year than any other since the children were in grade school. And, for now and for the future, I will remain much more deliberate about what I allow to occupy my time and my thoughts.

I just had to get off the merry-go-round to see it.

Blessings.

Erin Oliver is the current president of the Rainier Music Teachers. This post was originally published on her blog Motif, located on her studio website.

Harvest of Fall Sounds - Chapter Recital 10/26/2019

Students display their certificates- and in some cases, their costumes - following the first recital of the 2019-2020 school year

Costumed musicians at the recital

Students of Mount Rainier Music Teachers showed off their music and their costumes at the October recital. Twenty-three voice and piano students from seven different studios participated in this annual event.

We also honored those students who gave outstanding efforts in this year’s Practice-A-Thon with time practiced or monies raised for our Scholarship Funds. In just one week of focused practice, our students raised almost $1100 for other students to study music!

Bravo to these students for their commitment to their music, and to the parents and teachers who inspire them!