A couple of years ago we went to this production - Malibu-Santa Monica Unified has been doing this musical extravaganza for 63 years now at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The performers are all students from 5th to 12th grade - band, orchestra and choir. They are mighty impressive. I thought that there would be tons of photos on google images - this was the only one - from 1976!! But you get the idea.
We were lucky enough to go again this year - apparently it's tough to get tickets, but Bonny did the job for us. And saved us seats too!
They always start out with the "Star Spangled Banner" and the audience joins in singing - it is pretty rousing, let me tell you! Then they sing "Stairway to the Stars" - an old song from the 30s or 40s - or maybe even earlier. They sing it at the end too - there is really a lot of energy going on - hundreds of kids singing and playing instruments.
Ara plays flute in the high school band now - before it was the middle school band. I think she played in elementary too - but don't quote me on that!
Ella sings in the choir, and I'm not sure how long she has done that. There are lots of kids out there, but we could spot Ara and Ella quite easily - once they were pointed out to us! Ara and Ella are beautiful young women - and quite talented too! (That is not a biased opinion either - others agree with us!!)
Looking at the above photo - Harry with Ara and Ella - you can certainly see how time flies!!
I love this - not sure how things looked for the first one, but this sixties number looks classy to me!
The kids are great - this time the high school jazz band was really rocking - and there were these three 5th grade boys in the elementary honor band who were rocking along in their chairs - twirling their hands!! It is encouraging to see kids getting such pleasure from real music. There was another young girl who was leading away with a make believe baton. All the performers are arranged in the auditorium - they don't come "on and off stage" - they are all there through the whole performance. Their excellent behavior alone is impressive! At the end, the last two rows of the high school choir - apparently the seniors - linked arms and swayed as they sang - obviously loving what they were doing.
We took Esme home with us for her Grandma's Birthday Sleepover - and had a little late night dinner at Baja Fresh on Wilshire Blvd.
Meanwhile I am humming along - "Let's build a stairway to the stars. . ." It's a catchy tune.
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