I blogged from my Treo phone last Saturday about going to the Idaho All State Choir, Orchestra, and Band concert. It was one of the delightful serendipitous events that happens every once in a while. I had read about it in the newspaper and suggested to Nina that we should go to see the choir concerts. There were two of them, the Treble Choir at 2 p.m. and the Mixed Voices Choir right after. The Orchestra and Band concerts were scheduled to start at 4 p.m. Around noon we decided that we would go to the choir concerts and left about 1:30 p.m. to drive up the the Performing Arts Center.

We arrived to find the place packed and further, tickets were needed. The tickets were $5 apiece. Nina bought the tickets while I parked the car. We couldn’t find any seats on the main floor and ended up in the balcony. The picture at the left was taken from the balcony before the Treble Choir came in to perform. The choirs were astounding. They were so good, in fact, that we decided we’d stay for the Orchestra and Band concerts as well. Both the Orchestra and the Band were outstanding. We were well rewarded for our time to be there. One of the parents of one of the bass players in the Orchestra wondered if we had children playing or singing. She was amused that we were just there to hear the concert.

I did take some video while we were there. I didn’t bring an extra battery or an extra memory card and ran out of space on my 1gb memory card just before the Orchestra piece I was filming ended, so I don’t have anything of the band. I’ve put the videos up on Amazon Web Services so they should download rather quickly. Here’s the links to each of pieces of video:

• Some video of the concert hall. I took a bit before the choir concerts and another bit before the orchestra started.
• Some video of the Treble Choir singing “Holy Is the Lord”.
• Some video of the Mixed Choir singing “Wonder”
• Some video of the Orchestra playing the 4th movement of Dvorak’s Symphony #9, From the New World

When I was going to High School in Soda Springs (way back in the fall of 1959 through the fall of 1962), I went to the All State Band each year. I thoroughly enjoyed those opportunities. At that time the process was a little different. The bands and choir all-states were at different times of the year. Each school could send a few students for the band (Soda Springs didn’t have a choir program when I was there, so we never participated in the choir all-state activities) and I was able to go all four years as a percussionist. My Junior year the All State Band was held in Soda Springs. I remember going to Blackfoot one year, Pocatello one year, and Boise the other year. Now the All State are held at the same time and are held every two years. They are by audition where the student has to send in a video tape and they are then selected based on the audition performance and the places available (they only need a certain number of flutes or oboes, for instance).

We were very impressed with the level of musicianship displayed by these high school kids. The orchestra was just outstanding, definitely one of the best we’ve heard in several years.

The other delightful outcome was that while we were up in the balcony, we found that the sound was spectacular. I think it was better sound up there than down on the main floor.

Finally, I also took some video in dad’s shop after we did some cleanup on Monday, January 21st. Dad had been working for weeks getting his air compressor working once again. Air leaks were causing him lots of problems. After cleaning up the shop, we were able to get the leaks sealed. While I was taking the video, he plugged in the compressor to make sure it was working … and it was.