So, today is my long day in Princeton tutoring students. This afternoon, as I sat in the lobby between appointments I realized there was an inordinate amount of activity occurring.
It didn't take long to realize by the instruments and sound equipment being lugged around that a concert was planned for the evening. I guessed by the number of teens all wearing the same t-shirt in a variety of colors that it was a civic group of some sort. (Unfortunately, I never found out exactly what group it was)
While I was sitting there, distracted from my own book by the activity, I took the liberty of doing some people watching. I noticed a few boys come in, recognize one another and 'clump together' before I thought I heard some humming coming from their 'man clump'. I also couldn't help but notice a few girls walk in wearing their little black dresses, a few even wearing high heels that I would kick off my own feet long before any dancing at a wedding reception even started. While I did think these girls in particular were a little over dressed for an outdoor concert, I didn't give it too much thought; styles come and go and the girls were behaving well within the norms of teen-agers - checking out the boys and flocking in and out of the ladies' rest room.
I finally decided to get a picture of the gathering crowd and realized the boys were a part of an acapella group and waiting to be cued before their performance. Unfortunately, I couldn't hang around to hear them sing as I needed to use the ladies' before meeting my next student....
....and that's when I discovered that the girls in their little black dresses were part of a female acapella group warming up in the rest room. They were in the middle of a piece when I walked in, and even though they parted to let me move past them, I retrieved my camera out of my bag and they obliged me to squeeze together and pose for a quick picture - all without missing a single note of the number they were practicing. Talk about talent! I don't know when I last enjoyed a public restroom experience so melodious!
This evening I went with family friends to hear a very talented musician and family member at a benefit concert for the Middletown Arts Center. Well, to be precise, David didn't just play the piano, he wrote every composition that he preformed. David has been composing music since he was a teenager which is just about the time he started playing the piano. Now he's a college student and beginning to share his work with the world playing in a variety of venues this fall and winter. 
I've spent a lot of hours practicing and preforming music on a violin and a viola the first 25 years of my life, but I always played with orchestras or pit bands. I never thought about solos or even composing the music! David's pieces are inspired by classical or modern influences. Regardless of genre, his music is filled with feeling and allows listeners to explore a range of emotion. If you want to hear some of David's pieces, he has a fan page at David Lilly Solo Musician on Facebook.
David poses with his very proud mother after his two hour performance. And I have it on good authority, he spent most of the day prior to his concert sick with the stomach bug ravaging the local population. Well done, David! Bravo!
