Tag: clarinet

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Joseph joins marching band

The STEAM Academy middle school marching band

Joseph (who just turned 13 last month) marched with the STEAM Academy Middle School’s band in the Valley of Flowers parade! He began playing clarinet last fall, and we’ve been so impressed with his progress.

This was a new experience for everyone — Joseph, us, even the school.

STEAM was one of the last groups in the parade, and I was stationed near the end of the route, so it took a LOT of waiting to see him. Once he came past, I shot some video, then kept sprinting ahead to try to get photos. After doing that several times, I started getting the stinkeye from the kids.

Joseph plays his clarinet as he marches with the STEAM Academy middle school marching band

The temperatures reached 93°, which is pretty hot for early May. Joseph later said that the parade experience helped him learn “that cold water was 1,000,000× more valuable than gold.”

Watch this short video of Joseph and the band:

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The mystery of the missing clarinet

Joseph plays his clarinet on Thanksgiving for a school assignment.

Last fall, Joseph began playing clarinet with the STEAM Middle School band. This was a new instrument for Joseph, and for our family. We accepted an offer from Mary Ann, a friend at church, to use her daughter’s old clarinet, a beautiful old Buffet Crampon model made in France.

To our delight, Joseph has learned very quickly, making enormous progress since the fall. We enjoy hearing him practice, and it’s been fun to see him in the fall and spring concerts.

But disaster struck on a recent Thursday.

When Joseph and Josie came home on a recent Thursday, Joseph didn’t have his clarinet.

Yoli was certain she had seen him leave the house with it early that morning. Joseph, meanwhile, insisted he didn’t have the clarinet with him when he walked into STEAM Middle that morning.

A thorough search of our house didn’t turn up anything. When Yoli checked with the bus driver, she hadn’t found it. Nor was it in the school’s lost-and-found.

We began to feel desperate. Joseph needed to practice for his spring concert, which was just days away, and would count for a grade.

It was time to go full-on Inspector Morse … or Lynley … or Foyle … or Miss Scarlet. (We watch a lot of British inspectors)

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