End of year for Rebekah

Oh, boy. When you're a senior, there's a lot to the end of the year. What's ironic is that during all of these end-of-year events, Rebekah was no longer a student at Bonneville High School. She finished up the rest of her classes at the end of the second trimester. She continued to participate in jazz band (zero hour, so before school technically starts) and musical (6th hour, so at the end of the day) just for fun. She played with symphonic band at their concert, but she would just basically show up and sight read. 

Rebekah got a job at Discovery Elementary as a duty aide. It fit perfectly in her schedule; she'd wake up, go to jazz band, come home for an hour or so, go to Discovery to do her job, then go straight back to Bonneville for musical rehearsal. She'd come home after regular school hours. 

Tuesday, April 11: Band concert

Rebekah performs a solo with the jazz band during their pre-festival concert.

Saturday, April 15: Youth symphony dinner fundraiser

Rebekah and Seth eat dinner at the Idaho Falls Symphony Youth Orchestra fundraiser dinner at Hillcrest High School. Rebekah played one of her solos as part of the dinner entertainment. Andrea baked a bunch of potatoes. We didn't solicit our friends and family for this fundraiser because it was Rebekah's last year in the symphony and because we had solicited them for two other fundraisers that month.

Monday, April 17: Band dinner fundraiser

Rebekah performs "Charade" with the BHS jazz band during their dinner show fundraiser. This event raises funds for the combined Hillcrest/Bonneville marching band, High Desert Marching Band. 

Ana and Seth dance after eating pulled pork sandwiches.

Miriam and Ana dance to the swing music.

Rebekah reacts to accidentally playing the wrong thing (she wasn't the only trombone to do so). She performed with her high school jazz band and the Jazz House Big Band, an area band that she subs for.

Monday, May 1: Final jazz band concert

Rebekah performs a solo during her final jazz band concert in the BHS Little Theater. She had several solos that night, and no matter the time signature, style or key, she managed to work "the lick" into every single one of them.

Thursday, May 4: Idaho Falls Symphony Youth Orchestra performance and recognition

Rebekah receives a certificate and a giant Symphony in recognition for her four years of participation in the Youth Symphony. She also had a trombone solo that traded off with a trumpet solo in their last number of the evening.

Seth, Rebekah and Andrea at the end of the concert. It was May the Fourth (Star Wars day), hence our T-shirts.

Friday, May 5-Saturday, May 6: Solo and ensemble

Rebekah participated in solo and ensemble by performing two solos: an accompanied trombone solo and an unaccompanied euphonium solo. She qualified for state on both solos. Rather than traveling with the school, she came with her parents and stayed with us at a sketchy hotel with barely enough room on the floor for her sleeping bag. (I had made the reservations before we knew she was coming, so we only had one king bed.) We did a little bit of shopping, eating and visiting along the way.

Rebekah trying on some ridiculously tall shoes at a Goodwill in Boise and standing next to Andrea for scale.

The sad seal we found at another thrift store.

Seth feeding the Scotts' goats a peanut. We visited Uncle Jon, Shelby and Tayzlee at their home on Friday evening. The other members of the Scott family were traveling for team sports. 

Our delicious Columbian food we had for dinner. 

Rebekah warming up for her euphonium solo. We learned that the warmup rooms were all in a different building--the building we had just come from. Rather than traipsing back across the College of Idaho's campus to the warmup rooms, Rebekah just stepped outside the building. I followed her so I could take some pictures. I think she was not amused, but I still sneaked a few.

Rebekah receiving feedback from one of the judges after her solo. Rebekah took first in the state with this solo.

Playing her second solo, an accompanied trombone solo. It was tricky finding someone to accompany her. Rebekah contacted several pianists who were not going to be making the trip to Caldwell, then contacted someone who lived in Caldwell and made arrangements with her to be the accompanist, then found out her student teacher in band (1) would be coming to Caldwell and (2) had accompanied someone else playing the same piece in the past, so she already had experience with the music. It turned out perfectly. Rebekah took second in the state with this solo.

Rebekah listening to her friend Eli performing his cello solo. Eli ended up taking first.

Rebekah and Seth headed back to the van to head home.

Saturday, May 20: "Bright Star"

Rebekah loves participating in the pit during musicals, so she planned to do so her senior year. Then the choir and drama teachers announced that the musical would be "Bright Star," a bluegrass. Not many high school kids can play the mandolin or banjo, so some of the band kids had to play their parts on keyboards. Rebekah played the banjo parts. 

The pit also needed a guitarist. I guess there weren't any high school students who were good enough or interested n participating, so Rebekah wrangled Seth into playing in the pit. The last time Seth was in the pit at BHS was during our senior year when the musical was "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." Rebekah attended the rehearsals during school. Seth joined her for the Saturday rehearsals. It took some time and practice, but he got the hang of it, and it all turned out really well.

Seth and Rebekah before a performance.

Rebekah in the pit during a performance. Seth said it was amazing; Rebekah would be on her phone filling out job and scholarship applications, then she'd quickly put it down and start playing. He thought she'd miss her cue because she was on her phone, but she was listening and following along.

Rebekah and Seth exhausted after closing night.

Tuesday, May 23: Senior awards

Rebekah's slide at the beginning of senior awards night in the gym. It says "Graduating with her Associate of Art from Idaho State University; attending BYU-Idaho studying music; Received BYU-Idaho full tuition plus lessons music scholarship; Participated in fencing (3 years), pep band (4 years), concert/symphonic band (4 years), jazz band (4 years), drum major (2 years)."

Rebekah receives a blanket and recognition for completing her associate degree from ISU in conjunction with her high school diploma.

Rebekah posing with the other seniors who graduated with honors. Rebekah graduated summa cum laude, so she got a medal and ropes.

Friday, May 26: Band concert

Rebekah plays euphonium in the final high school band concert of the year. 

Rebekah received the Louis Armstrong award. This award is given to a student every year who achieves excellence in jazz band and performance. Seth received this award in 2000. Uncle Kent received it in 2005. The director handed out other awards for pep band, music student of the year, etc. I honestly thought Rebekah deserved each and every one of them. That kid put everything into band.