I'll remember all the little things we've done . . . .

Anna is in the fourth row from the bottom, far right hand side, in her blue & white PHS choir robe, performing at the January 2010 Illinois Music Educators Association State Choir Concert.




Proud Aunt Cindy (left), Grandpa Wegener, Anna and Grandma Wegener after the performance at All State.


So the last few years have been filled with song - choral or instrumental. Doesn't quite matter which way the music is performed as far as I am concerned, if one my children is performing, I am in the audience. The photos above and the video that I have posted in the link below is one of Anna when she was a senior at Prospect High School. She started off her senior year well but in October was hit in a head-on car crash, while driving home from school. Scary stuff! She and her passengers walked away from the incident, to the astonishment of all the rescue responders. My little Camry, not so lucky, was compressed to 60% of it original size and totalled. I will post more details of that day and accident sometime soon. Just know that there is a happy ending to the story.

The day of the car accident was when District Choir auditions were scheduled after school at a Chicago area north shore high school. I came home from work early to drive Anna and a few of her friends to the audition. Then the accident happened. Once we got the situation taken care of, Anna was shaky but uninjured and didn't think she could go to the audition. "C'mon" I said, "let's give it a go, what do you have to loose?" Besides that, I thought, I offered to drive four other PHS students to the audition so that their working parents could meet them at the school. So I packed the kids in my car and headed for the audition. Anna did go, she did try out - and she made it! Out of 20 some-odd students from Prospect auditioning, nine moved to the District level.

In November, after an all-day workshop and rehearsal, Anna performed at the IMEA District Choir performance at McHenry High School. She loved every minute and as the group of some 300 plus students from all over the northern suburban Chicagoland area performed later that afternoon, my jaw did literally drop to the ground. The performance was recorded by WFMT, a local classical station. I bought the CD from the performance as a cherished keepsake.

After that performance, Anna next auditioned for the Madrigals Choir at Prospect. This was the last goal she wanted to obtain in her high school career as she had done just about everything else musical - bands: marching & concert; jazz band; choirs including treble, concert, varsity; musicals, variety shows; Showchoir: Company (girls), Mixed Company (boys & girls); Showchoir combos. She did everything and anything musical and the Madrigals (the creme de la creme of the top singers of the school) were chosen in November for a series of concerts in December and January. Madrigals or MADS as they are called, are the singers where the girls wear the fancy long elizabethian dresses and the boys are in tights and hats and sing a lot of songs with the words "ye" as lyrics. As a Senior, Anna had a final shot at it. After all, this would be her third year auditioning for a part. No doubt in anyone's mind that she wanted a role, a costume and a fancy renaissance fair type headpiece.

She didn't get the part.

She was crushed, beyond crushed, beyond angry, beyond disappointed.

She began to doubt herself and her musical talent and abilities.

That all changed with one little text message to me a few days later.

"Guess what!"

Not only had Anna auditioned and won a seat in the All District Choir, the director of the All District Choir found her abilities so outstanding that she was given a seat in the All State Choir. Only the top kids from each High School in the State would get a spot. Most schools were lucky to have one representative for the District level and out of all the high school choir students in the state of IL, only 425 got a seat at the All State Choir and Anna was one of them, along with three other Prospect choir classmates.

Each one of the other three classmates from Prospect that made All State all made Madrigals.

Some of the kids picked for Madrigals didn't even make it to the district level, with no chance to make State.

But Anna did, she made it all the way to the All State Choir.

So proud Mom & Dad packed up the car that wintry, cold January weekend. It doesn't matter where and when they perform, I am there in the audience. We drove through the frozen farmland of Illinois to Peoria where we joined the Wegener family for a family reunion to attend the All State concert. Grandma and Grandpa were both beaming, Aunt Cindy, my dear sister-in-law was there along with her son, my tremendously talented nephew who was also performing as part of the All State Jazz Band. So we sat in a the Peoria Civic Center to watch the All State Choir, with Anna, in high heels and her Prospect Choir robe, belting out a song that drove me to tears of joy. They say that music is a powerful healer. In this case, I can say for sure, that healing did occur.