November 11, 2004 - Thursday
Harry and I went to a piano concert this evening. The pianist was a professional from Italy, although a young (twenty-something) professional apparently on his first "concert tour" of America. It was a free concert sponsored by the Indian Hill Music School's piano department apparently to inspire and encourage new students. I suspect that such a direct link is probably beyond Harry, although I did have hope that maybe he would like it and that would help cultivate some more general interest in playing music of some kind. Although mostly I was just hoping to start getting him accustomed to quietly sitting still at this type of public event. If we had made it through the first half of the concert that would have been a success.

At the last minute before we left I let him bring his coloring book and that was probably a good idea. We sat together in the back row with me hoping that Harry wouldn't talk loudly and wiggle too much, so his pencil scratching seemed a tolerable alternative since it kept him reasonably well focused. Better still, he was very deliberate and quiet about picking up and putting down the pencils in his case. About half way through the first half of the concert another couple of kids, probably Harry's age, came in. They were similarly quiet, but hardly sat as still.

At intermission I told Harry to pack up his case to leave. But, he's a clever kid and noticed that most of the others in the smallish crowd weren't leaving. I strongly suspect that Harry was mostly excited about being out past his bedtime and with his dad, but he said he liked the concert and that he wanted to stay. We got up anyway -- I was pretty sure Harry would not last as graciously through another 30 minutes -- but found the stairs to the balcony on the way out. I thought we'd just take a look, but the balcony was mostly empty and Harry convinced me to stay. He didn't sit so still, but with no one near us in the balcony there was less to worry about. We ended up watching the rest of the concert. I really have no idea how inspired Harry was by the playing, but I was inspired by the idea that he seems to be ready to do more of this sort of thing.


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