So......

First things first.....

Today Katie absolutely NAILED her bassoon audition for the National Children’s Orchestras. She was sparkly, characterful and fabulous and I was so proud of her. We pressed stop on the video and B said “we are NOT doing that again, that was BRILLIANT”.

Secondly. We heard that as of today Katie is officially a member of the County Senior Wind Band.

As if that wasn’t enough.... this girl of mine threw me a massive- like spectacularly massive- curve ball....

We heard today that Katie’s been invited to join Future Talent’s national Young Musicians Development programme of mentoring, performance opportunities etc with some annual funding, both lasting until she reaches the age of 18. She’s been part of their Fledgling programme for younger musicians for the past two years on clarinet but I did not expect this. It takes us a massive step nearer to realising her dream of her own bassoon and it’s going to bring her some amazing opportunities.

We waited until she’d done her NCO audition to tell her. But we were both about to lose the plot as she dawdled packing her bassoon up, not knowing what we were rushing her along for. My voice wobbled as I told her. She said “mama, don’t cry, you go all blotchy when you cry and it makes me sad even when it’s happy cry”. I told her I couldn’t be prouder of her. To which B responded “you’re wrong. I am the proudest teacher in the whole world”. When she has a good lesson, B often lets her have a bit of dried fruit from the stash she has. Today she’d prepared her a beautiful box full. And then let her eat her weight in mini brownies. With a promise of a trip to their favourite coffee shop. This achievement deserved every bit of spoiling ...