It has been an incredible year, unbelievably busy, and full of highs and lows. So, we'd like to send you a "holiday letter" through this blog site, to catch you up on the Fellenbaum household and wish you the best for the New Year.
You'll find highs in blue titles, lows in red titles, and everything in between in regular black titles. Enjoy reading it all, or pick and choose. But, we know you'll enjoy the Kiri parts...we certainly have!!
JANUARY
Music. January 2012 was the busiest month of the whole year. Jim was juggling University of Tennessee student auditions for orchestra, covering the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Masterworks concert, doing radio and TV interviews for UT and KSO, organizing the UT Concerto Competition, going to meetings for the Director of the School of Music Search Committee AND the Percussion Search Committee, practicing his cello, organizing and planning Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra rehearsals and upcoming events, as well as preparing for rehearsals and being a dad. However, the music-making matched -- and even surpassed -- the craziness of the schedule, which included the annual MLK Celebration Concert with the KSO, a side-by-side concert with the KSO and Maryville high school, an outreach event with the KSO at Blackberry Farms, conducting the Violin Orchestra at UT's annual Violin Festival, and culminating with a KSO Chamber Classics concert, where he conducted Baroque works, and played cello on the Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 (the whole concert turned out wonderfully!!). On top of that, Sarah was busy practicing trumpet: she filled in for Cathy Leach by playing with the UT Brasswind Quintet on a Faculty Chamber Music series concert, and was preparing for a concert with her Knox Brass Worx brass quintet February 1st AND Mahler 2 with the KSO later in February. All the while, looking after Kiri more than Jim, since he was out of the house a lot more than usual...this made her the busiest person in the house!
We put our house on the market. As if we needed more to do, we made the decision to move, and listed our house on January 7th. This would prove to be both a high and a low throughout the year -- for obvious reasons (if you've ever moved, of course), and not-so-obvious reason (which you'll see later).
Kiri. Our little girl continued to grow, was eating solid foods more regularly, and amazing us in so many ways every day.
FEBRUARY
Jim's dad passes away. On February 16th, James A. Fellenbaum passed away due to complications from cancer. This was something we saw coming, but didn't think it would happen as fast as it did, when it finally happened.
Music. Sarah played a concert at Tennessee Tech with her Brass Quintet, the Knoxville BrassWorx Company, where they also collaborated with some TTU faculty on a Gabrieli piece. Then, later that month, she performed with the KSO in a Masterworks series, conducted by Lucas Richman, of the tremendous Mahler: Symphony No. 2. Quite a big trumpet month! Jim's UT Symphony Orchestra held their February concert (which included an Outreach concert to Bearden high school), where they had a superb performance of Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition, along with the Cecil Forsyth Viola Concerto in G Minor, wonderfully played by Hillary Herndon! The Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra held a stand-alone concert later that month, which featured KSYO Concerto Competition winners.
House. After seeing a few houses in January, we decided to hold off until we got some interest in our own house. This would eventually prove to take a while, so we didn't want to fall in love with a house and have to wait/risk losing it for the contingency of selling our own. So, we were on hold for a while.
Kiri. A nine-month checkup (very healthy girl!), a second set of professional baby pictures, and she also started crawling!!
MARCH
Music. There were some good concerts this month -- a Celtic Celebration with the KSO (really fun show), performances in Greeneville, TN of a Young People's Concert, catching up with friend Daniel Meyer conducting the KSO, along with his wife, Mary Persin, who played a viola concerto on that concert, and an enjoyable Outreach concert to Tellico, TN. Sarah played trumpet on the Greeneville YPCs, and started getting ready for April trumpet gigs...which were pretty big for her; more on that, next.
Kiri. The hair is really starting to come in ;-)
APRIL
Music. April was, indeed, a pretty huge music month. Sarah always has several Easter-related trumpet gigs, and this year was no different. She played with Angie Batey at Farragut Presbyterian Church on Easter, and with St. John's downtown for Palm Sunday, and a couple other gigs as well. She also had two big KSO projects: she filled in as principal trumpet on an Outreach concert to Southwest Virginia Community College that Jim conducted, and also played principal trumpet for the Knoxville Opera's production of Otello...that was huge, but she did an awesome job!!! Jim's UTSO performed Handel's The Messiah -- the COMPLETE work, under the direction of Angie Batey, and also performed in the UT Opera Theater's production of The Marriage of Figaro, conducted by Kevin Class.
House and Work. March and April were ho-hum with movement on the house. Not much action...it had only been on the market for 90 days, but we were dropping the price in a way that -- in hindsight -- was pretty typical of this past year's bad housing market. March and April were also pretty busy with work and committees for Jim...it's not all that interesting to talk about, but the Director search and Percussion search were pretty important and very time consuming, on top of a lot of other administrative stuff.
Kiri. The "Happy Easter" picture below is cute, but it was one of the first times we noticed how much she likes to draw and scribble, which she does even more now (no, Kiri did not draw the "Happy Easter," nor the bunny). Sarah's mom, Sally Chumney, is in the Easter group photo, below. And, at the very end of April, Kiri took her first unassisted steps. The beginning of the end, right? ;-) Video, below.
MAY
KIRI'S FIRST BIRTHDAY. A lot of stuff happened in May, but nothing more important than our baby daughter's first birthday on May 9th! We had a party at the West Hills Park under a gazebo. Although it rained, we were really touched by how many guests stopped by.
House. Finally, a contract on our house, May 10th! One of the stipulations: they wanted to move in by the end of the month...YIKES! This set in motion a whirlwind month of packing and looking for a new home. Exciting and stressful at the same time, for sure!
Music. So, while we were packing and looking for (and finding) a new house, Sarah continued with gigs through the month, and Jim finished up some KSO Pops and Outreach concerts.
JUNE
OUR NEW HOUSE. We moved into our new house on June 1st!
However...
OUR OLD HOUSE. The contract on our old house got delayed and, eventually, fell through. We were hoping to get the contract fixed, or get a new buyer, but this proved to take longer than we had imagined (or ever wanted).
String Camp. Jim conducted and taught conducting in his first String Camp with the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Association. It was a wonderful week!
Oneonta. Jim conducts band for two weeks every summer at the New York Summer Music Festival in Oneonta, NY. He always has a GREAT time and enjoys the students, atmosphere and music-making. So, while this would normally be a "blue" category," the other aspects of the trip that were rather trying and difficult. Mainly: a 13-hour car ride to Oneonta with a 13-month old who does not understand long trips yet was VERY CHALLENGING, to say the least. It was ugly. Then, it took Kiri the better part of a week to get adjusted and acclimated to the dorm suite we were in, which had no air conditioning...bluuhhgh. We knew that ahead of time, but didn't quite calculate how it would affect her. Plus, being in an environment where she didn't have her usual toys and surroundings, it made it easy for her to get bored or frustrated.
JUNE, JULY, AUGUST.
The Summer of, well, Heck. We can lump these three months together, as Jim and Sarah agree this was the worst summer they've had in a long, long, time. We were carrying two mortgages (and two utilities and homeowner's insurances) which caused a HUGE financial strain, we were hot from the weather and bothered by the swarms of mosquitos around the new house (our new house has 25 trees in front and 70 in back...a bug heaven), Jim was fixing/mowing the lawn/maintaining the old house while taking care of the new, Jim also got some really bad poison ivy from the new yard, Sarah had ALL FOUR WISDOM teeth out in August (with complications and delayed recovery -- what could be worse for a trumpet player?!?) and, most of all, we weren't really getting any traction on selling the old house. Some bites here and there, but nothing for a good while. The waiting and waiting was especially tough. Awful, awful summer.
Tucson. We had a great time visiting Tucson with Sally Chumney to see Sarah's brother, Andrew, and his wife, Kate Wike Chumney, and their beautiful 8-month old, Allyson. Kiri and Allyson had some professional pictures taken, with some below:
August 22. Jim and Sarah's anniversary. 3 years married :-)
Kiri. One of the positives of the summer: Kiri started to walking a LOT more. It was really exciting! Here is Kiri's own rendition of the famous "Risky Business" scene:
SEPTEMBER
HALLELUJAH. On September 14th, we finally closed on our old house, ending 4 months of suffering. We do realize that many people have trouble selling their home and go on for months and years without selling, but we were ecstatic that we finally got out from under that burden.
Music. Rehearsals and concerts started to resume as the new season and academic year began. Jim had concerts with UTSO (including Sibelius: Symphony No. 2), the annual Viola Celebration festival at UT, where he conducted the viola orchestra, and took part in a weekend/overnight retreat with the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra. Sarah was still recovering from her wisdom teeth surgery.
Kiri. Moving. Talking. Eating. Growing.
The video, below, really shows how much she started moving by this point in the year. And, steady enough to be pushing around her toy lawn mower:
OCTOBER
Music. Concerts in October were particularly good and rewarding. UTSO had a really good Russian concert (which included the 1812 Overture), and Jim conducted (and Sarah played principal trumpet in) the annual KSO Young People's Concert...this year it was "Scientific Symphony" which was met with a lot of positive feedback!
Kiri. She's a good helper, and very funny:
She also experienced her first Halloween, which she really enjoyed. In the second one, we think she's checking Daddy's mouth to see if there's any more candy! In the third and fourth ones, she's at a kid's Halloween party with her friend, Naomi Rosser, who used to live next door to us at the old house:
NOVEMBER
Kiri: a year and a half old. Whoa.
Kiri is SUCH a good helper :-)
Music. Jim started off the month with a KSO Chamber Classics concert which included the Haydn: Trumpet Concerto with Cathy Leach, and concluded with Beethoven: Symphony No. 1. The Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra also had its fall concert, and the UT orchestras were busy with Handel: Messiah, part I and Puccini: La Boheme! Sarah played with the Oak Ridge Symphony, and started getting busy with holiday gigs.
Musically, Kiri had been attending Kindermusik classes; we could see how she was becoming more social, hearing music more, and being REALLY rhythmic -- she loves to dance, and has got rhythm in her, for sure!
DECEMBER
Christmas with Kiri. Sarah and Jim had some good music activity during December (Sarah MUCH more than Jim, with her trumpet gigs), but nothing compares to spending the holidays with family, and especially with a 19-month-old who is just starting to recognize and understand the festivities around her. Among other gifts, we got her a child-size table and chairs; she LOVES her "big girl table" and uses it all of the time.
Sally moves into a house! Just when we thought we had crammed enough activity into one year, we're in Chattanooga this weekend to help Sally Chumney move into a new house!
The end of this blog. This is the last post of this blog -- functioning as a blog, that is. Although we enjoy sharing our memories and love of Kiri, the combination of caring for her along side our work, rehearsals, concerts, and other activities has caused us to not be able to post very much at all. We just can't keep up, sometimes!! So, we'll likely turn this into a site to share some occasional photos and videos, probably when we have a bunch to share (aside from the ones we'll post on Facebook, which will regularly continue, of course!! :-) ). We're glad that you've visited the site, and we'll let you know when we've uploaded new things to share in the future!
With much love, and best wishes for 2013,
Jim, Sarah and Kiri Fellenbaum
No comments:
Post a Comment