The Chaperone

I saw a performance with my students at the New England Conservatory one night and we returned the next day for workshops and a concert by my students. I was really awed by the beauty of that space the first night--the rich wooden stage and detailing throughout, the dark green carpets and details on the balconies, it was simply gorgeous. So when there was a break the next day I obtained permission to visit it for some photographs--it was a fun twist to climb up onto the stage instead of my usual position in the audience. This day was a lot of fun. The kids had much more freedom in their schedule so I had the opportunity to play with them more. Two of the girls kept mock-escaping from the room we were in so I had to chase them from stairwells and hallways and I would hold doors shut so they couldn't escape--they were actually terrible escape artists since every time they went missing I just had to follow the giggles. Later that evening one of the boys (Omar) made a game out of following me, at first I just walked in circles but it quickly progressed to spins and doing the grapevine which he had more difficulty mimicking. It was definitely one of my favorite days with them since we had so much space to breathe and they were allowed to be children instead of musicians.