The South Ayrshire Schools Orchestra were having their annual concert and Ciaran was playing oboe.
He missed this concert last year as he was away with the Scouts skiing, oops I mean on an cultural exchange, in Kandersteg in Switzerland.
There were three separate orchestra tonight - the Junior (all primary students), the Symphony (all secondary) and the Chamber (not too sure about this but seems to be mostly the older secondary students)
Because of the three groups, with different sizes and structures, each played one after another with a short gap between to change the layout. That kept everything flowing really well.
I have to say it was amazing! You have to give credit to the talent these children have.
For the first time in years the Symphony orchestra had a soloist, who was excellent.
Sadly I couldn't see Ciaran as our seats were just in line with him and the conductor. But I could see his oboe bobbing about.
We were again all caught out by the movements. Not being familiar enough with the music means there is a tendency to applaud whenever they stop playing, even if its between movements. By the middle of the 7 movement piece by the Chamber orchestra I though we had it right but failed again in the last piece. This was despite us being told they were playing the first and third movements, but in our defence they took a long time to start the final movement.
