Roxi in Turkey

A couple of weeks ago, Roxi had the most amazing experience–she flew to Ankara, Turkey to participate in the AMIS International Honour Band and Choir Festival.

Roxi and 12 other students (6 choir, 7 band) plus their chaperones flew out of Amsterdam early Wednesday morning.

They arrived in sunny Ankara later that afternoon. Most of these photos are from the ride from the airport to the location of the music festival. Thanks for taking these photos, Roxi!

The mixed choir was made up of 127 high school kids from American and International schools throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Roxi said that they were the best choir she’s ever sung with and that it was like being thrown into the middle of a Broadway cast. Amazingly tight ensemble made up of serious musicians. She was in heaven!

The choir, directed by Dr. Edith Copley of Northern Arizona University, practised all day Thursday and Friday with a performance on Saturday at noon. The choir sang:

Rosephanye Powell: Sorida
Alessandro Scarlatti: Exultate Deo
Folksong from Banyuwangi (Indonesia): Luk Luk Lumbu
Eric William Barnum/Edna St. Vincent Millay: Afternoon on a Hill
Peter Louis van Dijk: Horizons
Keith Hampton: True Light

The festival hosted a special dinner and social on Friday night. The kids enjoyed a Turkish meal and a traditional Turkish dance presentation.

This was an incredible experience for Roxi–she made so many new friends and grew as a musician and as a person too, I think.

The night after the concert, Roxi and her roomie were so hungry. They ordered room service, which finally arrived a couple of hours later, LOL! Here’s Roxi’s midnight snack. Look, she took a photo of her food! I’m so proud {wipes away tear} ;-) That’s 2:30 AM, by the way.

The kids got back to Amsterdam Sunday evening, exhausted. It was a lot of long hours last week to catch up on homework. Unfortunately that also meant very little sleep (and a bit of a head cold and slight laryngitis). But I think if you asked her, Roxi would say it definitely was worth it. In fact, she’s trying to figure out how she can try out again for next year’s festival… rumor has it it will be in the Netherlands. :-)

So onto Roxi’s next project: last week, she was asked to be the solo musician for the upcoming high school play. She has about three weeks to come up with incidental music to help set the mood, music for scene changes, as well as find bits of popular music for accentuating important scenes. Someone has a lot of faith in her talent, I think. She is thrilled, of course!

This school has been such an incredible blessing for Roxi. We didn’t select it on the basis of the music program, but wow, did we luck out. It has been exactly the right school at the right time for our budding musician.