I had the pleasure over the 2012 Mothers’ Day weekend of
watching budding talents that may grow up to be musical icons that will rock
our world in the up future.
Completing a conference I was in Kansas city for a few days for
mother’s day and to socialize with my young nephews and nieces. While I treated
them with my avuncular goodies and company, they invited me to their soccer games
and their school Rock and Roll Musical performance they were performing in and
had been rehearsing for months.
The venue of the performance, St. Andrew the Apostle School’s
gym was packed to the brim with enthusiastic and proud parents and relatives of
the kids, and the passionate teachers and administrators of the school who each
felt especially proud of their students and their school programs. The parish
priest as well as the school principal in his casual blue jeans pants and red
t-shirt were among the cheerful hosts, milling around, exchanging pleasantries and
warmly greeting visitors to the school.
Pre-performance, the pupils could not contain their
excitement as they playfully stomped about on the stage and interacted with
each other as would siblings of the same household, which indeed they were by
dint of the seemingly cordial family atmosphere of the school. As the musical
director hinted that the program was about to commence, they wasted no time in
assuming their positions on the elevated three angled-platforms flanking the
elevated stage. Their discipline in assembling without effort and staying
poised for the first chord of the musical surprised and impressed the adults in
the audience.
Heralding the melodious rendition, some of the featured artiste’s
impressionists strutted through the stage as they were introduced to welcome
applauses…Little Richard, James Brown, Elvis Presley and the Beatles!
At the conductor’s instance, these young talented kids
beautiful belted out the lyrics to the songs effortlessly without missing a
beat. This was accompanied by
beautifully choreographed hand waves, dips and flow that gave sass and verve to
the performance.
The joy the kids radiated belting out their numbers was so
infectious that the adult audience and other kids caught the melodic fever,
clapping along and bobbing their heads in full enjoyment of the performances.
The appropriately designed props accompanying the
performances of the Beatle songs, the Beach boys and the great costumes for
those that played Elvis James and Ed Sullivan brought smiles to the faces of
the audience that I was sure reminisced on those days of great music that every
baby boomer enjoyed. I was immensely enjoying the musical and artistic parts of
my nephews Nnamdi and Ekene, that I don’t see often leaving so far away. They
were dressed in jeans, white shirts and street-cool leather jackets as they rocked
and rolled like the original artistes intended it to be. My niece, Chi-Chi, a natural
performer and dance enthusiast was clearly in her element wearing a period
puddle skirt and red ruffle scarf over her neck and a white dainty blouse. She
looked every inch the part and sonorously belted the tunes as she swayed, jigged
and stretched to the beat in unison with the wonderful choreography.
After an hour, the program was done with but
the memory will linger on for a very long, long time. Watching my young family
members perform in public with great confidence and self-assuredness while
having the fun of their lives tells me that they are fully ready to claim their
future and would make the best out of it. Thank you St Andrew the Apostle
School and the entire student body as well as the patient and tireless staff
for making my Wednesday May 9, 2012, evening a fun time in Kansas City area and
for starting mothers’ day weekend on a very positive and cheerfully musical note.
