Gentle Fall of Snow

Such a beautiful snowfall in the morning, the sort that they try to imitate in films, the slow and gentle fall of snow that resembles the fall of flakes in a particularly good snow globe. Even better, over the hour or so that it was falling the flakes changed shape and size, so that sometimes it was little flakes that flipped end over end, like little helicopter seeds, and sometimes it was the big fluffy 'chicken feather' snow that gathers so gorgeously and brilliantly frosts each tree limb, making the winter lace that inspires the artist in everyone.

Unfortunately, it's supposed to sleet today and then hard freeze tomorrow. From Currier & Ives to statewide Ice Rink, all in one weekend. Yup, it's Minnesota, all right...

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The Kid came home a little blue yesterday, having finished the last of his lessons with his current voice coach, the wonderful Vicky Mountain. Next week, at her recommendation, he will begin lessons with a new coach - a gentleman who has an impressive classical background, and who is the music director for the Prelude singer/performer program at MacPhail. He seems a decent sort, and is no doubt very talented... but this is Bren's 3rd vocal coach in about a year, and it's hard to keep saying goodbye to people that he has grown attached to, especially when his experience in the past is that when he falls into a teacher/student mismatch the results are often disastrous.

I'd be lying if I didn't admit to a few nervous wonderings, myself. Certainly the new coach is a more rigorous sort than Bren's previous coaches, and no doubt less nurturing and flexible in his approach - not necessarily a bad thing at this point in Bren's 'career'. There are a few essential fundamentals that he never really got trained on adequately (breathing, for instance) that need to be addressed, but which the kid probably wouldn't bother with if he isn't forced to do so. My hope is that he has matured enough and gained enough confidence in the past few years that he'll be able to tolerate a certain degree of discipline and personality mismatch from an authority figure.

We'll see - but in the meantime, I sympathize with his reluctance to part with a teacher who has been both nurturing and effective. His concurrent mid-year entrance into a demanding program full of kids who have already bonded as a group is causing us perhaps even more excitement and trepidation. There will be social challenges, as well as skill areas where he will be far behind the other kids (movement and harmonization, for instance). There will also be opportunities, both social and academic, that he wouldn't have otherwise. Who knows what the result will be? The new year is shaping up to be an adventure!