On Tuesday I received a wonderful Christmas surprise - a trip to go see my favorite pianist, Lorie Line, in concert! For those of you not familiar with Lorie Line, I invite you read about her story here
Lorie is a very gifted musician. Her music is so beautiful and she is an inspiring performer. I especially love her arrangements that include instrumentals. She has a violin/piano arrangement of Silent Night that my mom and I have played together for years. I loved it so much when I first heard it that I trascribed the violin part from the CD, listening over and over again until I got it just right (I've even recorded the piano part so that I can play my violin along with myself). Yep, I'm one BIG fan.
Lori Line performs about 100 holiday shows across the country in November and December, but doesn't often come to Utah. Every year I'm excited to review her holiday tour schedule, then disappointed to see that she's not coming to Utah AGAIN! A few years ago Dana gave me one of her concert DVDs as a Christmas present and I just loved it. I played parts of the DVD for my music students last week as an example of how practice pays off. But I'm always sad that the holiday concert does not come closer to us. Well, this year she was playing in Denver. Dana figured this was close enough and decided to surprise me with a trip to the concert.
Tuesday morning he woke me up early and gave me the concert tickets in a little gold bag. He then told me he had arranged plane tickets and a hotel close to the concert hall. My sister would be coming over after lunch to stay overnight with the kids. We would catch a plane at 3pm to Denver and arrive just in time to eat dinner and get to the concert. What a great surprise!
With a few minor airport delays, everything went just as planned. Hayden and Emma enjoyed spending time with their favorite aunt (Thanks a million, Carrie!). The concert was wonderful. When the lights dimmed and Lorie walked on stage, I started to cry right in my seat. I was so excited to be there and so thrilled that my husband had arranged such a great gift and kept it all a surprise! The show was wonderful, every note was perfect. The costumes and sets were breathtaking, all the musicians complimented each other so well. I came away with some Lorie Line CDs and music books (yes, I've been playing from my new books non-stop since we got home!). We flew home Wednesday morning, right on schedule. Thanks Dana for such a thoughtful gift and for lovingly arranging it as a surprise. It was fun to get away together and enjoy such a great concert.
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