Ten Grands was held at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland. We have been to this concert hall many times over the years.
Both Seth and Alyssa played violin in the Metropolitan Youth Symphony for years. One year on this stage, Seth was concert master for his orchestra performance. It was very exciting for this mom to see her little boy walk out onto the stage, violin under his arm, and bow to an audience of over a thousand people!
I'm waiting for it to happen again...
The city traffic was the worst I had ever seen (probably because there were about two thousand kids arriving in buses and cars) and parking became a time-consuming affair. Consequently the extra time I had given us disappeared and we arrived barely in time to get seats. Surprisingly, this worked in our favor and instead of having to sit in the nose-bleed seats with our group we got to sit on the Mezzanine!
When the curtains opened I gasped at how beautifully the stage had been transformed. It was music for the eyes. I read in the newspaper that at the paid evening concert they added thousands of red roses from Brazil. That must have been spectacular!
Since this concert was for students, the performers were mostly students from the Portland area. They each had their chance to play a solo piece. Every style was played from classical to jazz and the most easily recognized composers - Beethoven, Chopin, Joplin- with stories to educate the listeners about the music's origins or the composer's life. It was an inspiring concert for aspiring pianists and musicians.I am TRYING to get a video clip of the ten grand pianos being played together. I need some tech assistance...check back later if you're curious how ten grand pianos sound...