Smiley Faces and Exclamation Points! :)

Whenever I look back through old journals, I can immediately recognize an entry that has anything to do with Georgia - it's smothered in smiley faces and exclamation points, and her name is usually in all caps, circled, underlined several times, and so forth. This reflects both how I feel about her, and how she always makes me feel. The recent entries about music camps have triggered so many memories about Georgia. One in particular from Summerfest (the same year Melanie Richards described), reminds me of the :)'s and !!!'s in my journal and one reason for them. Along with our string classes and so forth, we were able to participate in a choir, directed by Ron Staehli. We sang, "Accentuate The Positive." The lyrics are as follows:

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene

And so forth...

I remember Georgia during all the rehearsals, just singing her heart out, as though she had written the song herself. She exemplified the words of that song! She truly accentuated the positive in everything.

Georgia's Violin

Today Georgia's Violin sang out. Melaine was chosen to play on the Honor's concert at Suzuki Institute this afternoon. She now plays Georgia's violin and there have been split seconds that as she plays I'll get a flash of Georgia standing in her place moving with the violin. With Melaine's hair up in a messy bun, and a black concert dress with a soft blue sash, she played with that same strong spirit Georgia had. I thought of Georgia. What a joy to have her legacy move on through this violin. Georgia is ever aware of us. I am glad that Melaine has such a roll model, because she Rocked today!

Paige

Chickens?

This week is Intermountain Suzuki String Institute in Sandy, UT, an annual event at which Georgia and I and scores of our music-making friends attended when we were young.

This year, as well as last, I had the happy accident of running into Georgia's sister, Paige, at ISSI, and it just so happens that my violin-playing daughter shares a class with Paige's cello-playing son. This class is for beginners: it involves singing, and balancing beanbags on your head, and waving your arms like a birds' wings, and tapping rhythm sticks together.

Today's activity was to cluck and scratch at the ground like chickens while we listened to a piece about such animals from Camille Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals. Truth be told, I felt like a ninny, clucking and bobbing my head and pretending to be a hen. But I looked up and saw Paige doing the same thing. What was even more hilarious is that we were both doing it with such conviction, in order to inspire our kids to join in! Come on kids, be a chicken! Being a chicken is fun! Listen to how the music sounds like chickens! Isn't this fun!!! Cluck! Scratch! Bob! Flap! And at that moment, and for some reason I can't explain, I had this image of Georgia in between us, clucking and flapping and playing the part of hen, in all her enthusiasm, and I just laughed. We looked ridiculous, but we were having fun. And I'm sure she would have had fun right along with us!

My Memories of Georgia

I have some fun memories of Georgia. I first met Georgia at BYU Summerfest music camp when we were young teenagers. She was our concertmistress that year, and I was sitting in the viola section. When she first got up to tune the orchestra, she smiled. I recognized that smile as being identical to the one I saw on Kate Marriott's face months earlier at a regional viola conference just before she played Walton Viola Concerto. It was then that I made the connection that they were sisters.

That year at Summerfest we played the 3rd movement of Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony and Samson and Deliliah by Saint-Saens. Clyn Barrus was our conductor. (Georgia and Clyn are two people that I am looking forward to becoming better acquainted with on the other side of the veil.) It was a very musical, spiritual, and memorable experience to be a part of that group. My mom sat in the audience for the concert. After the performance she said, "You have a very good concertmistress." I replied, "How do you know?" My mom said, "She was the one hitting all of the high notes in tune. I could hear her. She did a great job."

She was an inspiring performer. She did a very skilled performance of Sarasate's Zapateado at the Summerfest masterclass for Igor and Vesna Gruppman which inspired the students who listened. For her ensemble piece, she played the 3rd movement of the Schubert Cello Quintet with Lexye (Lund) Thiele, Natalie Drorbaugh and Ramona (Jacob) McConkie. That was my first time becoming acquainted with that piece. Ever since then, I have simply fallen in love with it. It has become one of my favorites. I love to listen to the entire piece. I remember their performance distinctly. Georgia walked out on stage and she had her hair on both sides twisted and then gathered at the back. That was the first time I'd seen anybody do their hair like that.

On another occasion at Summerfest, we were outside playing games. I was standing by eating refreshments while a girl standing next to me was watching the watermelon relay race. When she noticed that Georgia was getting ahead in the race, she said, "Dang. She plays well AND she can run faster than anybody."

I was so shy back then. I didn't have the guts to join her circle of friends (although I was fortunate enough to play a Beethoven quartet with Lexye that year and have since become good friends with Lexye), but I hope that one day I will be able to meet her again and become her friend.

With Love,
Melanie Richards