Mukilteo Musings

My Daughter is a Diva!!

"Oh, I feel like a Diva today," proclaimed Kaley on Saturday morning as we are off to the Solo-Ensemble competition, "I'm going to do well so I hope I have a judge who knows what she is doing." She strutted with a confident little wiggle in her slinky blue dress to the van.

Just the morning before when I took Kaley to school at 7 A.M., she was loudly complaining, "These jeans look horrible on me. And why is it you NEVER wash my clothes; I never have anything decent to wear because of you. And look at my hair--these braids make my big head look positively prehistoric--like I have a growth or something out of the back of my head. Oh my GAWD, when people at school see me, they are going to scream and run the other way."

In my opinion, Kaley has a beautifully shaped head and when she was little, after I washed her hair and combed it, I would always admire its lovely shape. Now at 16 when she wears braids, the lovely shape is accentuated. I must admit, her head gave me problems when she was born two weeks early. We had missed the refresher class on pushing, and she kind of got stuck at that point and did not want to come out. I had a male doctor, a husband, and a young nurse all screaming at me to push. I took one look at all of them and realized I was the only person in that delivery room who had had a baby before so I wasn't very nice to any of them at that moment. Nevertheless, I did my job, pushed her into the world without so much as a tylenol. Little did I realize this was the first of many tangles with this beautiful girl.

God has given me a great challenge as well as an incredible gift being Kaley's Mom. Her soul is defined by music. She sees and hears the world through nothing but music. My husband and I have no musical abilities whatsoever. I quit piano lessons after four years because I never graduated out of Book 1. Dave was in a rock band and tried singing and playing the guitar but the other members decided to put him in charge of the light show instead. And yet for some strange but wonderful reason, God gave each of my children the gift of music.

Lucas declared to me in the fourth grade that he wanted to play the viola. I had no idea what a viola was but we managed to find one to rent and when the school orchestra teacher, Ms. Beckman, suggested he had some ability, we found a private teacher. My only regret is that I did not recognize his love of music earlier; a musical parent may have noticed through the ninja turtle fights that putting a violin in his hands would have been a good idea. He is not a music major but he does have a music scholarship, plays in his college orchestra, plays in the community symphony and recently substituted for the regular viola player with the UM stringed quartet. And he just loves it.

With Kaley I did notice an aptitude when I parked her stroller in front of the Disney music video in a Disney store in Seattle. As a baby she was bouncing mesmerized in perfect time to the music; my Mom even noticed. When she turned three, I started her in Kindermusik classes where she learned to read music before she could read words. Her Kindermusik teacher gave her piano lessons beginning at age 6 and Kaley bugged me the whole time to take voice lessons and we started those at age 11. Sometimes, I have parents ask me what kind of dictator-like parent bahavior I have used to make my kids practice their music. All I am able to respond is that my kids have been self motivated out of their enjoyment and their passion. In fact, I probably could have pushed them more but since music is not my area, I have completely delegated this responsibility to their music teachers and to them. I am completely clueless.

Kaley has continued with her piano lessons and last year she accompanied several students in the Solo Ensemble competition. She also entered as a vocal soloist. Unfortunately, one of the girls she accompanied, beat her. Kaley had worked with this girl, given her tips, and with her piano work according to Kaley, masterfully covered for the girl's mistakes. And also, according to Kaley, the "stupid" judge did not realize it.

So this year, Kaley would not agree to accompany anyone even though earlier this fall she mastered Stephen Sondheim's musical "Assassins" and played the entire musical for a friend's senior project. It was a monumental task and she pulled it off beautifully.

On Saturday afternoon, I am standing outside the Performing Arts Center at my daughter's high school watching all of the kids excitedly waiting for the posting of the list of winners of the day's competition. The Solo Ensemble Competition is a regional event with several school districts involved and the winners go to the State competition. I had heard that some of the orchestra entries from our school were fabulous. Even so, Mr. Steves, the orchestra teacher--who is not one of Kaley's teachers but he likes her a lot because he liked Lucas a lot and we like him a whole lot--approached me. I said, "Well, there were three scores of 1 (the highest score) in the mezzo-soprano category and Kaley was one of them!"

Mr. Steves fidgeted around and responded, "Kaley did very well this morning; I mean Kaley did really well this morning."

"She sounded great to me but I am her Mom. I am supposed to think that so what do I know?" Dave and I noticed the judge seemed to want to eat Kaley as she approached her with praise but then the girl before Kaley....well, I don't want to be unkind. And we know nothing about music anyway.

"Oh, I am not supposed to tell anyone this before I tell the choir teacher," Mr. Steves exploded hastily, "but Kaley won her category--she did very well!" He then rushed off quickly to support his fabulous students. Wow! She is going to State!! Wow! And she beat the girl who beat her last year. Wow! And it was a different judge this year.

I watched my daughter with the gorgeous head over by the door to the PAC-- my frustrating passionate, maddening, difficult, beautiful Diva begin to jump up and down as a piece of paper was taped to the glass. She ran over to me, "MOM......!"

"I know...I already know!"