Day 5 - March 25

March 25 - 9:15pm MT

Fear not, there is a blog post for today! Despite a late start and a slightly earlier end, it was a remarkably full and busy day. One full of a lot of time on the bus - and without access to wifi (hence the delayed singular post). We woke up this morning in Denver and by 10am we were in breathtaking Breckenridge.

We arrived with ample time to walk rehearse parts of pieces and get used to the beautiful professional performance space at the Breckenridge Riverwalk Center - complete with greenrooms, monitors to see the stage from behind the scenes. 

As we arrived we discovered that there had been confusion about publicity for the event so Ms. Ballard recruited our piano students (no piano at the venue) to become an impromptu guerrilla marketing team. While the string players rehearsed, Ben, Max, and Sasha introduced themselves to passersby and promoted their friends' concert. The result was that ~50 people who had never heard of Crowden sat through a 40 minute concert featuring Smyth, Shubert, and all three orchestral pieces. Actually, they did more than sit - one of the best things about tour is that when Crowden performs publicly it's arresting. People stop. They sit. They change their plans. They take out their phones and start recording and then text friends to show off this amazing thing they're witnessing. That was the experience today. Person after person wandered into this beautiful space that hosts professional concerts year round to discover 12, 13, and 14 year olds masterfully performing classical repertoire. 

Following the concert students made their way to the Breckenridge Gondola and climbed to nearly 13,000' elevation for fantastic views and a relaxed lunch hour. After our descent we boarded the coach for a 3 hour drive to Colorado Springs where we had dinner (and a little dessert) and are retiring for the night to rest up for a fun and full day in Colorado Springs.

The big takeaway from today is that being a musician is hard. Playing concerts on back-to-back days, when you're already tired, when you are between gigs on a bus, when you just revved up and locked in to play the same music just 14 hours ago is hard. That means that there are performances that you might not feel like are your best, but it's critical to remember that the audience members just heard the best version of you that they have ever (or will ever) hear. And, there's another chance tomorrow to give it your all - whether that ends up being your best performance or not isn't the point. The point is to pour yourself into your performance and be gracious when those around share their appreciation for you. That's a big one - for all of us.