On February 18th, I attended lovely niece
at Palatine High School. Jaclyn, a freshman at the school is an accomplished violinist and plays with the Orchestra at her school.
She is the daughter of sister Nancy and her husband Randy who were thrilled with her performance. Also in attendance was her younger brother Ryan (my able camera assistant), and Jaclyn's grandparents, Bill & Schatzie.
On this evening they played a variety of songs, but by far the best was the medley of songs they played from the London stage production of The Phantom Of The Opera.
It brought back special memories for sister Nancy and myself as we recalled when the 2 of us first saw the play together at Her Majesty's Theatre in London way back in 1991 - having bought tickets from an illegal Ticket Tout outside the Theatre immediately before showtime.
The recitation was spectacular and when they started playing the Overture To The Phantom, I closed my eyes and imagined we were all in the Paris Opera House awaiting the Phantom's next diabolical move. (In fact, don't you think that young Jaclyn looks a bit like Christine Daae should look from the musical?)
Picture upper left is of our beauty receiving the accolades of the crowd following their performance. Picture right is of Jaclyn, post concert, clutching a bouquet of roses given her by The Phantom himself!
Picture all the way down is of Jaclyn's family busting with pride as they revel in her accomplishments.