Concerts

Regular Elk's Street followers will know that the little boys have music as one of their hobbies. Recently, there have been a couple of concerts.

For those of you who don't believe that Thomas really does play French horn, below a video as evidence.





Thomas was playing a Russian folk song (Korobeiniki) about an itinerant trader and was accompanied by Henry.

There were a couple of wobbly bits in the middle but for a first major performance Thomas did well. The boys are very different - Henry plays horribly at home but generally pulls off a good performance when under pressure; Thomas, on the other hand, plays much better at home than in public. Apologies for the lousy video quality, your correspondent is not the world's best cameraman, and the position of my seat meant the piano rather overshadowed the horn.

If you want to hear a more professional version of the song, click here for the song in Finnish, and here for the song in Russian. And the styles are very different!

For the little boys the next performance was at a concert on Fathers' Day in aid of diabetes research. The choir of the primary school's music classes, grades three to five, sang a few songs and some of the children in Henry's class had instrumental solos.

Below, a few photos.

The choir with Henry's teacher at the front. (Thomas in the front row on the far left.)


Henry standing tall in the back row.


Thomas in the front row.


Thomas one more time.

Thomas is really not keen on being in the limelight - and then they put him in the front row, poor chap!

(Close-up photos courtesy of Tuomo)

I found a French horn

The holidays are over, school and work are in full swing, the sky is grey, but for some people, the sun is shining; Thomas's French horn has arrived! When he got it, his smile suggested that Christmas and his birthday had arrived all on one day.

Below some photos.

Thomas blowing his horn. (The instrument is not a full-size one. )

Luckily for his parents, the music school has an instrument rental scheme as French horns are rather expensive.

After only one lesson, Thomas's playing is not to everyone's liking! Maybe because the noise sounds like a cross between an alphorn and a fog horn. But even the greatest virtuosos must start somewhere!