Concerto Competition

I can't believe I neglected to post this. Apologies to Bailey for the delay. But...Bailey played in te Klein Oak HS Concerto Competition earlier this month. Below is his performance (a 6:47 video). 

I guess by now it won't surprise anyone to learn: we thought Bailey did great, we're very proud of his growth this year. He really has developed this skill in an amazing way. 

Anyway, here is the video - the hilarious part is when he introduced himself as "John Needham" which is generally how he is known at school, even though we still call him Bailey here at home:

Uploaded by John Needham on 2018-05-05.

John P. Needham

May 23, 2017

Spring, TX

Mariachi Ole!

C'mon, you knew this was coming, right? After all the still pictures from this weekend's Texas State Mariachi Festival, you knew there would be some videos of the Klein Oak High School Mariachi Band, right? I didn't take these videos, but another person did, and gave me permission to post them to You Tube. 

KOHS Mariachi Band was the first school from the whole Klein school district to qualify for the state mariachi festival. While a lot of schools were playing new, modern takes on mariachi music, with lots of stagecraft, KOHS Mariachi Band just played traditional mariachi music with little fanfare. It was a really well-received performance, to be sure. Take a look at how the crowd responded. They opened with Guadalajara:

Guadalajara, performed by the Klein Oak High School Mariachi Band, February 23, 2018 at the Texas State High School Mariachi Festival in Edinburgh, TX.

The next song they performed was El Rey. This is where the audience really started to respond.

El Rey, performed by the Klein Oak High School Mariachi Band, February 23, 2018 at the Texas State High School Mariachi Festival in Edinburgh, TX.

The band closed their set with No Me Se Rajar, which inspired the audience even more.

No Me Se Rajar, performed by the Klein Oak High School Mariachi Band, February 23, 2018 at the Texas State High School Mariachi Festival in Edinburgh, TX.

This was a genuinely extraordinary experience for these talented and hard-working young musicians. They walked off the stage with their feet barely touching the ground. 

And we parents were all profoundly proud of these kids.

John P. Needham

February 27, 2018

Spring, TX

Marching Season Wrap-Up, 2017

Just a couple of images from the final football game of the 2017 season. With marching season winding down, and contests all in the rear-view mirror, and the final game the day after Thanksgiving in College Station, the number of band kids who showed up to play was pretty small. Bailey and Cody were both there. I got this image of them in the stands, Cody in the foreground on bass drum, Bailey behind him on trumpet.

Cody in front on bass drum, Bailey behind on trumpet

Cody had wrapped his drum sticks up in red tape so they looked like candy canes, and he also had our Elf on the Shelf, Bob, mounted on the top of his drum:

Cody on bass drum, accompanied by Bob The Elf.

Bob The Elf and Cody's drum sticks

One last picture of Bailey:

Bailey on trumpet

That's all for now.

John P. Needham

November 28, 2017

Spring, TX

Klein Oak Masterworks Concert - May 22, 2017

Earlier this month, the top performers from Klein Oak's band, choir and orchestra performed their annual Masterworks performance. I recorded the whole concert, but many of the pieces are covered by copyright protections so I'm not posting those here (or to You Tube). 

Here are two pieces that I can post. First, the Klein Oak Wind Ensemble opened the concert with this piece, a stunning 14-minute piece that I know these young musicians worked so hard on. This is a 14-minute video and Bailey is performing on trumpet.

Next is the Klein Oak Choir. This is a four-minute+ video.

That's all I'm going to share from this night, since I am pretty sure the next five pieces that were performed, jointly, by the Wind Ensemble, the Choir and the Orchestra, are all covered by copyright protection held by the composer. 

The concert was genuinely amazing, these young performers worked for months to perfect these pieces and they all did a fabulous job.

John P. Needham

May 29, 2017

1:25PM

Spring, TX

Piano Recital - Bailey, May 2017

This one made Carolyn cry. I unfortunately had to miss it, traveling for business, but Carolyn recorded it for me, and here is the video (six minute video).

John Needham

Spring, TX

May 29, 2017

10:20AM

Sixteen

Wow. John Bailey Needham turned sixteen yesterday. Naturally, that means it is time to post some new images.

Here he is at sixteen. 

I stiched a few images together to post to FB so here are those now too.

And this one...

Finally, this last image - Carolyn made her chocolate chip cheesecake with caramel topping. This was at the request of the birthday boy.

Bay had a good day. But us, his parents, wow. We could not be more proud of the young man that Bailey has become, and continues to grow into. 

John P. Needham

Spring, TX

January 13, 2017

Etudes - December 2016

I shared this over the weekend, but for the sake of posterity: Bailey played trumpet in the Texas Region 9 band auditions on Saturday. He advanced. Definitely worth noting that the top-two trumpeters in Region 9 are from the same school as Bailey. We've said all along that the kids here are getting an exceptional education, especially a fine arts education, at Klein Oak. This is further evidence of that. Mr. Clearwater and his team? Really outstanding.

Region Band Audition Results

For Klein Oak (HS) band, Bailey had to record the three etudes that were used to judge the auditions. Since he had to do that anyway, I figured it would be worth it to preserve them on You Tube. So, below, here are the three etudes, as performed by Bailey. He did great. 

First Day of School - August 2016

First day of sophomore year, for Bailey.

First day of high school, for Cody.

Both sporting their Chicago sports affiliations. We're pretty proud about that.

John P. Needham

Spring, TX

August 22, 2016