Roy and Rosemary critique
Friday November 20th, a Musical Duo named Roy and Rosemary performed at the Fremont High School auditorium. They came to the Fremont Middle School to perform for the junior high students earlier that day, and I knew I had to go. My grandma had already heard they were coming and gotten tickets, but seeing a little snippet of their performance just made me more excited to experience the full show.
The performance started at 7pm. Although I was the only person in the room under the age of fifty, it was still buzzing with energy. Once they stepped onto the stage, the audience of crazed grandparents went bazurk. They both looked stunning as they took their places. Roy took a seat by the elegant white piano. Rosemary came out with a small, sleek violin, accompanied with the bow that matched. They started off with a number called What A Wonderful World. I was extremely excited because we perfomrmed that piece for show choir last year, and it was, and still is, one of my favorites. They captivated the audience with such power and respect, that no one was fidgeting or talking. The entire room was perfectly still. You could hear a pin drop as she raised her bow high in the air before she struck it against her violin. The way that they both stood tall and proud let everyone know that they had us right where they wanted us. There was no doubt that they were confident and they knew what they were doing, and if they didn’t, then they had me fooled.
They went on and performed several other beautiful pieces, such as Hallelujah, and Swing Low. They connected with the audience from the minute they walked onto the stage, and that was only the beginning. They asked the audience to give them words, good or bad. At first the crowd was skeptical. Then someone shouted out a word, and then another person, and then everyone all at once. Amazingly, Roy and Rosemary created a song using the randomly shouted words. Taking the emotions of the different words that the audience shouted, and shaping them into notes and chords. One of the words they picked was thunder storm, and they did an amazing job of creating an image in your mind of an actual thunderstorm, booming and crashing right in front of your eyes. I know I couldn’t have been the only one to picture that in my head, because the energy in the room was buzzing with imagination.
Someone in the crowd shouted “cows” and everyone thought that was hilarious. In the middle of a beautiful note they would glance at each other, then at the same time they would both strike an ugly low note that resembled the mooing of a cow. Everyone in the room cracked up, including the two on stage.
I thought it was simply astonishing how not only did they add humor into the show naturally, but they were being themselves. So many performers and artists nowadays have a stage act when they go up in front of a crowd. They act like a completely different person than they are in real life when they are in front of an audience. They had no shame in acting the way they act on a normal day basis, the only difference was they were on a stage.
The way they worked together was something I had never seen before. It was almost like they could read eachothers minds. Roy would pick up on the rhythms and repeating patterns, and start playing alongside Rosemary. I loved how the piano complimented the long strokes of the violin, and the violin complemented the rhythms of the piano. It’s truly amazing how much raw emotion that they put into every single one of their shows. The best part was you would never know if they messed up. Their confident smiles let us know that they were not afraid of making mistakes. They had a special connection that is hard to find.
Although I found the performance amazing, I would have enjoyed it so much more if they played songs that I knew. I understand that the audience might have known those songs, because they were from that time era. I think that if they wanted a bigger audience, they could play songs that are popular now, to get a younger and more socially active group to show up.
I think that in order to do the type of thing that Roy and Rosemary do, you have to be extremely brave and outgoing. You have to stand in front of a big group of strangers and completely open yourself up. You have to let yourself become extremely vulnerable, and you have no idea who is going to judge you over the things you love to do. I know I could never be brave enough to expose myself in front of an audience like they do. I think that Roy and Rosemary have so much courage to do what they do. Playing the piano and the violin together is not common, but they go together so well it sounds like a match made in heaven. The show was so amazing that I think a lot of people would love it if people gave it a shot. I think that I would give their performance a 4/5 stars. I enjoyed what they do very much, but most of the songs I had never heard before. Although the music is a little bit old, I would highly recommend seeing Roy and Rosemary in concert, because I know anyone of any age would enjoy it.
(Image from http://www.ouelletteprojects.com/artist.php?id=roy )