Class of 2020 Meet Us Monday: Caroline

We are counting down to the end of the 2019-2020 school year, and it is a particularly bittersweet time for our 8th grade students as they prepare to graduate under very unusual circumstances. To help celebrate and recognize our ILS Class of 2020, we are again launching our “Meet Us Monday” blog series to introduce you to the members of this year’s graduating class.

Each week, we will be sharing interviews that we have done with each of our 8th grade students, in which they share more about their favorite ILS memories and traditions, words of wisdom they’ve received over the years, and other reflections from their years here with us at ILS. We hope that you will enjoy these reflections, and join with us in congratulating and celebrating these students!

Hymn of the Week: June 1-5 (Last week of school!) LSB 498: Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest

After 50 days of celebration, the official Church Year celebration of Eastertide is now concluding with Pentecost, the festival we celebrated on Sunday. On Pentecost, so-called because it is the 50th day of Easter and “pente” means “five” in Greek, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, appearing as tongues of fire over their heads. In “Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest”, then, we are singing about the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, and asking for his “grace and heav’nly aid”.

2020 Upper School Oration Showcase

CONGRATULATIONS to our ILS Upper School students on the successful completion on another year of orations. This year has been different in many ways, and students carefully memorized and prepared orations from their own homes instead of in-person in class. We are so proud of the work of each and every one of our students. The orations showed dignity, composure, and enthusiasm. We wish each of our students could hear the round of applause deserved for these orations.

The top two orations from each class, 5th-8th grades, were entered into the final showcase. It was an intense competition, and we congratulate 8th grader Aria on winning 1st place in the 2020 Oration Showcase! 2nd place was a tie between 8th grader Tyler Reese and 6th grader Emelyn.

Please enjoy Aria’s oration, along with some of the other final pieces included in our showcase this year. Congratulations again to every student for their outstanding work!

The Oration Showcase 2020 participants included:

5th Grade: Brandon, Grace

6th Grade: Emelyn, George

7th Grade: Rory, Hubbard

8th Grade: Tyler Reese, Aria, Margaret

Comp. of the Week: May 25-29 Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) Concerto in D Major - 2. Arioso

Igor Stravinsky was a Romantic composer and a Modern Day composer, but we put him mostly in the Modern Day category: Modern music! The greats include Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Prokofiev, and Britain’s favorite Benji. What’s that noise?! It’s sometimes rather strange when atonality pervades most every range. Ohhhh, this is the musical timeline! It starts with the Early Age. Then it’s Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical, Romantic, and not to forget the Modern Day!

Stravinsky composed his Concerto in D Major, including the second movement called “Arioso”, in 1947 when he was asked by a European chamber orchestra to compose a piece to celebrate their 20th anniversary. An arioso is usually a song in an opera; it’s similar to an aria but less formal. In this piece, though, Stravinsky composes it for strings. The lyrical melody rises and falls and stretches at times.

Class of 2020 Meet Us Monday: Eamon

We are counting down to the end of the 2019-2020 school year, and it is a particularly bittersweet time for our 8th grade students as they prepare to graduate under very unusual circumstances. To help celebrate and recognize our ILS Class of 2020, we are again launching our “Meet Us Monday” blog series to introduce you to the members of this year’s graduating class.

Each week, we will be sharing interviews that we have done with each of our 8th grade students, in which they share more about their favorite ILS memories and traditions, words of wisdom they’ve received over the years, and other reflections from their years here with us at ILS. We hope that you will enjoy these reflections, and join with us in congratulating and celebrating these students!

Class of 2020 Meet Us Monday: Margaret

We are counting down to the end of the 2019-2020 school year, and it is a particularly bittersweet time for our 8th grade students as they prepare to graduate under very unusual circumstances. To help celebrate and recognize our ILS Class of 2020, we are again launching our “Meet Us Monday” blog series to introduce you to the members of this year’s graduating class.

Each week, we will be sharing interviews that we have done with each of our 8th grade students, in which they share more about their favorite ILS memories and traditions, words of wisdom they’ve received over the years, and other reflections from their years here with us at ILS. We hope that you will enjoy these reflections, and join with us in congratulating and celebrating these students!

Hymn of the Week: May 25-29 LSB 493: A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing

Which season of the Church Year are we still in? Easter! That’s right, we are still celebrating our Lord’s resurrection, but we are adding to that the remembrance and celebration of Christ’s ascension into heaven. Remember our hymn from last week: “See, the Lord Ascends in Triumph”? That hymn told the story of the ascension on the 40th day of the Easter season. This week, we are still celebrating with the hymn “A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing”.

Notice the “Easter A word” repeated over and over again in this hymn. “Alleluia” means “praise the Lord”. We are declaring this over and over again because Christ has conquered death and has ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father. Can you count how many times we sing “Alleluia” in each stanza?

Comp. of the Week: May 18-22 Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Symphony No. 87 in A Major - 4. Finale: Vivace

Haydn’s fourth and final movement of his Symphony No. 87 is fast and lively, hence the name “Vivace”. Haydn composed this piece for the full orchestra. At first, he uses the strings to play the main theme, a cheerful, easy-to-remember melody. Later in the piece, he uses wind instruments to play the bouncy tune. Then, he brings it back to the strings but changes the melody to minor, giving the tune a darker color.

Class of 2020 Meet Us Monday: Isabel

We are counting down to the end of the 2019-2020 school year, and it is a particularly bittersweet time for our 8th grade students as they prepare to graduate under very unusual circumstances. To help celebrate and recognize our ILS Class of 2020, we are again launching our “Meet Us Monday” blog series to introduce you to the members of this year’s graduating class.

Each week, we will be sharing interviews that we have done with each of our 8th grade students, in which they share more about their favorite ILS memories and traditions, words of wisdom they’ve received over the years, and other reflections from their years here with us at ILS. We hope that you will enjoy these reflections, and join with us in congratulating and celebrating these students!

Hymn of the Week: May 18-22 LSB 494: See, the Lord Ascends in Triumph

Although we are still in the Easter season, “See, the Lord Ascends in Triumph” tell us about Christ’s bodily ascension into heaven. 40 days after Easter, Jesus told his disciples that the Holy Spirit would come to them and help them to witness to others about him. He then rose up and was taken from their sight.

This hymn triumphantly proclaims Christ’s ascension through both its text and its music. The sturdy and kingly melody accompanies words that describe Jesus as our King, triumphantly riding to the gates of heaven in a chariot. The “Lord ascends in triumph” because he has conquered sin, death, and Satan. He is going to take his place at the Father’s right hand and rule over heaven and earth.