Adassa Comes to Oakland

I was asked to write an article about an amazing singer who is performing for two nights in October in Oakland California on Temple Hill where I live and serve as a full time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints..

Click on the link below to read all about it.

Adassa is coming to Oakland – TempleHill.org

New Horizon's Orchestra Spring Concert Spring 2021

Below is a link for the New Horizons Orchestra concert for Spring 2021

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox?projector=1

Matthew Moody performs a piano concerto with Utah Valley Youth Orchestra

My grandson Matthew performed a piano concerto tonight!
Here he is with his mother April, father Dallan and brother Joshua.

This is Matthew right after his performance.

Matthew also played his cello during other musical numbers

with the Utah Valley Youth Symphony.

Here is Mathew with his grandfather Ross and grandmother Janene Baadsgaard

New Horizons Orchestra Rocks

                                          Ross and I are members of a unique orchestra 

                                                  called the New Horizons Orchestra 

                                                            sponsored by BYU.

                              The best thing about this orchestra is that they take beginners!

                                I started learning the violin for the first time a few years ago.

                              Ross started learning the bass for the first time a few months ago.

                                     It is just pain fun to learn something new at our age.

                         We love meeting new friends and making beautiful music together!

                                             Click on the link below to hear us play:

https://byu.app.box.com/s/x9fge8kdrl5ydv1tt6c6sl8lwtpoh5cz

BYU New Horizons Orchestra 2020 Style

New Horizons orchestra practice in the BYU cougar marching band practice room.

It is a joy to play in the New Horizons Orchestra with my husband Ross.

Matthew's Concert

Mathew's fan club
Grandpa Baadsgaard, Mitchell, April, Mathew, Dallan and Grandma Baadsgaard

We sure enjoyed hearing you play with your orchestra tonight Matthew!

New Horizons Orchestra A Fun Place To Learn

When I was in my fifties I learned about an orchestra in Utah County sponsored by BYU where they let you start as a beginner. I'm so happy to be part of this group. We meet twice a week and play beautiful music together. There is a moment during every rehearsal when I am transported to a place of peace and joy. That feeling stays with me all week. I feel so grateful for this opportunity.

Here is a fun link to an article about the New Horizons Orchestra I play in.

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/central/provo/residents-over-gather-to-perform-in-byu-orchestra/article_5a5dce62-aed5-5e12-a42a-1177ae1610b3.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

Summer Orchestra Concert

Come to my annual Summer Concert 

and Soiree -- this coming Wednesday, June 29, at 6:30 PM in the Pavilion of the LDS Edgemont North “White Stake Center," 4300 North Canyon Road, Provo. Bring and share a dessert for the post-concert soiree and afterglow!

Janene Baadsgaard Temple Square Performance

I had so much fun performing at Temple Square this week.
I love the New Horizon's Orchestra.

New Horizon's Orchestra Concert On Thursday

I play the violin in an orchestra that is giving a free concert this Thursday night (November 10th) at 7:00.  The concert will be held at Maple Mountain Stake Center across the street from the new Maple Mountain High School in Spanish Fork, Utah.  That bit of information may not seem particularly interesting unless you know the rest of the story . . .

When I was a girl I told my mother I wanted to learn to play the violin.  She told me that playing the violin was only for rich children.  I believed her and sang in the choir instead.  Several years ago I learned about a unique orchestra in Utah County.  This orchestra welcomes beginners.  In fact you must be over forty years old to join.  Everyone with a few hours a week to spare is invited to be part of a unique and life changing experience.  You are asked to bring your own instrument, music stand and several music books that we play from  So I'm learning how to play the violin even though I well over fifty.

Andrew Dabczynski, from the BYU School of Music, is our director along with several graduate assistants.  Undergraduate students enrolled in music education at BYU come to our rehearsals and practice leading us as part of their music education program.  So basically we are all students helping students who are helped by students.

Do we sound like the Philadelphia Philharmonic Orchestra? No.  But that doesn't matter. We have so much fun learning together.  I never get through a rehearsal without laughing or having tears come to my eyes.  Making music is such an incredible joy. 

Playing in the orchestra has also sparked an interest in my children who are still living at home.  My son John has learned to play the bass and now my daughter Alisa is learning to play the cello at their local schools.  I guess they think, if Mom can do it, I can do it. 

If you've ever wanted to play in an orchestra come Thursday night and check us out.  I'd love to tell you how to join.  I'm so happy that I didn't let this experience pass me by.  We're never too old or too dumb to try something new.  Being a beginner at my age is the best fun I've had in years.   

Orchestra Concert Tonight

If you're looking for something fun to do tonight, check out my orchestra concert at 7:00 at the LDS Lindon Stake Center 1050 East 100 North in Lindon.  It's free and open to the public!

Doing Things You Think You Can't Do

While I was growing up, I always wanted to play in the school orchestra. I begged my mother, but she told me only rich kids played expensive instruments. So I sang in the choir instead. Singing didn’t cost anything. Well, I grew up, got married, and it took me thirty years to get all my children in school. I thought I’d missed my chance. Then at 52 I quit using old excuses and joined the New Horizons Orchestra. This is a unique orchestra. They welcome beginners.


When I began playing the violin, the music I produced resembled sick birds with scratchy sore throats - but I kept trying. As I practiced I felt areas of my brain wake up and form new connections. My fingers drummed note placements on my bed pillow at night. I heard the melody I was learning drifting through my mind at odd times, like when I was driving the car or doing the dishes. As the orchestra director gently guided us through our first elementary songs, there were moments when the music seemed to lift from the page and wrap around my heart. During the pauses, the moments of quiet between the notes, I felt aroused and elevated – like flying without leaving the ground. The learning process was not intimidating or humiliating; it was energizing, exhilarating and fun. After we played our first song in three parts, I jumped from my seat exclaiming, “We’re an orchestra! We make music!”

One woman had a brain tumor, resulting in the removal of large portions of her brain. She went into a deep depression that didn’t lift until her husband brought her to our orchestra. As she learned to play an instrument, her brain developed new pathways and many other abilities came back to her. An eighty-six year old woman crippled with arthritis also became a member of the orchestra. Though her fingers were gnarled, she persisted and learned to play the violin before she died.

We’re never too old, young, dumb or poor to learn something new. Studies show people rarely try anything new after the age of forty. Good grief, we have to be that old before we’re wise enough to let go of all the status symbols in our culture and start living an authentic life. It’s never time to have a midlife crisis. It’s always time to have an all-life awakening. An all-life awakening invites us to learn something new at every age.

Learning Brings Joy

My son John began playing the bass a few months ago.  I went to his concert tonight and couldn't believe how far the students had progressed in one short school year.  It was a thrill to listen to the music they performed.  And I had to wonder - why do we adults stop learning new things? Children aren't afraid to try anything. 

As we age to tend to stop trying new things.  Perhaps we have decided what we are good at and don't want to look foolish.  Perhaps we compare ourselves to others and don't want to look bad by comparison. 

We can begin anew to explore and experiment.  We can develop new skills and talents at any age. It doesn't matter if we are good at what we try but only that we are willing to try. 

Perhaps the reason we grow old is not because our bodies age but because we stop learning and growing like children do.

DEAR GORDON

When I found out you were retiring, I cried. I’m going to miss you.

When I started coming to orchestra I was scared and unsure of myself. I worried that I was so old and too dumb to learn how to play the violin. What a great gift it was to have you for my first teacher. You are a master at your craft and an outstanding human being. It has been an honor to know you and call you friend.

Thank you for taking your precious time to teach a beginner like me with such patience and cheerfulness. Your positive attitude and gentle kind words made all the difference. I loved listening to all the stories you had to tell. I enjoyed being taught about music theory and history, composers and all the different experiences you had over your long 62 year career.

I especially enjoyed the time when you taught us about the three kinds of conductors . . . the tyrannical conductor: you do what he says because you fear him . . . the doesn’t care much conductor: – so you don’t produce much . . . and the third kind . . . the loving conductor: you perform at your best because you love him. You have been the third kind for me.

When I was young I always wanted to learn to play the violin but my mother told me, “Only rich people play the violin.” So I sang in the choir instead. You made that dream possible for me to fulfill. Now my children are playing in the orchestra at school because of my example.

You will never know how much you have positively affected my life and so many others. Your kind gentle heart, you quick wit and your joyful personality have been a piece of sunshine in my life. I will always be grateful to you and thank God that I had a chance to know you.

May God bless you as you now care for your wife in her declining years. Always remember that you have many, many friends who will always think of you with warm thoughts and grateful hearts.

With my great respect and admiration,

Janene

The Love of Music

I walked into my living room this past Sunday and saw this delightful gathering at the piano. Without any prodding from me, my youngest daughter Alisa decided to show her three young nieces Emily, Sandy and Libby how to play the piano.

How quickly we pass down our priorities to the next generation and the next. Like a pebble thrown in the pond - what we begin continues in ever widening circles touching the lives of our posterity for ages to come.

Follow the Leader

Most of us pay attention to what we see, hear, taste, smell and touch. There is another sense most adults have forgotten . . . our sense of wonder. We notice the form of an object we’re looking at but neglect to observe the shapes, colors and shadows around the form that create the space the form makes. We hear the notes of music being played but neglect to listen for the spaces between the notes – the lingering resonance or the silences that makes the melody unique.

Children, on the other hand, live in the spaces between the notes. They do not experience the world the way we do. They see the world upside down and inside out. They feel things with their soul not just their fingers. Every sight, sound, touch and smell awakens a new dance with their senses. They display a sense of amazement and delight at common experiences like taking a bath, licking a peppermint sucker, stroking a kitten, or skipping to school. They haven’t yet learned what deserves careful attention and what to ignore through repetition – so they pay careful heed to everything. They display a sense of curiosity at fingers and toes, doorbells and frost lace. They see the ant on the sidewalk, hear the rushing wind in the pines, smell the lilacs before they bloom and feel the tickle in their tummies.

Life for children is a musical dance. The world they crawl or run through is only anchored with a nebulous staff. The air they fly through arches past the lines and spaces. They listen closely to the intricacies of sound – the cadences and inflections of expression or the intonation, tone and pitch before they learn to express intelligible language. They mimic the phrasing of voice before they experiment with the specific sounds of words.
Even adults intrinsically sense a child’s internal music as we feel drawn to rock or sway our babies. Singing a lullaby is a universal response to calm a fussy child. Children return us to the music of living – the rhythm of time’s movement. When we hold our children with love we soon match each other’s breathing and heart rates forming a soothing duet of one.

Children have not yet learned the theory of major and minor chords or mastered the placement of sharps or flats. Yet they know the pure melody of love. They wrap their entire beings around our hearts and bring us back to wonder and awe. As they delight in rocks, sticks and mud in our back yard, they teach us to see again. As they notice details like earlobes and icicles, we re-experience the wonder of our own lives. As they rush to rescue wounded birds we learn to feel again with gentler hearts. As they are overcome with fear, we re-experience the majesty and awe of thunderstorms and lightening.

There is a pattern to living, a tempo, time and beat. Children hear their own cadence. If we want to keep pace we need to look ahead to where they are going and follow. Like the first, second and third movements of a symphony, we can return to where we began if we allow a child to lead us. In the stillness of the night we will hear the melody we once knew. If we listen with our hearts, a child’s song of innocence will take us back to where we began.

You're Invited

A few years ago I decided I wanted to learn how to play the violin. It was the first time in my married life when all my children were in school and I had a few hours to myself.

When I was growing up I always wanted to play the violin in the school orchestra but when I told my mother she said, "Only rich kids can do that." So I sang in the choir instead. But I always watched the students with their black cases and longed for the chance to try.

In college I worked at the music library where music major students would ask me to put on a particular classical piece assigned by their teachers. Then they would listen to the musical selection on a channel with headphones. When things got slow at the music booth I would listen to the pieces along with the students. I had never been exposed to such masterpieces. I discovered one particular piece that literally moved me to tears every single time I listened. The piece was titled "Adagio for Strings" - written my Samuel Barber. I used to dream about how it would feel to play in an orchestra that could make music like that.

Before long I got married and immediately got busy raising ten children. I used to put on records and tapes and listen while I changed diapers and chased toddlers around the house. I wanted my children to share my love for music so I figured out a way to pay for piano lessons for all ten children by writing newspaper columns. Then there were the teenage years when my music had to compete with the loud base booming beat coming from my son's basement bedrooms.

I thought the rest of my life would be devoted to inspiring my children to enjoy quality music. I didn't know I'd ever get a second chance. Who ever heard of a fifty-two year old homemaker learning to play the violin?

I've learned it's never to late to follow your heart.

Why am I telling you all this? Because I will be playing in a concert with an orchestra on Thursday. We will be playing some of the music I used to put on for the music major students when I was in college.

There will be moments during our performance when I know my eyes will water. Music always moves me like that. Yet the emotion will be for other reasons as well. I'm playing a violin in an orchestra - a privilege I never thought I'd have and I can't get over the absolute thrill of it all.

So I'm inviting you to my concert at 7:00 p.m. at 4000 N. Foothill Drive in Provo on Thursday April 16th. I'm also inviting you to try something you always wanted to do. It's never too late to follow your heart and see where it leads.

PLAYING IN THE SYMPHONY OF LIFE

There are times in all our lives when we feel alone and discouraged. There are days when we question whether anyone understands or cares – when we can’t remember the melody or find the will to sing it. At times like these I believe it helps to join in the strength of those around us.
I play second violin in an orchestra. The other members of the group who play in that section sit in front, behind and on both sides of me. When I lose my place in the music I listen carefully to the musician next to me while I scan the notes on the page to locate where we are in the score. Before long I can jump back in and start playing again. The player next to me can’t stop playing to instruct me without losing their place. So when they can tell I’m lost, they will whisper the number of the measure we’re on.
We can’t always solve the problems of others but we can listen carefully so we are aware when someone around us has lost their place. We can learn to be more in tune with the needs of those around us and we never know what positive influence we have. For example, one day after I’d given a talk at BYU Education week, a woman approached me and said, “You don’t know me but when I was a teenager I read something you wrote that helped me more than you’ll ever know. I was going through some awful things and had decided to end it all. Then I read the article you wrote in the New Era called ‘Holding On’. So I did. Those words literally saved my life.”
Though we are often unaware, those around us are starved for attention and compassion. We can’t always stop our life and rush to save them; but we can in effect whisper the number of the measure we’re on by offering a kind smile or a gentle word of appreciation, affection or encouragement. Before long, they will be able to find their place in the music and start playing again. A symphony simply does not have the same power without every instrument playing their part.
When our orchestra is playing disjointed and out of tune during rehearsals, our conductor will make us stop, memorize a few bars and then ask us to close our eyes and play the music without looking. He will further instruct us to listen to those next to us and also across the orchestra so we can hear how our part fits into the whole. It is amazing how much better we all sound when we do that. When we are focused only on our part and our eyes are glued to the sheet of music in front of us we are too concerned with self – unable to play the notes together as beautifully as we could.
If we want to get in tune with those around us we have to occasionally get our minds off ourselves long enough to truly listen. Then we will notice subtle expressions of need and hear the silent cries of those across the way. When all of us listen this way, we can play the score of life with infinitely more harmony and grace.
So, at those times when we feel abandoned, we need to glace around us. We are not alone; we are surrounded by caring people. When we are lost, they will help us find our place in the score and when they are lost we will help them. If we listen carefully with our hearts and glance up to the master maestro, the melody is never far away. There is love all around and inside us. All we have to do is listen.

Keep the Melody Going

My daughter Ashley was asked to play a piano solo for the whole school in junior high. She worked hard and prepared well for her debut by memorizing a song that was both beautiful and entertaining. I was sitting in the audience that day when she walked up on stage and sat down on the bench ready to begin. Because I am her mother I noticed all the color drained from her face. She was scared but she took a deep breath and began.
She played the first section of the song remarkably well. I noticed that each time she would get to the beginning of the second part of the song, her mind would go blank. Without batting an eye she simply started over. This happened three or four times. What Ashley didn’t know was that she and I were the only ones in the whole auditorium that knew there was a second part of the song.
Ashley finally finished and walked off stage. I met her in a corner of the school hallway. She was mortified, certain she had flubbed up big time in front of all her peers.
“Ashley, it sounded wonderful,” I told her.
She didn’t believe me. She knew what the song was supposed to sound like and was certain she had failed in her performance.
During the rest of the school day Ashley was surprised when many of her peers expressed sincere admiration for her solo. They told her the song was awesome and envied her talent. Ashley finally realized that by playing the melody three or four times it sounded like she had played a complete song. She was the only one who knew how much better she wanted to perform.
Mothers are like that. We know how much we want to demonstrate our love for our children but often fall short of our own unrealistic expectations. We feel inadequate when we lose our patience, forget to pick up a child after gymnastics, neglect to sign up as room mother or have say no when asked to baby sit a grandchild. What we don’t realize is that if we keep the melody going, everything will work out. The melody is love.
It doesn’t matter if our homes look like a page right out of Better Homes and Gardens. It doesn’t matter if we’ve put on a few extra pounds. It doesn’t matter if we don’t have our children involved up to their eyeballs in every extra curricular activity. It does matter if we take the time to truly enjoy and love our children and grandchildren in the moment – for the moment passes.
I’m often asked to play the piano at church. Because I’m asked to play extemporaneously, I’ve had to develop a skill I refer to as sight-reader neglect. This means I choose which notes not to play with my left hand so I can keep the melody going with my right hand. The congregation can’t tell the difference. I have learned to accept the fact that I can’t play every note in every chord every time.
As mothers we also have to learn commitment neglect. We have to be able to say, “I choose not to wash the windows. I choose not to sign up my child for soccer.” We can’t do everything and keep everybody happy all the time. Over-committed and over-scheduled mothers don’t have enough time to take an unhurried stroll in the evenings.
Once we understand that love is the melody, we can choose our activities and commitments more wisely. God is the only one in the audience who should really matter. When we truly love ourselves and our families, God will conduct our lives, lead us to inner harmony and compose a personal masterpiece with our souls.