During a concert of the Appleton East orchestras last night, director Patti Wilson surprised the audience by announcing that two friends of hers had flown in from Appleton to spend time with the students at Appleton East and to add some extra spice to the concert. I was delighted to hear from Hollywood music writer Nathan Barr (Patti's nephew) and singer and songwriter Lisbeth Scott (some information about her is here). They have worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood in producing the music that brings life to music. We heard some great stories from Nathan, with 20+ films to his credit now, and a couple of beautiful performances from Lisbeth Scott. What a voice!

If you have the soundtrack to the Chronicles of Narnia, she performs a couple of songs there. She performed one of them for us, "Where," which she also wrote and composed. The story behind that one impressed me: she got a 30-second call from the director just giving her a few bars of music that he wanted as the theme for a song. And he needed something in 30 minutes! She took that and quickly turned it into the stirring piece that now is part of the Narnia soundtrack.

Nathan and Lisbeth are very gracious people. After the concert, the hung around and talked to people. I chatted with both of them and send my boys back into the auditorium to meet them, and they really enjoyed the experience. I like famous people who are down-to-earth and kind to others. Cool.

Nathan and Lisbeth spent several hours today with music students at Appleton East. So kind of them! My boys really enjoyed it.

Here are a couple shots of Nathan, Lisbeth, and the two with a few students at East.