A beautiful unity

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I am conducting a piece for the Christmas concert that has my children's choir and my high school girls singing together (or rather, on their own parts.) It's a rather new composition, using two of Christina Rosetti's poems for lyrics. Today, we put the two groups together for the first time. We practiced for only twenty minutes, but in that time they were able to pull together and make it sound really nice and unified, with a good blend between children's and older youth voices. The high school girls were so excited at the end that they clapped for the children! Then they left, because it was really the children's choir practice time after school and we had other pieces to work on. On the way out, lots of the high schoolers gave some of the elementary kids high-fives and "good luck" and "work hard" ("gambatte" in Japanese). It was really exciting to see them work together so well and start producing a beautiful piece of music with an encouraging attitude toward each other. The elementary choir was impressed with how the high schoolers sounded. I hope it inspires them to work hard too! Can't wait till the concert Dec. 6!