solo and ensemble

Monkey asked me ages ago to play for her small choir group for the solo and ensemble competition.  Since they were singing "for the beauty of the earth" and I already knew it from ward choir, it made sense for me to do it.  I reviewed it a few times and did a practice session with the group in our living room.  They sounded pretty good.  When the day came to perform at the school I found I was more nervous than I thought I would be.  I absolutely HATE performing piano... but I've played for the ward choir for years and ever since college I had promised myself to "no longer hide my talents" and always volunteer to play the piano.  My performance anxiety has gone WAY down.  So I was surprised to have my leg shake while I played and to make more mistakes than my perfectionist tendencies could feel good about.  I kept trying to remind myself that the teacher was listening to the kids sing - not to my playing.  But wow, was I glad when it was over... until Monkey told me they'd qualified to go to Region.  I was very proud and happy for her, I just didn't want to have to play again.  But I did it.  We had the group over and worked on cutting off together... and then last week they performed for the Region Judges.  I worked hard to stay calm - this is about them, not me - and did much better.  I could stop my leg when it started to shake and played very well.  Only problem... they sang so well they scored a 1 and are moving on to State... and I have to go through this AGAIN.