Showtime!

As I posted a few weeks ago, I joined a choir in January.

It is a community chorus, sponsored by our county parks and recreation department. We practice Tuesday nights, and we have been working on music to perform in a spring concert that was held this past Sunday afternoon. 

Let me say how much I have enjoyed being a part of this organization. I grew up singing in choirs and ensembles, and even the occasional solo, and did so into my adult life until we moved here in 1997. 

The church we became a part of has never had a choir that sings on a regular basis. There were some occasions some years ago in which an impromptu choir or ensemble was formed, but I did not care for the music.  Now there is always a worship team that generally does contemporary music. Perfectly fine, but I have sorely missed hearing a choir sing, and singing in a choir. 

As I wrote in the previous post, I thought about going to another church, one that had a choir, but never did so. 

But in January, the long drought was over when I got to audition for the community chorus and was invited to join their tenor section. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed it. It has taken me back to the days of school and church choirs -- the vocal exercises, the harmonies in my ears and even the black folders with a pencil pouch and a pencil! And of course, the end result after working laboriously over the music, segments at a time, following the director's instructions on sounds and harmonies, is the best part. 

And the director has also taken me back. I never once sang in a choir in which the director did not freak out about two weeks before a scheduled performance. This director, true to form, sent a scolding email to all of us two and a half weeks out from the concert, expressing her concern
we did not adequately know the music. 

But her strategy worked, as I believe we peaked at just the right time Sunday. 

We did a total of 11 songs at the concert, mostly traditional -- and some sacred -- choral music, with a couple of pop numbers, including "We are the World" which we ended with! 

The men wore black tuxedoes or suits with pastel bowties, and the ladies wore black dresses or pants with pastel scarves -- a very springy look! 

We break for the summer, then start back up in last August, preparing for another concert in December. I look forward to going back.