It was a dark and foggy night as I drove home. The road was obscured by creeping tentacles of white cotton, stretched thin enough I could almost see through it, but not clearly. A blurred orb of light floated around a corner and towards me, silhouetting the form of a deer, pirouetting in confusion. I tap the brakes before the sight registers, my reflexes sharpened by adrenaline. As I slow, the deer bolts across and down the faintly glowing tunnel of the next street, another, smaller, shape running behind..............
I could keep going like that, but I'm too excited to think that hard right now.
It is dark out, and it is foggy, and the deer did jump out in front of me, but that's not why I'm excited. You see, I just got home from church, and I had an amazing evening. Before you decide to dismiss the rest of this with snide comments and rolling eyes because I mentioned church, STOP, and read the rest.
Wednesday nights we have a soup and sandwich outreach, followed by bible study and choir rehearsal. I enjoy our choir rehearsals partially for the singing, but mostly because I've started playing my flute at church again. I don't use music. I just play whatever feels right, and it just.........works. It fits, it complements, it soars.................... We had several new people, including a couple of children with very nice voices, and practice was good. My real excitement came after, though.
Monday night I was at a rehearsal for The Messiah, which is performed by a community choir (@150 voices) and orchestra every year (24 this year!) at Ft. Hood. I really enjoy this, as I haven't had many opportunities to sing classical music since college. My husband and I both were in the performance last year and had a wonderful time. I wish he could sing this year too, but with weird work scheduling, it looks as if he may miss out. Last year we didn't know about the choir until late, and only made it to the last few rehearsals, so we missed auditioning for solos. Not so this year.
I was very interested in auditioning, and talked with the music director at our church, as she has played the piano for this performance for more than 10 years now. She offered to go over a selection with me before I auditioned, but we had difficulty finding time to do it. The director had announced three times for auditions, before rehearsals three weeks in a row. This past Monday was the second. We still hadn't had a chance to run through anything, and I was getting worried. I can play piano well enough (and sight-read) well enough to learn the vocal line, but it's always different when you add the accompaniment, and I don't play well enough to play that and sing too.
We've been car pooling to rehearsals, so I was there Monday night listening to auditions (anyone who wants to listen can), and I was very discouraged by the time we left. I heard so many wonderful voices, I just couldn't imagine being picked over any of them. Until tonight. After the rest of the choir left, Susan and I went over the song she suggested, and I SOUNDED GREAT!!! Granted, there are pretty good acoustics in that room, but still......................I don't think I've sounded that good in a long time, and I was thrilled. She was pretty excited, too, and quickly suggested two more selections to try, one a set of 4 recitatives, and the other an air. The recitatives her daughter sang last year, and noone had auditioned for them yet this year, and the air she said there hadn't been a good audition for yet. We played/sang through them, and she said that I definately need to audition, and that I have such a beautiful voice. Considering that I had heard at least two people sing the air on Monday and thought they sounded pretty good, hearing her say the auditions had not been very good and then praising my sight-reading of it...........................I left the church on cloud 9, if not higher. Of course, it probably helped that it was so foggy tonight that I was driving through clouds anyway!
So, I will be working on these three pieces to sing on Monday, and if all goes well, I will be performing with a 150 voice choir and orchestra in front of several hundred people on December 5th. Wish me luck!
P.S. I know asking for good thoughts worked for dharma, so please, cross your fingers, pray, send me positive energy, whatever your "thing" is.........................and I'll keep you updated!