Distance Makes The Heart....?

I'm kind of sleepy right now, so this post may or may not be very coherent. Contributed to that is the fact that I just took my math exam and my brain feels a little abused because of that fact. This past weekend was very nice, apart from performing A LOT.

The Madrigals performance was on Friday night - it was our bi-annual Benefit Concert, this year for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and Charm also sang with us. It was a good concert - not Charm's best, but they had their Jam coming up and they were also missing members. Only one of our Madrigals was vocally under-the-weather, and we weren't missing anyone, so we sounded quite good. It seems that Mads and Charm have this habit of one group being exactly right while the other group is lacking, and vice-versa. Someday (hopefully next semester) I'd like the groups to be evenly matched skill-wise, even though that's hard to gauge - our rep is very, very different, after all.

Anyway, the benefit went well. It was our final performance this year as a group and it was a little emotional. I directed the last song on the program, and it felt as though KA was passing the torch on to me, so to speak. It was appropriate, but very moving for me. (I also may be getting her choir directorship at Third Pres, so I feel like I'm inheriting KA's life, somehow.) Two of our pieces suit us very well and I hope we can carry them over to next semester: an arrangement of the "Kyrie" by Lotti that I just love the sound of; and "this is the garden" by Persichetti, which is an arrangment of a poem by e.e. cummings. Also, I want to bring back our one piece that we do with piano accompaniment: our Whittacker piece, "Rain O'er Rahoon", which I still love beyond any other piece we've ever done. (We only did it last year, so I doubt Ms. F. will allow it, but I've been begging to bring it back ever since we put it away.)

The Junior Recital went well, too. I sang my set of Hundley and I think it was the best I've ever performed it. First was "Sweet River", which was actually not my best piece in the set and it has been until this point. It's short and light and happy, but tricksy, and Ms. H. still doesn't quite have the accompaniment down - but I'm used to that by now, so it's okay. The middle piece was "Waterbird" which was by the far the best I've ever performed it. I actually felt it this time, since recent events have helped me to understand what it's about. There were tears in my eyes by the end, because it felt so GOOD - a first for that piece.

Now, the final piece was my real worry: "Lions". It's high in my voice, it's fast, it's complicated, and it requires not only an exemplary vocalist to pull it off, but an experienced actress, as well. To be honest, I really don't remember how I performed it. But I took it as high praise that the majority of people who spoke to me afterwards said it was their favorite piece in my set. :-) I'm fairly excited to perform this same set on my final recital next year, with maybe a piece added if I can convince Ms. F. to give me "Screw Spring". (And yes, the song is about what it sounds like it's about. Hundley is awesome. I want to marry him and have his babies.)

In any case, it was a performance heavy weekend and busy to boot, but I had a good time.