Dear listers: I'm reposting a "lost post" that I sent to the list in December. Hope you like it, even though it's untimely! Peggy
I had as much singing fun as I've ever had last night, singing in the on-stage chorus of the annual Messiah Sing-in at the Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. I thought some might enjoy reading a little about it.
My choir director at Northern Virginia Community College Alexandria (NOVA Community Chorus), Dr. Mark Whitmire, was asked to be one of the three conductors for the annual Kennedy Center Messiah Sing-in, and NOVA choristers who could sing the Messiah Part 2 & 3 choruses with only one Monday night rehearsal were able to come sing in the on-stage chorus.
After a rehearsal with two of the three conductors and pianist last Monday night, we had a 7 pm call backstage at the Concert Hall (7:30 pm start time) yesterday evening (December 23). I car-pooled to the Kennedy Center with a fellow NOVA chorister, and after parking in the Kennedy Center garage, we walked through the hallway backstage, and then downstairs to the Musician's Lounge, a large room with the lowest ceiling I've ever seen. I could touch it with my hand without standing on tip-toe, and I'm only 5'2"! I think the tallest basses had to stoop a bit in there. Warm-up, thank goodness, was just singing through the first chorus, "And the Glory of the Lord" a capella a couple of times (I dislike most choral warm-ups - I'm spoiled by the ones we do at NOVA, which are just like the simple vocaleses sung at the beginning of a voice lesson.)
Usually, lining up a chorus and walking upstairs to go on stage is a complicated undertaking, but this one was pure simplicity. We went on from two sides - altos and tenors stage left; sopranos and basses stage right - men on first, then ladies, took the first available seat on the choral risers (really bleachers). No one told us which hand to hold our music in (which I think is silly, as if the audience notices or cares - after all, nobody tells orchestras how to walk out on stage: they come on one at a time and carry their music however they want). We NOVA sopranos managed to sit near each other - we wanted to be in a block so our director could see us when it was his turn to conduct.
The Kennedy Center Concert Hall is so gorgeous since it was renovated. What a thrill to walk onto the stage, seeing the Hall's gold-bronze beauty and all those happy people in the seats. It was so cool before the concert, coming up from the garage and walking in the Hall of Nations, to see hundreds of people holding orange and white Novello Messiah scores! These people went through a lot of trouble to get tickets. They're free, but are given away on a particular morning several weeks earlier at 10 am, and people start lining up 4 hours beforehand for the tickets, outside in the cold. They get let into the building when it opens (I guess around 9 am), and they get only two tickets apiece. The Concert Hall opens at 7:00 pm the night of the sing-in, and seats are held until 7:15 pm for ticket-holders; after that, they seat the people without tickets who are lined up waiting. (A fringe benefit for being in the on-stage chorus is a ticket to give to a friend, which I took advantage of!)
So these folks are psyched and ready to sing and have fun. The first conductor, and organizer of the event for the past few years, Barry Hemphill of the Metropolitan Chorus in Arlington, talked to the audience a bit, talked about this year's sing-in being dedicated to the late Paul Hill (who organized it for many years, until his health forced his to quite), warmed up the audience with a little bit of "And the Glorry of the Lord", then he walked off stage. The concertmistress came out, tuned the orchestra, then Maestro Hemphill, the soloists, and the "sign singer" walked out (this man was incredible to watch, even from the back where we were - he got as big a hand as the soloists at the end). The orchestra played the overture, the tenor sang "Comfort Ye" and "Every Valley". Then the Maestro motioned for the stage chorus and audience to stand, and we started singing "And the Glory of the Lord". What a thrill! The recent renovation of the Concert Hall has made the sound so terrific, on stage as well as in the hall. Singing great music while looking out at the audience - I can't describe the wonderful feeling it gave me!
Maestro Hemphill conducted through "For Unto Us a Child is Born". All the soloists were good, but I was most impressed with our baritone, Gene Galvin, who put tons of personality into his arias, which was evident to us through his voice, since his back was to us! Then the second conductor, Sondra Proctor, (long-time accompanist to the Paul Hill Chorale and leader of her own local chorus) took over and led us through the rest of Part I, through "His Yoke is Easy". This, by the way, is a famously HARD chorus to sing, with every voice at one time or another having to make an ascending piano octave leap onto the word "easy" - Handel's joke on choristers everywhere for all time! How could a singer not love this guy? That's the definition of immortality!!!
Then it was intermission - by the time the large (about 180 people) chorus got offstage, there was barely time to get to the ladies' room before we started filing back on stage. My choir director, Dr. Whitmire, led us through the next four Part II choruses, which are less familiar to me (and the audience, I could tell) than the part I choruses: "Behold the Lamb of God," "Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs," "And with his Stripes", and (last but not least) "All We Like Sheep". I'm surely biased, but I like my director's conducting the best, though all the conducting was good. My director is so intense about everything he does, and always brings the music to life. It was a joy to watch him do that with these great choruses, especially "All We Like Sheep". At the moment, that's my very favorite Messiah chorus. I adore what Handel does with the word painting, with the sheep going "astray" in a wandering, ascending eight-note melody, and "turning" with tons of turning sixteenth notes, moving among the voices and the orchestra, and coming all together at the end of the piece. When I'm singing a chorus like that, with other good singers & a great orchestra, in a wonderful hall, with a terrific conductor, I feel that life doesn't get better than this!
Martin Feinstein, the retired Director of the Washington Opera, and one of the founders of this annual sing-in, conducted the Hallalujah Chorus. Before he started conducting, he read quotes by famous composers about the wonderfulness of Handel! It was SO cool to sing the Hallelujah Chorus, with the audience singing in full voice, and all that sound coming back at me. I couldn't stop smiling up there, and looking at the audience having such a good time (while also keeping in view Mr. Feinstein - who did everything very simply and straightforwardly).
Then Maestro Hemphill came back on and led us through "Since by Man Came Death" and "Worthy is the Lamb". That last one is an amazing piece, also, and is probably my second-favorite Messiah chorus. At the very end, we sang the Hallelujah Chorus again, with Sondra Proctor at the organ, all the soloists singing along, and my director came out with his orchestra score to sing as well. There was twice as much sound back at us as the first time it was sung! This gave me chills and brought tears to my eyes. I was so wired that when I got home (after a half-price late-night burger at Clyde's in Alexandria with my chorus buddies), I couldn't get to sleep for several hours.
Peggy
-- Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA "Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile" mailto:peggyh@i...
|