Alice’s Adventures in an Arts Career

What a concert. Vox Humana’s performance yesterday was more than I could have ever asked for.  I was so happy with they were able to produce.  I was on such a blissful choral high all afternoon.  It still amazes me how, despite the myriad troubles and anxieties leading up to any performance things always seem to come together in the end.  And that’s exactly what happened yesterday.

It seems this choir is forever to be pressed for rehearsal time.  What with sickness, school work, conferences and family obligations, it’s a marvel that we can meet even once a week, and even then our rehearsal numbers often don’t reflect the full membership numbers.  The last two weeks before the concert were mayhem.  I was in and out of London doing my grad school audition, then we had the Easter weekend on top of a slew of illnesses and graduate conferences.  All this left us scrambling to reschedule extra rehearsals.  Our final rehearsal was the day before the concert and even after that two hour session there were ragged ends in our program.

But on Sunday afternoon, we all dressed up in bright colours, put on our nice shoes  and showed up early at the beautiful Windermere on the Mount Chapel.  With refreshed voices and the potent mix of preshow excitement and anxiety we threw everything we had into our dress rehearsal.

I wasn’t exactly worried.  I had my game plan ready.  I knew exactly what I wanted to fix and how I was going to fix it.  However, it wasn’t until they sang “Rauha” and I heard what they made of the piece that I knew we would be okay and were ready to give a performance.  And it was a stunning performance.  It was the best I’ve ever heard them sing and I felt so proud.

We performed “If Thou Wilt, Remember” with Josh on the alto saxophone as our closer.  It was the highlight of the concert.  It felt so good to be conducting that piece and to feel it in my hands.  Nearly a year ago I was submitting it for publication and now here I was conducting it with my own choir.  It felt good.

And now I have some serious post show blues.  Choir is over for the summer and I feel as if I have nothing left to do.  This of course is not really true since I’m always finding myself something new to contribute my talents to.  However, it is possible I will never conduct Vox again.  I may be in another city in the fall and while studying at Memorial is the dream I do desperately want to come true, leaving Vox will be difficult.

I was nervous taking over Vox.  I was not sure I would be able to fill Tim’s shoes.  I wasn’t sure I knew how to keep the group together, or that I would know how to run rehearsals or organize concerts or all the endless little details and jobs that being director required of me.  And it has been trying.  Every now and then the anxiety that I wasn’t doing it right would overwhelm me and I was sure it would all fall apart.  But it didn’t, and we got through and I am so relieved and proud and happy and exhausted.  And I want to it again.

It was a wonderful concert and I’m so proud of what we did.  I’m so happy for the choir and I hope they enjoyed themselves as much as I did.

This Sunday is The Vox Humana Chamber Choir Concert.  It’s been a long road preparing for this event, but things are really coming together now and I’m looking forward to the performance.

Most notably, we will be performing my published work “If Thou Wilt, Remember”.  This won’t be the world premier of the piece since the Toronto Waldorf School high school choir sang it back in February.  However, this will be the London (Ontario) Premiere and it will be the first time I will have conducted it in performance.  We had our first rehearsal with the instrumental solo this evening.  The part will be played by Josh Morrison on the alto sax.  Josh was the one whole initially helped me way back when I was first writing the piece by giving me advice about wind instrument writing.  He was instrumental (pun intended) in the eventually end product of a good, playable and satisfying instrumental part.  I originally wrote it for soprano sax but later switch it to oboe…a decision that Josh is still trying to convince me was a mistake and is on something of a campaign to win me over to the alto sax.  I won’t lie, this evening he made a very good case.

Anyway, there will be plenty of other great piece on the program including Healey Willan’s “Rise up my Love”, several saucy madrigals, some Elgar and some Palestrina.  It should be a wonderful afternoon.

Date: Sunday, April 11th

Time: 3 pm

Location: Windermere on the Mount Chapel, 1486 Richmond Street

Tickets: Adult- $10, Student/Senior- $8.

If you have the time come on out and support us.  It will be a delightful afternoon concert.

I’ll be auditioning for UofT tomorrow.  I’m am extremely nervous and anxious and scared and worried.  I want it to go well so badly.  I wish I could feel excited and happy since I’m going to be conducting and I love to conduct, but I’m more nervous than anything.  I’ll be conducting the MacMillan Singers.  The standards are very high and I’m hoping I can perform up to their expectations, or at least not make a fool of myself.  I want to feel good about this but I am just scared and feeling a lot of pressure to do well especially since I’ve already received a rejection from Alberta and haven’t heard anything from either Western or Memorial.  As of right now, this is the last bit of control I have in this process unless I get an audition invitation from Memorial. So, I’m feeling a little bit like my graduate school hopes are resting on tomorrow.

I know this is a terrible feeling to go into an audition with.  I should feel completely confident and go in like I’m going to rock it.  I wish I could feel like that now, but I don’t so I’ll have to fake the confidence tomorrow I guess.  It’s not like I haven’t done that before.

I’ll be conducting the  ‘Credo’ from the Bach B Minor Mass and Movement 1 of  ‘Suite de Lorca’ by Rautavaara.

Anyway, wish me luck.  Hopefully everything will go swimmingly.

The Vox Humana Chamber Choir concert was a huge success.  We had an audience, the chapel was gorgeous and the choir has never sounded better.  I was really blown away by their sound and the huge change from the rehearsal the night before to the performance.  It’s amazing what a wonderful, live and resonant acoustic can do to bring a group together and help take care of those rough edges.  Their blend, resonance and phrase shaping was the best it’s ever been, and I suspect much of that had to do with the fact that they were finally in a space that really welcomed their sound.

I am so proud of what we have been able to achieve in this past term.  I’m equally proud of myself for what I’ve been able to achieve.  I went into this not really having run a choir of this level or size.  Every step has been a huge learning step for me and I am so lucky to have so many people round me supporting me, including my accompanist Cheryl Wiseman and my assistant director Anna Chen.

Though, we did have one slight hiccup in the concert.  It really was kind of funny.  Our final piece was “and the glory of the lord” from Messiah by G.F. Handel.  It started out seemingly fine, but then things started to sounds really weird.  Something was really off.  There were crunching, chromatic and atonal harmonies starting to creep in that I’d never heard in Handel before and I couldn’t figure out what was going on.  I was looking and listening to the choir thinking “Are you off? Are you lost? What’s wrong?”. Things were getting worse and worse, and the looks of confusion and fear where spreading across the faces of the choir as they looked to me with that look that says “FIX IT!”   And then our accompanist said “I think I need to start this over.” Turns out, the piece had been started in the wrong key and we were singing “And the Glory of the Lord” in A Flat; our accompanist had been frantically trying to transpose the whole thing down a step as she went.   Well, I laughed, she laughed, the choir laughed, I turned to the audience and said “take two!”…they laughed and we started over and ran the piece without a hitch.  Thinking back on it, it reminds me of the now infamous “Organist on Crack” . That is almost what it sounded like (well, maybe that’s a bit on an exaggeration…okay, more than a bit).  But we shook it off and continued. Really, in those situations, there’s nothing one can do but go on.  My thoughts are “these things happen so you might as well laugh about it.”

On a more academic note, over the course of the last few rehearsals and the performance I was also able to record really good material for my graduate school applications with examples of my rehearsals and performances.  I decided not to include that particular performance of the Handel.

I can hardly wait for next term.  But before then, I have the long task of preparing the repertoire packages again.  I’ve got about half the program ready, but am still searching for a few more pieces and tracking down enough legal copies.  I remember doing this in the summer and it’s time to do it all over again.  But I love it.  I really do love it and I hope it’s what I get to do for the rest of my life.

This Sunday is our concert of our second season.  The concert, titled “Gloria”, will be a program celebrating friends, passion, spirituality and the simple goodness that connects one human being to another and will feature classical and contemporary sacred works with a light Christmas theme and perhaps even a wassailing and drinking song or two. If you are in London, come out and see us!

I’ve been meaning to catch up on all the up-dates of various events over the past week.  I had my first Vox Humana rehearsal last week as director and haven’t written about that yet.  I had my first Gondoliers rehearsal last week and still haven’t written about it.  I’ve been published and haven’t written anything more than a quick blurb.  There is plenty to talk about.

Let’s start with the choir.  That first rehearsal was amazing.  Right off the bat, I can’t believe the sound quality of the group and how quickly they pick things up.  I had my rehearsal plans all set, but the sections I thought were going to take a while to get took no time at all.  In addition, I had confidence in what I was doing.  I was prepared and felt like I belonged up in front, which was a really nice feeling.  I enjoy feeling like I know what I’m doing and I’m looking forward to feeling more of that.  In short, I think it’s going to be another very successful Vox Humana season!

On to the Gondoliers.  Rehearsals are fantastic.  It’s a huge group and I’m struggling to remember everyone’s name.  I’m hoping by the end of the run in November I’ll have them all.  The music is great, but like any G&S, it is fast.  Holy lord is it fast!  This score is going to require and ridiculous number of hours in a practice room!  But I knew that going in and it’s something I’m more than willing to do.  I’m just too happy and excited to be in the show.  The past few rehearsals have just been straight singing rehearsals.  We start the blocking and choreography this weekend.  I’m nervous.  I don’t really have a whole lot of dance experience.  But I guess I’m going to get it now.

Well, I think that’s it for now.  I’ll post about the publishing later.

I finished choir auditions this week and I have been surprised and pleased by the turn out.  Barring any unforeseen disasters, we have a choir!  We could still use a couple more singers, epically tenors and an extra base perhaps, but we certainly can mange with what we have.

I’m excited by the diversity of people and musical experiences represented in this year’s group.  True to our mission statement, we really do have people from different styles of music and different experiences.  Of course, that does present a challenge in combining all these perspectives into one cohesive choir, but it’s a challenge I’m thrilled to take on.

We also have our new Assistant Director.  Her name is Anna.  She sang soprano with us last year.  We had a very good sit down meeting this afternoon to discuss the future plans for the choir and I feel really good about some of the things we were talking about.  There are thoughts of doing a competition, increasing our number of performances and expanding our audience base well beyond the music faculty and university.  I think she and I will work well together.

I am nervous about taking the lead with this choir.  I hope I can live up to the president that was set last year by Tim.  But I’m can’t wait to work with this group of people.  I really sensed from each and everyone an excitement for choir.

So, on the eve of season two of The Vox Humana Chamber Choir, I am nervous, excited but I think I’m ready.  Everything is laid out, everything is planned and it’s all set to go.

Slowly, but surely, Vox Humana is coming together.  It’s been a lot of work and a lot of advertising and foot work, but I’m slowly getting the interest from te people I need.  I’ve had a few people express interest in the Assistant Conductor’s position as well as some interest in accompanying.  I’ve found a couple more members, though I’m still terribly low in tenors and basses (oh, the eternal lament of every amateur choir director the world over).

But even still, there is still more to do and things are still a little too up in the air for my comfort.  I’m still terrified it’s all going to come crashing down.

Well, nothing I can do but keep working, and keep flogging the choir to the general community. There are more posters to post, there are more libraries and music schools to hit up, there are more people to talk to and twist arms.

Sigh, I just wish someone could wave a magic wand and poof just hand me a fully balanced 20 member choir, an accompanist and an assistant director. But I guess that’s not likely to happen. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to be like the little red hen and do it myself.

This week, I made a huge effort to get as many Vox things organized as possible. I’ve set choir rehearsal times and booked our rehearsal space for the entire year.  I’ve put up various posters for choir auditions,  Assistant Director auditions and pianist wanted posters all over the UWO campus and the surrounding. I also went home and raided my fathers choir music collection as well as my church music collection for new repertoire.  I finally finished my repertoire research and now  have two concerts  completely programed (more or less).  I’m excited.  I have some wonderful and challenging pieces planned for this year that I think the choir and audiences are going to really enjoy.

So, here’s my fear- that after all this work and all my excitement and anticipation at being the primary conductor of Vox this year, that we won’t get the number of chorister we need, or we don’t find an accompanist and will have to cancel the season.  I am really worried that people won’t come out and join the choir and since several members from last year have had to back out this year for various reasons, we need new members.  It’s a worry that has been at the back of my mine for a while. I would be so up set if we had to cancel.  I’ve been looking forward to another season of Vox Humana and as I’ve posted before, this choir has meant so much to me.  I have learned so much about conducting, choirs, music and ensemble work through this choir and I’ve had the most amazing fun while doing it.  The primary reason I decided to stay in London after my graduation was the chance at another year of Vox.  Depending on how things pan out in the next couple years, I wouldn’t be surprised if this choir kept me in London for at least another two years.

However, the one thing my fear has given me is the drive to do everything in my power to make sure that we do indeed have another season.  I’ll be putting posters up everywhere and twisting arms and bribing and everything else I can to recruit new members, find an accompanist and have another amazing year of Vox Humana Chamber Choir.

If you would like to audition for the Vox Human Chamber Choir, we are holding quick easy auditions on Sept 9th & 10th from 5:oo pm-7:00 pm at the Don Wright Faculty of Music. Weekly rehearsal will be on Saturday from 2:30-4:30 pm at the Music Faculty.

Also, we are looking for a new Assistant Director.  Auditions will be Saturday Sept 29th or at a later date in September for those who can’t make the August date.

Lastly, we are in need of an accompanist.

If you are interested in any of these opportunities, please contact me at vox.humana.choir@hotmail.com

There is some news concerning The Vox Humana Chamber Singers.  I am sad to say that Tim has decided to step back from the choir this year to focus on his masters program.  Also, our wonderful Aaron will also be leaving us to pursue his own graduate work.  This means that I am taking over as the primary director.

I have many mixed feelings about this.  I am excited to be directing the choir this year.  It certainly is a huge opportunity for me to grow as a conductor and it will be good for me to have the challenge of being responsible for a choir.  At the same time I am sad because Tim and Aaron brought so much talent and goodwill to the group.  I am really going to miss them and don’t know how in the world I am going to be able to recreate their magic.  They certainly were more talented and knowledgeable than I and I worry about maintaining the level of excellence that they set last year.

But more than that, I worry about all the managerial and organizational responsibilities that now fall to me.  The business side of any arts project has never been my strong suite.  I sit here with only a month until rehearsals start again and I have a laundry list of chores to complete.  I need to set a new rehearsal day and time, book a rehearsal space, find a new accompanist, audition a new assistant director, recruit new choir members, research and finalize the new repertoire, not to mention practice my conducting and score study.  The conducting I feel I can do, but these bureaucratic loose ends are what worry me.  They are the things I usually avoid because I hate doing them, but now I have no choice.

I suppose it’s good for me, and I know I’ll figure it all out.  I always do.  Besides, these are the things I’m going to have to get used to if conducting is something I want to do for the rest of my life.

I’ve always been told that for every job in life, no matter how much you may enjoy it; there is always %10 that you hate.  This is my 10%.

On the up side, I’ve been searching through some really exciting new rep that I hope we can pull off: maybe some Rachmaninov, maybe some Vitoria. I also intend to give the choir my new published work, “If Thou Wilt, Remember”.  I figured it would be fitting that its first official performance would be with my own choir.

Over all, I can’t wait for the new Vox Humana season to start.  If the choir is even half of what it was last year, we’ll have a wonderful year.  That choir has meant so much to me.  It is the primary reason I decided to stay in London after I graduated.  I have had some of the most amazing musical experiences with that group and have grown so much with them.  I can only hope that I can same the same about this year.