Number Six blogs about singing with the Regional Honor Choir

Earl Grey Soliloquy

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Regional Honor Choir

North Central ACDA regional honor choir was at least ten times more amazing than I expected. It was truly the experience of a lifetime.
It's hard to articulate what exactly made it so special, but I know most of it was due to our fabulous director, Dr. Paul Head. He had this way of keeping us interested, entertained, focused, and relaxed all at once. He emphasized the importance of the fact that music is not just notes on a page; it's an emotional, psychological, and spiritual experience. He said often, "You never know when someone next to you is having a musical experience."
Another thing that made honor choir great was getting to sing with some of the best singers from South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Making music with 170 other incredibly talented musicians, sharing the moments of joy, the hours and hours of practice (seven hours and forty-five minutes on Friday alone), the times of profound connection. As one of my fellow choir members wrote, "In a place like this, you can make friends without even talking." Music is a universal language. It connects people, gives us something to bond over, from the most extroverted musician to the shyest of us. This past weekend taught me, among other things, the sheer power of making music together.
It also helped that our repertoire was awesome. We sang absurd pieces, spunky pieces, cathartic pieces, one filled with exuberance, one with reverence, one with ridiculousness, one with overwhelming grief. I'll see if I can post the audio of our concert once I receive it.
I was never particularly thrilled about singing soprano 2 for honor choir, since I prefer to sing alto, but it turned out fine. It was a good thing to get out of my comfort zone. I actually think doing so much singing in my higher register expanded my range, so that's a plus! In addition, the sopranos got to stand next to the basses for the concert, which is always enjoyable.



The BHS constituent with Dr. Head and Mrs. Perry (from Facebook).


During the weekend, I got to know a lot of people, but I also got to know more about myself. I learned about the effect music has on me and I learned ways I can share that with others. We had to fill out a few questions for our director, and one of them was to tell why we would recommend for someone to audition for honor choir. My response was, "Because music fills the heart in a way nothing else can, and when you're singing with incredibly talented musicians, your heart remains full and overflowing."
It's funny, because I never even considered myself a musical person until sometime last year. If you had asked my 14-year-old self, I would have said that I took piano and voice lessons, but I would not have said I'm a musician. Now I know, I am a musician.



With the friendies after the concert!