More about rehearsal, and a little name-dropping

I'm getting a late start today, so this probably won't be long, but I wanted to write something!

Yesterday was full and BUSY! The four Voices in Residence had to go help rehearse one of the high school choirs for our Choral Collaborative Concert with Omaha Symphony conductor Ernest Richardson. We worked a bit on Poulenc's Gloria, in which I'm singing the soprano solo. We didn't get even halfway through, though, because the class period was too short. The kids worked hard and seemed excited, so I think the next rehearsal will be great. I forget how light adolescent voices are, but how quickly teenagers can learn difficult music. I really do like working with that age group - they don't have that self-doubt about learning that adults can have, probably because that's all they're doing every day in school.

We then had our first rehearsal of music for our education tours, which went surprisingly well (good thing, because we start staging this weekend already!) and then a looooong staging rehearsal for Pirates. This one involved the entire cast, so there was a lot of standing while our director staged - even a short eight measures can take a long time to stage when you have so many people to move around - so my feet were very sad by the end of the evening. Standing all day is one thing; standing half of it in horrible character shoes is another. I cannot understand why character shoes can't be made to be more comfortable!

I also discovered, once again, what a small world it is in the classical music business: our Major-General, the amazing Gene Scheer, knows my friend KrisAnne from a show they both did in Central City. Also, our stage director, Francis Cullinan, and Pirate King, Patrick Ryan Sullivan, know the father of a Dordt College friend of mine (Jim Van Ry, father of Rochelle) from Creede Repertory Theater in Colorado. I really do love those connections!

I really have to get some pictures up here. Soon!