PMEA All-State Choir

So, as many of you will remember from my earlier posts about a month ago, I qualified for the PMEA All-State Choir.  I was thrilled, but I knew that it would be tough, considering that Anything Goes was less than a week before.  I was definitely less prepared for this festival than the other two PMEA festivals.  In addition, my voice was still recovering from Anything Goes, and I wouldn't be able to sing as well.

Wednesday was auditions.  One of the two selections was the one part of the one song that I said to myself, "I really hope they don't pick this section!"  I didn't do that well.  My falsetto is still not great.  I knew that my other two auditions were both better.

Thursday began with results.  I told myself that I would be happy with anything in the top half.  I got 15th out of 30.  Barely made my hopes.  The first day of rehearsal, however, didn't go that well.  There was very little focus, and, being in the back row, it was hard to hear, and this only added to the chaos factor.  However, that evening, we attended a Leadership Session by Scott Lang.  As pessimistic as people were about it coming in, I thought the speaker was amazing.  He had such energy, he got everybody involved, and his points were all very true.  He got one of the quickest standing ovations I have ever seen ever.

Even though the next day, people didn't seem to like his speech, I maintained that it was good.  And it definitely had an effect.  That morning, we went to the convention down at the convention center, and that cost us half a day of rehearsal.  However, when we did start rehearsal, I believe that we got more done that afternoon than we did the entire first day.  We were all more focused, and more motivated than before.  And, when our conductor thanked us afterwards, we all gave him a standing ovation as well.

That night we went to the Vocal Jazz and Jazz Ensemble concert.  Here is my review.  The Vocal Jazz was disappointing.  The blend wasn't there, and they weren't very tight.  Also, the pieces that they did were relatively uninteresting.  Another day of rehearsal would have made the concert a lot better.  However, the instrumental jazz ensemble was really good.  They captivated the audience well, and were very fun to watch.

The next day was our concert.  It was cold, and we had to do a lot of walking around outside with no coats on.  But the concert went well.  Everybody seemed to like it.  The funny parts carried, and the intense parts were received with intensity.  I couldn't have asked for better.

It was a good experience.  I won't say I liked it as much as I liked regionals and districts for two reasons.  The first is that it was more of a commitment over more time, and I wasn't coming home every night to my family.  The second is that it was only me, JD, and RH from QV.  It is always more fun when you have more friends, and I can't say I made any lasting friends this time.  But I'm still glad I went, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

-NM