Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil

This last weekend was concert weekend, so I've been rather consumed by Rachmaninoff.  Trying to find my note amidst so many other parts (as many as 11 at a time!) while simultaneously keeping up with the Russian text...  is a lot!  And it didn't help that I was usually standing between people who weren't always singing the same part as me.  So the woman on my right would occasionally be singing the Soprano 3 part, and the woman on my left would sometimes be on Alto 1 (or I would be on Alto 1, but she'd be resting), so it was extremely confusing.

But we had our first dress rehearsal in the church with the University Singers on Monday and it was pretty spectacular.  Wednesday was another 3-hour rehearsal and then our first concert was Friday.  We performed at St. Thomas Aquinas on UVA grounds, which was apparently rebuilt just a few years ago.  It has a wonderful dome over the sanctuary which created some fabulous echo-y acoustics and singing there was a dream (but also a director's nightmare, as Michael had to constantly remind us to keep our "s's" as short as possible so the hissing didn't linger too much).

Best of all, we had nearly 1,000 people in the audience, which just made it even better.  There's nothing quite like playing to a full house!  And what made it even better: I had Craig, Tom & Donna, Kendra, and Adam all in the audience cheering me on, and my parents livestreaming it in Seattle!  It's fun to have a big audience and it's best of all if it's a bit personal!  I sure appreciated so much support from My People!

When we ended-- after 15 movements and 2 organ interludes-- the audience just sat there silently for a very long pause until Michael finally took a huge bow and then they erupted in applause.  No one wanted to be the first to clap in case it wasn't actually over (and my friend's sister claimed they were too lost in the music to even realize we'd finished).  It was AWESOME.

I loved the dome!

I'm blinking (of course) but at least you can see me in the middle there!

Saturday was a day to let our vocal cords recover.  Or, if you were me, a chance to review that final movement and make sure I knew it better.  (I also took a 2 hour nap, so apparently the rest of me needed to recover!)

And then we had another concert on Sunday!  This one was at National City Christian Church in the heart of DC.  It was a pain to get there-- we left straight from church, and I'd been up very early making sure everyone had a lunch and a change of clothes in the car when we headed out!  Craig dropped me off (in the pouring rain) and took the kids to the Spy Museum. 

I actually felt better about my own performance at this concert, but we probably only had 200 people in the audience, so it just didn't feel as impressive (even though this church was very old and cool).  

They just don't make fabulous ceilings like this any more!  {Sigh}

Craig and the kids came and got us afterwards (me and my friend Leah) and we all got dinner at Shake Shack before heading home.  It was a really great day, but an exhausting way to spend my rest day!

Giant Connect 4 on the pier!

I handed my phone to Bentley to hold (since I didn't have pockets) and he took this picture and exclaimed, "This is so Inception!"  Goofball.

The really wonderful thing about all this, was that Michael had promised us that we were "climbing the Mt. Everest of music, but the view at the top will make it all worth it" and I have to admit that I was not particularly enamored of this music all year.  But once we finally got to the concert, it was like it all clicked and I just LOVED it.  Michael was absolutely right, and now I want to listen to it all the time.

I'd like to say that now that our concerts are done I can just kick back and relax, but tomorrow is going to be my first day at my new job...!  😬  So stay tuned!