Band and Choir Concerts

Blog BOOM: The Band and Choir Concerts

Monday and Tuesday, 12/7 & 12/8, were very long days.

Monday night was the band concert. I had to be there the entire day because of my Chemistry class in the morning and the Piano class in the afternoon. Thing was, that morning I had forgotten my concert attire for the concert... So Taka quickly took me home to change right after Piano--

During Chemistry, it finally sunk in with Susan Surrandon that I was leaving on January 4th for Santa Cruz, permanently. There were a few dozen hugs here and there. She promises to keep in contact, thanks to the modern technology we have. She also promised to BLOG more often, starting when I leave. She was so sad though that "Susan Surrandon" won't be tagged in my blogs for awhile... That'll just be more work on my part. XD

During Piano, King and I had to do a duet on the upright. Heidi had noticed the one or two flubs on my end but she still passed us. After class, I was just fooling around on the computer, playing notes I remembered from the Romantic piece I did, the Tchaikovsky waltz, when Heidi had interrupted asking what piece it was. When I told her it was my Romantic piece, she told me that I should replay it on Final... Like I didn't already have enough to do...

--After we went on our trips home to change, Taka, King, and I went back to ARC to meet up with some Band folk. Kaitlyn ended up having to save Sarah

After the concert, Taka, King, Abril, Jacob, and I ended up going to Denny's, like last concert. Denny's this night wasn't as packed, not like after the Choir concerts. There were only a few people in Band, like Dictator Roze and Sergeant Pepper, Kevin, who was the percussionist in Choir and stole my timpani parts, and a few other people.

That table was crowded though. I ended up at the end of the table with minimal leg room. Then Lyle and Kevina arrived and sat at a nearby table, so I took that as incentive to move to that table for more legroom. I easily forget how conversations with gay guys usually end up. I tried changing subjects from transsexual teenage daughters to Scooby-Doo with no success, but I ended up being Kevina's father, with Lyle as the mom... XD

Tuesday was Choir concert day, which also ended up being an extremely long day.

The day started out suckish because of how lousy we started rehearsing for the Choir concert. I knew that I did not look at the older music to remember the words. I kinda believed that seeing as I started to sing a part of Battle of Jericho early, it got the loud tenor next to me to sing it, which snowballed to the point where it confused the majority of the Choir. Then I had to study for a Statistics test I had to do. I want to say I did pretty good on it, but as far as the tests went, that one seemed the hardest. At least Justin Pratt's doughnuts made it the feeling a little better. XD

After I dressed into my tuxedo in the ARC bathroom, I walked over to the theater once more for a second rehearsal. This rehearsal was basically for Ellen DeGeneres's practice on the two pieces she plays french horn on. This rehearsal went a little better, but it was still far from expectations.

After rehearsal, most of the Choir sat in the reserved seats in the back of the theater. JLyn arrived in tears just a few minutes later, freaking out about how Dr. Hughes was going to fail her for completely skipping rehearsal. Honestly, if someone is affected by being late that much, I think a decent human being would let it slide. Still, I thought it was a very over the top reaction. Sensitivity is fine, but only in doses.

There turned out to be limited seats, so half of the Choir had to sit in the aisles to give up their seats for the paying customers.

Most of the concert seemed okay. I know the all mens piece could've been loads better. The only time I ever spent on that piece was during the two rehearsals before the concert. Sorry, but listening for the women only piece, I could say the same thing only because there was no energy, no energy for a hyped up Xmas song... I was worried most about the Io V'amo piece, because that one was my favorite. I think this was why Dr. Hughes assigned me to be part of the octet for that piece. I remember Justin Vaughn commented on the octet after the concert, but only saying that it was cute because I was singing it...

The collective pieces, Alleluia, In Remembrance, and Betelehemu, sounded pretty good. Pratt stood next to me for the Alleluia piece, which helped because I was able to base my notes off of him instead of the loud tenor on my other side.

In Remembrance was really good. I think the only reason it was any good, sorry to say, was because of Dr. Hughes's introduction. He dedicated the performance of this song to Bert, a tenor that was part of the Choir who passed away recently due to cancer. During his introduction, I could solemnly tell that he was going to cry, only because he said the words, "I'm going to make this brief." It never turns out brief if you start with that. I looked over at Heidi, who was trying to stare at her music because she also knew of the tears welling up in Dr. Hughes's eyes. As he turned to us, trying to continue his introduction, I could hear just about a hundred sniffles all around me. What I did was I smiled and kept composure, just to try and catch Dr. Hughes's attention so that he could focus a little more. I believe the piece went extremely well because of the organic emotion that was now released because of the teary intro.

Betelehemu was just a breeze, even more for me because I faked singing it while I was playing the tambourine. I messed up on one of the beginning rolls and ended up doing alternating triplets and rolls to make up for that mistake.

So, overall, the concert went pretty smoothly, according to the many audience members I saw while I was looking for JT. While he was searching for his lost keys and music, I managed to change into my street clothes. JT drove me, Jordan the Mormon, Connie from Frisbee, and Shae. Jordan ended up shifting gears for JT while he drove with his foot from the back seat. I only encouraged it because I took off his shoe.

Pratt had sat with Taka, Abril, and King, so I sat next to him. He ended up talking about how cute one of the guys, "Dug", from Choir was. Kevin, the percussionist from the night before, also sat near us. Pratt had commented that he was freaked out by Kevin, apparently Kevin was actively flirting with him. He asked if Kevin realized what his orientation was, but just as he said that Kevin yelled out to Pratt, "Hey why don't you come over here big boy!" That answers that question...

Since the Choir had increased in size, the amount of people there increased as well. Kaity, our friend from Italian and recent member of the Choir, was there, hugs and all. Literally. All she was that night was a source of many hugs. Well, I'm not annoyed that she gives out hugs, on the contrary I'm glad because that means everyone else will expect less hugs from me, which apparently has grown to be my reputation as of late. What kinda annoyed me was the number of hugs she gave me. 32. Not even joking. That night had totaled up to 32. The most I noticed she gave anyone else was like 2 or 3. JT's hugs ended up being like 6 or 7 that night at Denny's. It just got me puzzled. It's this and other reasons that make me want to boycott hugs for awhile... XD

And yeah. Afterward, JT took me home. It was overall a pretty good couple of nights. C: