The lights are bright. Almost blindingly so. My feet hurt from standing in heels all day. The heat onstage is stifling, and my long black dress with the polyester jacket isn’t helping. I can’t really see the audience through the glare, but I can almost feel their eyes intently watching us as we approach the final note of our concert. The energy builds, and builds, and builds…
“…and the crowd goes wild!”
Ok. So it didn’t quite happen exactly like that.
Last weekend, USC’s Concert Choir just had our biggest performance of the year, featuring an 11-piece repertoire (some songs had multiple movements) with accompanying mini-orchestra, jazz instrumentalists, and a harpsichord! Let me tell you, it was an exhausting semester building up to that evening.
Concert Choir is an audition based class that meets twice a week for two hours each. For the most part, we all have plenty of fun during rehearsal. Our conductor, Dr. Grases, is always a riot, cracking jokes in order to get us to get us to sing a certain way. Sometimes, we even get to throw in some tacky choreography, which always results in quite a bit of goofiness. Most of all, everyone one of us absolutely loves to sing. Making music together, feeling the chords build and clash and finally resolve, is one of the most exhilarating feelings in life. All the fun we have doesn’t mean we don’t work hard; Dr. Grases always demands that we give 101% during rehearsal, and it’s all this effort that led to a standing ovation at the end of our big performance.
I’m so glad that I’m at USC, where we have such talented artists that we can pull together an impromptu orchestra, where a class feels more like a family than a burden, and where I can create something that is truly beautiful.
FIGHT ON!
Ashley