Jamestown Day 2
May. 11th, 2007 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jim_pToday was a long day. First was our performance in the morning. We were one of the first group to perform, and as such we didn't have much of an audience, but the folks we did get really seemed to enjoy our stuff. This included the next group to go on after us, so we stuck around afterwards to return the favor. We packed four distinctive styles into our 30-minute allotment: a William Billings hymn, a set of madrigals, some 1930s jazz, and a set of spirituals. People were more and more impressed each time we shifted gears and showed we could do something else!
After that was a mad scramble to find some lunch before the bus departed to Yorktown. Our tour guide is a great fellow... "Big Al" is friendly, funny as all get-out, and *seriously* knolwedgeable about local history. Yorktown, as one might remember, is where the final battle of the American Revolution took place, and he explained just how it proceeded as we toured various battlements. It's one thing to look at a battle map and read about it in a history textbook, it's quite another to actually *be* there and connect the events to actual sites.
Evening was the first of three rehearsals of The Big Chorus. Where do you rehearse 1600 singers and 400 musicians? In this case, in a basketball arena at William and Mary College. Tonight was just the chorus rehearsal, and we were in the center sections of grandstands facing each other on opposite sides of the arena. Down on the floor were 400 or so chairs set out for when we do rehearse with the orchestra, as well as a miked piano and double podium for the two choral conductors(*).
Words can't describe how wonderful the rehearsal felt for me. The main conductor who worked us was absolutely *incredible*. The groups in attendance ranged in age from children's choirs to adult community choruses, with the greatest number in the middle- and high-school age range. There was the usual high-spirited rough-and-tumble, but the conductor totally took control. He had such charisma that everybody settled down and listened when he spoke. More to the point, he was able to work on some *very* fine points of the music with us. Normally with 1600 folks you'd think it would be hard enough to just get everyone singing the same thing at the same time, but he took us far beyond that. He even said that it's a great compliment to us and our preparation that he was able to work on such fine points tonight. He worked on subtlteties of accents, diction, vocal production... and got *results*. You could *hear* the difference right away when he worked on something, and that gave us the energy to just keep working harder. If the performance comes out anything like what's happening in rehearsal, then (a) it will be a tremendous experience for all involved, and (b) it will be an incredible boost to his career.
One funny note from earlier in the day: our own director was explaining to us some of what's going on on Saturday. The super-huge-group will be doing two performances: a noontime show for the President and VIPs, and an evening show capped off with fireworks. Our director told us that the Secret Service wanted input into the program order for the noon performance... what? does the Secret Service have a music director now? No, it turns out that Bush always thinks it's time to leave when he hears "God Bless America", so we need to make sure it's last...
Crashing now... up bright and early for another rehearsal in the morning. More later!
After that was a mad scramble to find some lunch before the bus departed to Yorktown. Our tour guide is a great fellow... "Big Al" is friendly, funny as all get-out, and *seriously* knolwedgeable about local history. Yorktown, as one might remember, is where the final battle of the American Revolution took place, and he explained just how it proceeded as we toured various battlements. It's one thing to look at a battle map and read about it in a history textbook, it's quite another to actually *be* there and connect the events to actual sites.
Evening was the first of three rehearsals of The Big Chorus. Where do you rehearse 1600 singers and 400 musicians? In this case, in a basketball arena at William and Mary College. Tonight was just the chorus rehearsal, and we were in the center sections of grandstands facing each other on opposite sides of the arena. Down on the floor were 400 or so chairs set out for when we do rehearse with the orchestra, as well as a miked piano and double podium for the two choral conductors(*).
Words can't describe how wonderful the rehearsal felt for me. The main conductor who worked us was absolutely *incredible*. The groups in attendance ranged in age from children's choirs to adult community choruses, with the greatest number in the middle- and high-school age range. There was the usual high-spirited rough-and-tumble, but the conductor totally took control. He had such charisma that everybody settled down and listened when he spoke. More to the point, he was able to work on some *very* fine points of the music with us. Normally with 1600 folks you'd think it would be hard enough to just get everyone singing the same thing at the same time, but he took us far beyond that. He even said that it's a great compliment to us and our preparation that he was able to work on such fine points tonight. He worked on subtlteties of accents, diction, vocal production... and got *results*. You could *hear* the difference right away when he worked on something, and that gave us the energy to just keep working harder. If the performance comes out anything like what's happening in rehearsal, then (a) it will be a tremendous experience for all involved, and (b) it will be an incredible boost to his career.
One funny note from earlier in the day: our own director was explaining to us some of what's going on on Saturday. The super-huge-group will be doing two performances: a noontime show for the President and VIPs, and an evening show capped off with fireworks. Our director told us that the Secret Service wanted input into the program order for the noon performance... what? does the Secret Service have a music director now? No, it turns out that Bush always thinks it's time to leave when he hears "God Bless America", so we need to make sure it's last...
Crashing now... up bright and early for another rehearsal in the morning. More later!
