Spring Singing

It's that time of year again. Spring. And unlike many other families where spring means soccer games and baseball practice, spring for our family means singing. As in spring choir concerts.

Rebekah performed with Limited Edition....the women's show choir at the high school.

She actually had two concerts back to back on successive days. One was the official choral department spring concert. The other was just Limited Edition and Madrigals...and they performed many more numbers that night. I was glad that since I couldn't go to both, I was able to make it to the one where Rebekah sang more.

They also announced the new Madrigals for the upcoming 2013-2014 year. Rebekah actually got "kidnapped" a few weeks ago as initiation into the group so it wasn't the big, original announcement. It was more or less to show them off and let the incoming and outgoing sing a song together per high school choral department tradition. Madrigals is going to keep her really busy next year but oh my, there is a lot of excitement at our house over the whole thing. I think Rebekah is probably more excited about it all than I am. But only by a little bit...

                           

Julianne sang a few nights later with Rolling Thunder, the 9th grade show choir at her junior high.

Funny enough, she didn't originally audition for this group. I think I've mentioned before that while Rebekah has thoroughly embraced and shined in the choral music departments, Julianne has mostly decided that she was more interested in focusing on drama and the musical theatre type singing that comes with it. So she did not take choir in 8th grade, nor did she sign up for it in 9th. So I was surprised one day when picking up carpool to be told that Julianne was staying after school because she had an audition for the show choir. I hadn't heard of any audition. She certainly hadn't been preparing for one as far as I knew. Plus, this was early December...not even the semester break.

When I went back to the school to pick her up a little bit later, she told me that she had indeed made it into Rolling Thunder. A few more questions later and she told me that she had heard that one of her friends (boy...choir always is looking for boys who want to/are willing to sing) was auditioning for the Rolling Thunder that day and she decided then and there to join him and more or less crash this personal audition....and wing it. Apparently she did well because the teacher asked her to join on the spot, informing her that she was willing to let her in the class right then in the middle of December, or at the semester break the next month. Though joining in time for all the Christmas performing was Julianne's original plan, after talking to her counselor we ended up deciding to not waste the credits on her almost completed geography class and transfer in at the semester.

I have to admit that though Julianne has enjoyed being with friends in the class, she didn't really care for the teacher or her style of directing. So I caught more than one eye roll from Julianne during the concert when she felt embarrassed by what her director was asking her to do. She performed with outward aplomb, but with inner grimace. Mostly I think she was irritated that only 2 weeks before the final concert her teacher was trying to teach them 2-3 brand new songs and Julianne was horribly worried that they wouldn't be ready and would sound bad. They didn't sound bad. They fumbled some words here and there but overall I thought they sounded good. Just saying.

Julianne really despised the "ridiculous" choreography they had to do for Rhythm of Life. Can you see the slight smirk on her face?

And last but not least, I had a couple of concerts with the Sally Bytheway Chorale....

We sang at Assembly Hall on Temple Square and then also at the Viridian Center, a concert hall in West Jordan. Other than taking the past year off, I've sung with this choir consistently since autumn 2006. Melissa joined first. Then my mom and I one season later. A few years after that, Katie joined us. And then guess what? My dad, who had been our "Number One Fan" and "President of the Fan Club"...coming to every single concert and even a few rehearsals each season....officially joined to sing with us this year! And after a few months into rehearsals after we'd all learned our parts and Sally mixed us up into official concert spots, I was delighted to find that she had assigned me to stand right next to my dad! Good heavens, what fun that was!

Another fun little extra....Katie, Melissa and I were given a part to sing together, just the 3 of us. Being that we are sisters, we blend incredibly well, sounding more or less like one voice. We had a lot of fun singing together like that. I hope that Katie and Melissa didn't think it was too weird or inappropriate that on our last night in the Assembly Hall I reached out to hold each of their hands while we were singing our little solo...