Maddie Mechem, a Concert Choir member, describes the her current experience in Concert Choir...
Editor's Note: Concert Choir is performing Mahler's 8th Symphony with the Nashua Symphony this weekend! Click here for more information.
Lots of Music by Maddie Mechem, 11/8/10
Well, these last two rehearsals were certainly busy for those of us in Concert Choir. In the past two weeks, we have had professionals from the Boston Children’s Theater, and the Executive Director of the Nashua Orchestra, Eric Valliere, visit our rehearsals to see what we’re doing at BCC and help us prepare for upcoming performances. The amount of music we have to learn is reaching a crescendo. You could say that German has become kind of a second language, and the holidays have come early. The major piece for this half of the season is Gustav Mahler’s 8th symphony, which is over 200 pages long! Of those 200 pages, we have to sing more than sixty. This piece is one of many pieces currently residing in our black BCC binders. After a quick count, the most current Concert Choir music tally is seven holiday songs, two German and/or Latin songs, and two so far uncategorized songs. That is eleven pieces of music, nine of which will be performed sometime in the next three months. That is a lot to learn in not much time! On the bright side, we will never run out of things to keep us occupied, AND we get fancy new shirts to wear for performances this year, along with the usual white BCC oxfords.
More Mahler by Maddie Mechem, 11/15/10
The Mahler madness is reaching its peak, as the first concert is less than a week away. Sunday was our first rehearsal, and our last rehearsal is on Friday. Then, on Saturday, it’s off to Lexington for the first of two concerts. We have some work to do between now and then. We were missing cues and whole sections of the song, and we have the equivalent of about five hours to get this right. But after all of this is over, we get to take a break and begin to prepare for the holiday concert. As mentioned in a previous post, we have seven songs to perform, four of which we have been assigned for homework (CC: don’t forget! This is highly important!). Because Mahler requires a ton of time and effort to learn/perform, delaying preparation for the holiday concert is kind of a given. Even with all the stress of looking for cues and singing over all the other people, it will be fun to perform, especially with the awesome, all-black uniform, as well as the fact that we are going to be part of a huge group of people, all of whom have worked hard to make this work. As to what happens and how well it works, that must wait for another post.
Check back soon for another update from Maddie!
