What We're Up To: A Lesson Learned

By Maddie Mechem, Concert Choir
Maddie has been in BCC for 4 years. She is 15 years old.

Concert Choir recently had a performance as part of an annual fundraiser for the Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation, which took place at Boston College High School. This concert’s set-up was not the same as we are used to, which meant we learned some great lessons about performing in different environments.

The first difference was that we sang in one long row on a balcony, as opposed to our usual three short rows. This meant that we couldn’t hear all the other parts directly, and had to really listen in order to make sure our pitches were correct in relation to the other sections. It was challenging, but I think we did it! Another difference was that, because we were the musical entertainment at a social gathering, we did not have the full attention of the audience while we were singing. These differences took most of us slightly off-guard, and we had to adjust how we performed to this specific situation, something that all good performers must learn to do.

We ended up doing really well, even on The Storm Is Passing Over, which we had only really gotten the hang of the day before in rehearsal. Several people from DBEDC told us that we were great, and that everyone appreciated us coming to sing, which was an extremely nice thing to say. Other than positive comments from DBEDC, we can take away some valuable information, which we can put to use in future performances. The main thing to take away from this is that the space we perform in might not be what we are used to, but we just have to make the best of it, and be confident that we can!