Sing, Sing a Song

I am going to try this embed a video thing. Bear with me.



This is one of my choirs rehearsing a piece we recently commissioned from a very well known and respected Canadian composer. I still find it hard to believe sometimes that I am part of a group that performs at this level.

This video was taken shortly before we performed a concert on Sunday. Readers who live in Ottawa may recall how hot and humid it was in this fair city on Sunday. The church in which we were performing might charitably be termed an oven. I will refer you to the video to see our standard concert dress -- long sleeved black shirts, black skirts or slacks, closed toe black shoes. Sweltering, is the word. It's the only time I have sung in a concert where the director has said "I want you take water bottles on stage with you, and I want you to drink from them between movements."

All that said, the concert went smashingly well. We had a full house and the music was wonderful. This was a joint concert with another Ottawa choir and we were performing a Requiem that a local composer wrote for her son, who tragically passed away from cancer about a decade ago. The concert was a fundraiser for a palliative care home named after the composer's son. It was a great honour to perform with her (she played piano) and it was a good challenge for us as a choir, performing a multi-movement lengthy piece, with another choir. In the first half we performed a number of other pieces, including the one in the video linked above.

So now both choirs are done for another season. I'm looking forward to having my weeknights to myself for a little while, although I know by September I'll be chomping at the bit to get back into it. The next concert coming up for me is one I don't have to sing in -- my beloved Great Big Sea boys are coming to Ottawa in July!