Chapter Twenty Nine: Week O' Barbershop - Day 1

Every year my office has a dinner to thank the principals and cooperating teachers who take student teachers into their school and into their classrooms. It is both a nice way to thank them for helping us to prepare the teachers of tomorrow and chance to get to actually meet these wonderful educators who we hear so much about, but don't often get to meet. I like this event because I get design the invitations and get to do the flower arrangements every year - just a little creative fun.

This year's dinner was particularly exciting because my quartet, the Cultured Pearls, was going to perform! I had wanted the girls to come and sing last year, but scheduling didn't allow this to happen. But this year I put it on our calendar nice and early - so it was the first gig to kick off our "Week O' Barbershop." It was also our first paid gig! We 'sang for our supper'!

Once everyone had their food Gail introduced us. It was a very nice introduction because 3/4 of us are Manhattanville Alum's and all of us are involved in education in one way or another. We sang 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy), A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes, and One Fine Day. One of our fantastic field supervisors, Prof. Gomez, even got a video of us on her nifty Flip that she uses to record her student teachers when she goes to do observations.

Our next stop was over to the music building. But on the way we stopped to take a picture or two under the beautiful flowering trees we have at the top of the quad. After that it off to see if we could catch the Cherry's. Mark Cherry and Beverly Meyer direct the Mville Musical, direct the Quintessentials (the elite pop vocal ensemble), and also teach Cabaret Performance workshop and other close harmony groups on campus. In short, they are the people who taught me to turn my diphthongs and sing with my chin down. They also taught me how to develop patter for musical sets and that the use my head voice is a beautiful thing. Sabrina and Stephanie and I were very privileged to work with them during our time as undergrads. So needless to say, we very much wanted to show off our super sweet quartet for them.

This was especially true for me because I was a girl who had trouble holding her on vocal line in college. In vocal ensembles I either sang Alto II or Tenor. I could learn and follow the line and sing it confidently from any standing position in the group. But when I was the only person in the group responsible for that part, I had trouble. It wasn't until I joined our college a cappella group, Manhattanville Sound, that I could truly hold my part. And what part was I singing might you ask...why bass of course.

But back to the Cherry's. We were thrilled to finally be able to show that what we've been up to. We found them over in Pius X, the performance auditorium in the music building. We hopped up on the stage, they took their seats in the audience and we sang the same three song set for them. They were smiling and clapping! It was so nice to be able to give that performance back to them. In the middle of two of the songs we stopped to introduce our tenor, who they'd never met. I told the story of how we told her we were "Cherry trained" that means we all turn our diphthongs together :)

After that we all had to run off to our different worlds. SQ had to get back to Jersey. Katie had to go to the library and finish a paper. And Sabrina and I were off to thesis tech to see a show that we wouldn't otherwise get to see because we'd be at regional in Philly. A most wonderful Day 1 of our Week O' Barbershop.