On Saturday September 18th the Cultured Pearls had the honor of being coached by Ms Sharon Vitkovsky, baritone of the 1992 Queens of Harmony, City Lights. There were a good many things she worked with us on, but the thing that stuck with me more than anything was the concept of coning your own part.
If you are a barbershop singer you are probably more than familiar with the cone. The cool thing about the barbershop style is that when the bass sound is predominant it brings out the melody so that the listener hears everything (here comes the pun) in perfect harmony. That being said of the whole sound, for optimal singing it is also best that each singer "cones" her part - filling out with more sound when she is lower and not blasting when she's singing up higher. It has also been said that a good tenor is actually more like a volcano, sound bursting out through the high notes and not pinching them up . For this I have made a high-tech MS Paint version of the cone to give you a nifty visual - please hold your applause for my graphic design giftedness.
I had heard this term before, but had not really applied it to my quartet singing in any conscious way. What I found was that it made it easier to do my job and helped lock and ring the chords better. I also learned how to really support the sound when I got into my lower notes. I knew that pushing volume was not the same as giving more sound but I didn't always know how to open up my singing voice to achieve more resonance, and thusly more sound. (Thusly, don't I sound fancy...anyway.) I had been discovering through the awesome coaching the chorus had been getting, how to open up my sound and just how many dimensions it really had. The next step was getting all those places open so the sound could flow freely. When Sharon was coaching us I really started to feel and hear the difference when I did it "right."
But for me the really cool thing was after the coaching when I was listening to the recording I had made. I really heard, in our voices, that thing where the bass is the loudest but the lead is predominant - and its sooooo cool!
Tomorrow I will depart for Philly with my trusty Lead and Partner-In-Crime, Sabrina. We will be taking part in our very first Men's International Convention and we couldn't be more excited. Thanks to the loving sponsorship of several ladies in our chorus we won't have to sleep on lobby couches. And in true Theatre Kid style, not only are we attending our first BHS Convention, but we're crewing an event - The World Harmony Jamboree.
I do, of course, plan to fully cover what are sure to be my fun-tastic experiences through the art of blogging. And will also be Tweeting like a fiend through as much of the convention as I can - because in my mind this is the kind of event that Twitter should really be used for. So to all you twittering barbershoppers, I'll see you at #bbshop :)
I have come to realize that I lack the solid skill set needed to be a supremely excellent quartet bass. I do not lack the enthusiasm or drive to get those skills and make them an all-the-time part of my bbshop performing life. But I have some work to do before I become actually as good as I sometimes think I am. So I made a list. Some of these I have begun to work on and some need some more serious work and attention. Here is my current list:
Cool Bass Thing........................................What I Need to do to make this better Bass pick ups ...........................................better breath support Counter rhythms........................................check. check. double check. Crazy magic carpet/wall of sound.....................need more consistent vocal production & breath support Fearless, pin-point accuracy...........................working on it Love of the part and the style.........................check Belief that I sing the melody...........................who else would be singing it?
I am Alexis, Bass-in-Progress :) hear me roar! (and by roar of course I mean, take an accurate pitch, sing with forward resonance and tall full space, lift the ends of phrases into the next phrase, take an in-tempo breath, smile with my eyes, and sell the message of the song!)
It was my very fondest wish when starting this blog to be able to keep a chronological record of my super-sweet barbershop adventures. I wanted to post everything in order and take readers along my journey. The problem being that I started the blog after a lot of these events took place, so I find myself "back-logged." I go between writing about what just happened - with the excitement freshly in my mind as I type but then going back to fill in the space between where I last published and my most recent event so that I can "earn" the posting of it.
No more say I! I have many chapters written but unpublished because the connecting chapters are unfinished. But I am going to post them because what good are they if no one can read them, I mean really.
So here come the barrage of posts. Connect the dots as you may - and enjoy!
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.
Let me first start off by saying, if you have not had the opportunity to see the Voices of Gotham you should really make a point of doing so. I assure you, you will not regret it. But lets not get too ahead of myself.
The day after my fantastic barbershop-encrusted birthday festivities I had another bbshop packed day. The day began with a meeting at Mary Jo's. This meeting was between the Regional Convention Committee (RCC) and the HCC Convention Committee. As the CAC (competition assisting chorus) we have lots of fun duties and this meeting was to get us acquainted with all of them and with our personal counterpart on the RCC. It was a very productive meeting, and as always it was delightful to get to see Sweet Ads who we don't run into every week because they're off with their own choruses.
No sooner was the meeting over but I was in the car with the lovely Ms. Sharon Tindle and and delightful Ms. Marianne Glennon on our way into Manhattan. That evening the chorus had a gig singing at the Barclay Hotel. We met up in a room off the main lobby and were provided with tea, coffee, water and some delightful snacks. After Scott warmed us up and determined a good standing order for our sound it was off to the lobby to start singing. For our first set we sang on the carpet in the middle of the room facing the Christmas Tree. For our second set we decided to move our location we weren't competing as much with the noise from the bar right behind us. So we moved to the other side of the lobby onto the tile facing the entrance. It was great and we even got some of our audience to come and sing with us.
When all was said and done we headed back to our little side room to gather our things. Sabrina and I announced that we would be journeying downtown to the Voices of Gotham Show if anyone would care to join us. As it happens our friend Steffi already had tickets and was headed that way, so we traveled to the show with her and her friend. When we got to the show Sabrina and I still had to buy our tickets so Steffi and her friend went in to get seats. When we walked into the church to see where they had gone we found them -- right in the front row. This was particularly amusing to Sabrina and I because we didn't even decide we were going to try and go to the VoG show until later after my birthday party, and even then it was under the condition that we could make it there in time after our gig at the Barclay. So despite all that we went, and got front row seats - sweet deal.
The show opened with a Christmas song staged as snowball fight! It was fantastic; they used the chairs as snow banks to hide behind, they threw and reacted to invisible snowballs and made excellent use of frozen images versus moving through the action. It set the stage for the whole concert and had the audience ready and waiting for more.
I'm not sure that I could pick a favorite song but I could certainly do personal highlights. For me they would be Waltz of the Sugarplumb Fairy, Brown Eyed Girl and Loch Lomond.Waltz is my long time favorite piece in the Nutcracker so that automatically places it in my heart. I enjoyed the choice of having the chorus behind us and the lights out. I cant lie though, there was a big part of me waiting for some delightfully farcical men in tutus type dancing, but alas there was none. Brown Eyed Girl featured three fantastic and completely different soloists. It was sung and staged as an exciting men's college a cappella group would do it, and that's exactly why I loved it. Loch Lomond - where do I even start? Their director, the accomplished and very friendly Mr. Larry Bomback sang the solo because due to a cold, the planned soloist was out of commission for the evening. It began with the quartet onstage and then added in quartet by quartet and they had some of the guys still up in the loft so it felt like the sound was coming from all around you. And the coolest part, ugh the COOLEST part? That would have the be the last time through when all the men are singing like bagpipes and the sound is just vibrating off of every surface in the place and you get covered in goosebumps. Mmmh Loch Lomond - such a meep worthy song.
So we're sitting in our sweet front row seats with Steffi and Neal and the gang. We're enjoying the show and all of the fantastic chapter quartets. And then we get to enjoy, for the second night in a row, the fantastic visual and vocal stylings of 'Round Midnight. Besides just enjoying these guys perform I think my favorite part would have to be when they walked out to the thunderous applause of the audience and were waving hello and they saw us camped out there in the front row and gave us that look like "Well hello, haven't we seen you somewhere before?" Tehe.
When the show was over we got to run around a little bit and say hello to friends. There were several Hickory Tree ladies there, including our friend Carolyn Schmidt and her lovely daughter Andrea. While we didn't have time to sing a tag with them before they had to scoot out to catch their bus/train, it was nice to finally meet Andrea who we had heard lots about.
In our post-show milling around we had to make sure we went up to say hi to Larry and tell him how much we enjoyed the show. (Especially because we were reading his bio and saw he went to Haverford and said to ourselves "Was he a Humtone?" - the answer of course being, yes.) We got to talking about how great the staging was, and he said it was their goal that no two songs should look alike. Well I say he achieved it. My sentence to sum up the show would be"The chorus is dynamic and their staging is as engaging as it is refreshing." Brava Gentlemen!
We headed to the back of the church to say our hello's the rest of the 'RM gentlemen and congratulate then on (another) show well done. We were very sad to have to turn down their invitations to come to the after glo, but we still had to catch a train back up town, drive to Mawah to get my car, and then head home to Purchase to sleep before getting up early the next day to drive to South Jersey and go caroling with ladies from our chorus. The allure of handsome men singing is very strong, so even though we didn't go to the glo we consoled ourselves with the knowledge that we had been invited with great joy by a group of guys we enjoy and respect.
The next day, despite a distinct lack of sleep and some of the grossest rain I've ever seen, Sabrina and I journeyed to south Jersey to sing at the Shoppes at Crosskey. Well the shoppes were a strip mall and the octet went from store to store to spread holiday harmony and get in out of the rain. One of my favorite memories from the day was in a store where they only wanted a small quartet and this group sang.
Our last stops were to the two resteraunts in the plaza. At the last one we were informed by the owner that she had been really excited for us to come sing today because she had this big holiday party booked. The party however, was booked for the wrong location and while she was still quite happy to have us there she was bummed that she didnt have a larger crowd for us to sing to. We happily sang for the few tables in the dining area and then sat down for complimentary bread and tea. We were water logged but in good spirits. As Jeannie put it "we all put in our 500% today."
Since this is all about my 25th Birthday Party it would be fitting that it be chapter twenty-five in my barber-blog saga, but no such luck I suppose.
Any who - my 25th birthday was Monday, November 30, 2009. This was the year of dragging the birthday glory out - yes even more than usual. I had my first birthday luncheon Monday, November 23rd with the wonderful people on my office. Then my actual birthday on the 30th. Then birthday dinner with the lovely Ms. Ariella Monti on Dec 6th. And another birthday dinner Dec 15th. (There are also some outstanding dinner offers of people who couldn't come to my party.) Which brings me to the main event itself, my 25th Birthday Bash on Saturday, December 11, 2009.
The party was held in the EXperimental Theatre in Founders Hall at Manhattanville College. Sabrina, the most brilliant light designer of life (not that I'm partial at all) lit the whole room up and even made a gobo especially for the occasion. We brought in lots of food (special thanks to Linda, for the deli connection) and lots of good people, including my oldest and dearest friend Gianna. But what makes this event relevant to this blog would be that I had barbershop quartets come to perform! The quartets that sang were Fanfare! and 'Round Midnight.
Just to give a little background on these two. The ladies of Fanfare! are the current 5th place medalist of SAI Region 15. They won the novice award in 2007, along with 5th place medals - and took home that medal again in 2008 and 2009. They all sing with my chorus, Harmony Celebration. Well almost... (their Bari, the lovely Ms Heather is not currently singing with us, but she did and we're working on bringing her back - as far as I'm concerned she's an HCC girl at heart and I'll always love her and consider her a part of my chorus.) The gentlemen of 'Round Midnight are the current M-A District Quartet Champions. 2009 was an exciting year for them as they qualified for their first International Contest and then proceeded to land in 14th place overall! But most importantly, and the reason I asked them to sing at my party, they are two of the most entertaining quartets and eight of the coolest people you could hope to see on any guest list.
The ladies of Fanfare! sang a three song set (see below). They opened with Hit That Jive Jack, which as a bass I must say, just sounds like one of the most fun songs you could ever hope to sing. Julia's jazzy lead and Sharon's boppin' bass carry you along on a jazzy dream. Next up was a song (by my request) lovingly referred to as The Fanny Song. The story goes that the quartet loved the music for this particular song but Julia simply said "No, I won't sing a Mammy song" and so proceeded to write lyrics a bit more to her liking. Here's a little taste:
I loved how right before they sang it came the disclaimer "the management is not responsible for the content of this song" to which I replied loudly "yes, its that kind of party!" For their final song they sang a parody of Oh How I Miss You Tonight. It began "Oh how I miss... Hagen Daz" with delightful bass/bari echos and proceeded with great hilarity from there out - finishing with a lovely tenor post from the gorgeous Ms Alice (aka Where's Alice?) and a beautiful ringing chord.
Next up, the studly gents of 'Round Midnight. They opened with Lucky Day which assured me, as if I even needed it to, that I was in for a real treat. My story being that about six months or so I became obsessed with said song - you can ask my baritone for confirmation of this fact as I got her hooked too. So there was the song choice and the ridiculously ringy-pingy sound in that little black box theatre on the final chord - turns out to be a great space for barbershop. Next song up and Jeff started right in on the bass line as T.J. told us it was a request (which it was, for Sabrina) and started to look for her to sing to only to find that she was back in the light booth making the magic happen. Needless to say, she was sung to anyway and it was right into Moondance, which I would probably call their signature song. [side note - signature song reasoning: on this song the lead switches effortlessly from singer to singer. They aren't married to any traditional "barbershop" standing positions/blocking. It shows off their smooth, exciting, jazzy style. And shows how excellently these guys have a real feel and understanding of rhythm. These, along with tons of stage presence and charisma, are what I would list as their signatures.] Then it was on to quartet introductions - all I will say here is "and I have the best teaching job of all - middle school." If you've seen them then you know what I mean, and if you haven't its just one more reason to do so. Also - shout out to my Baritone who is, in fact, a rockin' middle school music teacher. Next up was my personal request Anytime at All. There is a section of the lyrics that goes:
Don't be afraid to let me know that you want me, that's such a silly thing to do.
I, of course, decided to take these lyrics literally and planned out a little surprise ahead of time. Sabrina had bought the 'RM CD after we saw them on the Hickory Tree Chorus show. As we were listening to it in the car on the way home from the show the thought arose:
Sabrina: How funny would it be if when they sang this at your party you flipped over a sign that read "I want you" Me: And the people sitting around me should have signs that say "She wants you" with arrows that point to me Sabrina: I could totally bring a light up on you in the audience when it happens too Me: Yes!
And so it was planned out. I sat in the correct seat in the front row where the light was all focused and would come up on me perfectly on cue. I was flanked by my sister Stefanie and her boyfriend Mark, who both had their signs at the ready. Plus, I had told at least 75% of the people in attendance that I was going to do this, so I couldn't chicken out. So the song starts and I give my sister the nudge like "this is the one." They sing through the beginning and come to the aforementioned lyrics and I flip my sign. Stef and Mark do the same. And the light comes up on me so the quartet can see. Here are some reaction shots for your amusement.
Since I was in the front I held up my sign and turned it around so everyone in the audience could see what the quartet was laughing at. Being the true professionals they are they kept on singing despite a clear desire to simply start cracking up. Before I know it, along comes the infamous "call me anytime" part of the tag and the dreamy chord changes that follow to end the song. Cue round of applause and the boys finally get a chance to laugh. Jeff looks at me and says "You can't top that" and after some additional laughter Wayne adds "there's a first for everything" and another burst of laughter from the audience.
Now I'll give you a run down of the rest of the set list along with my personal highlights from each song.
In the Still of the Night: -Right before the bridge as they're singing "In the still of the night" [note this is a non-verbal exchange] Jeff and points to Wayne like 'hey, we're gonna go this way' and Wayne's points and is all 'that way?' and Jeff points again 'yea, that way' and then all four proceed to "shoo-wop" digs starting to the right. -Bass solo at the end "In the still" and all 3 of the guys sigh really high pitched, followed by an echo of that sentiment from all the ladies in the audience.. or at least me and Wayne making kissy faces at Jeff -Larry's ever so smooth "ooh eeeh oooh aaah" at the end :)
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me: -pitch blows, we hear an "oh ah" and Larry gets a confused look on his face as Wayne turns to him like "huh?" and then proceeds to remind him of the first few words "all i want.." -Lead pull-out on "They told me to be sensible with your new love" as Wayne steps into Sabrina's perfectly cued light -the tres dreamy tag as they come off the big build and you get the bass sliding down to one of those vibrating, wonderful basement notes
"Love" & My Girl: -The Patter! "Opposites attract? Oh so you've heard that. Well Wayne heard that too (he smiles) so he's looking for a girl with a big bank account (he frowns) but that quickly turns to laughter as a light is brought up on me in the audience as I wave at him. And TJ gave props to the light booth for being up on the jokes. -"How will I know? Will it be like a big light shinning in my face" cue Sabrina bringing up a light, shinning on Jeff's face -Of course the tender moment that right before the song starts - and that moment when the tenderness is shredded by bass enthusiasm, lol -"When its cold outside, like its today" -The "ba da da ba bah's" by Larry & TJ, the second of which comes with awesome arm choreo! -The most in tune audience sing along of all time on the last round of "my girls" since 1/2 the audience was bbshoppers and a good majority of the rest were performers of one kind or another
Happy Birthday: -TJ & Wayne deciding who should sing lead, lol -Larry: "Bring the spotlight up on the birthday girl" Me: "Oh yes, she hates that" -Sabrina bringing up the awesome "Lex 25" gobo and stars at the end of it
Shout -Audience participation! -The look BeccaZ gave me when TJ said "shipoopi" since we did Music Man our senior year of high school and have our very own special associations with with word, song, and show -"Say that you oooooh will" Jeff shakes Wayne's hand in congratulations of his pretty little vocal run and Larry doubles over with laughter at the sight of it, singing all the while -Sabrina's awesome light bumps on the "shout"s with the awesome fuchsia top light -"A little bit softer now" Heather Collins shouting "Lower!" and the guys making faces like "Ahh! No! We can't"... also TJ's quick and barely audible "that's what she said" lol -"Hey-ay-ay-aye" echos, again with the most in tune sing along of life -Sabrina's awesome light bumps on the "shout"s with the awesome fuchsia top light AND star gobos
As a note in general, if any one of those gentlemen tell you that they don't or can't dance, all I have to say is that anyone who has ever seen them sing, knows that a lie. In summation, 'Round Midnight rocks my socks and between them and Fanfare! I can't imagine a better birthday performances.
A big part of most birthday celebrations involves the birthday cake. But here is my theory: cake is a poor man's brownie. So instead of having cake for my party, I had a tower of brownies!Deeeelish. And my first order of business after the performances was to eat some brownies. Well that and hug every person I passed on my way back to said brownies. Anyway, when I was in the back of the theatre munching in my yummy birthday brownie I started talking to Larry.
Larry: Who did the lights? They were great. Me: My lead/roommate Sabrina. Larry: Does she have a card?
Sabrina did not have a card. But I nabbed her and she quickly scribbled down some contact information for him. As it turns out his chorus, Voices of Gotham, had their holiday show the next night and he asked her to do lights for it on the spot! The thing being that we had a chorus gig the next day and didn't even know if we were going to be able to make it to their show. Plus they would have needed her to bring in lights and without anytime to check out the space or prep there really wasn't much she could do. But it got her on board for their next show.
The next fun thing to happen was that I was talking to Jeff while Sabrina and Larry were talking about lights and he goes "So you want to sing a tag with 'Round Midnight?" and I reply with "No. I want to sing a whole song." Now I must take a moment to tell you how very proud of myself I was in this moment because this is the kind of thing I would always want the opportunity to take advantage of but either it wouldn't come up or I would wuss out if it did. And I didn't - go me. So then came the quick conversation of what do you know that we know, and I know the version of "Don't Be a Baby, Baby" that they sing - mostly because Just4 sings it, but also because I had been listening to their CD going "if this opportunity presents itself at my party, which song can I use to take advantage of it." Then they asked me what key I wanted to sing it in - eep. My answer was that I knew I could sing it where they do (because I can) but blowing it higher probably wouldn't hurt either. In the end I'm pretty sure we sang it wherever they sing it because I could handle it, but it was low in my range in some places. I remember starting it and almost waiting for them to keep going (like I was singing with the CD or something) and that split second where I was like "oh! I'm the lead now..ok" and also "look how awesome they are all staying together/waiting for me" -- thoughts of course, that went by in the blink of an eye because helloooo I was in the middle of singing a song, but I digress (as usual.) I made it through the song without incident, except the last note where I doubled with someone because I didn't realize Wayne takes the high note there, but in true tag-out-quartet-singing-style he was near by and gave me the signal to hop up to that note and sang it to help me out.
Now for a tale of Larry the substitute Tenor. One of the coolest parts of having a quartet is being able to sing wherever, whenever for whomever. The main thing being that you need all four people to do that. At my birthday party my tenor Katie, was noticeably absent. This was most unfortunately do to bronchitis - clearly she would have rather been well and at my party. Anyway, her illness meant no Cultured Pearls Quartet showboating for this birthday girl. But in the discussion Steph and Brina and I were having with the lovely 'RM boys about how we wouldn't be singing Larry said something like "Well what do you know? I'm sure I can fake through some YWIH tenor, and Wayne can help me out anyway, he knows all those songs" and so with a little discussion we decided on One Fine Day. Steph blows the pitch, Larry finds his starting note and we're off! We make it through the first verse but between adjusting to the sound and the looks on Larry's face as he tries to make it through and Wayne's as he tries to help him, we crack up and loose it going into the second. Larry's response to this being "No, no! Keep going its all repeats from there, I got this!" So its on to take two. This time we make it through the whole thing with interesting faces being made through the bridge and at the end when Larry realizes he's responsible for the post on the tag. It was great fun. But the best part had to be when our lovely director Scott, drawn by our delightful harmonies no doubt, peeked his head around the corner to see who was singing with a look of "What in the name of the heavens in this?" Classic.
In true party style there was much merriment, sandwich consumption, and brownie devouring. Since the party was in a theatre in a dorm building it was kept non-alcoholic. So as the party wound down there were the inevitable suggestions of "so what bars are in the area?" to which I quickly responded with a "Bar-shmar! Come back to our apartment on the other side of campus instead. Less of a drive and the drinks are free." Everyone liked this idea and being the awesome people they are, all lent a helping hand to clean up and get food rounded up to bring back to our place.
In true Alexis style my apartment was a mess because I was running around to get myself and everything else together for my party. Of course people would end up back at our place - as Sabrina would say "Do you know who you are?" So while the clean-up crew was in action in the EX, Pete was sent ahead to do a quick sweep of the apartment. The best thing in this part of the story being that my sister and her boyfriend had gone back to my place, put on jammies, and pulled the futon flat for bed - so when Pete came in they were just kind of thrown back in to everything since I was too busy with people in the EX to call and warn her....tehe. I must also take a moment to note the awesomeness of Ms. Heather Collins as she was key to the success of my food wrapping-up and taking with me process.
So we get back to the apartment and Heather and her lovely husband Joe are there and all of my girlfriends found their way over - clearly no problem for people who went the school there, good on them. But no 'Round Midnight boys! Eeep! Earlier they had gotten lost on their way to the party because people on campus sent them to the wrong theater. I thought that this time they would just follow my girls over since they were all carrying things out of the building for me at the same time but noooo. Nothing the easy way. So I throw on my coat, grab my cell phone and head back out into the cold December night.
Me::dialing cell phone:: Larry: Hey, I think we know where we are. Me: I'm outside so if you're close I can flag you down Larry: Oh, I think we see you Me::waving arms:: Pull in over here, park in the first spot you can find. Larry: Got it. See you soon.
The final roster of the Lex's Super Sweet 25th Birthday After Party included: Steph, Larry, Vanna, Heather, Joe, Pete, Sabrina, TJ, Wayne, Stef, Mark, Jeff and myself. Laughter, conversation, and impromtu bits of song (including Jeff & I rapping Tupac's Changes and some sweet Boys II Men jams) continued well into the early morning hours. Twenty-fifth birthday party success, check.
I saw the digital edition of the Pitch Pipe today (8-6-2009) and almost started crying.
It was like being in Philly all over again and then it hit me - I'm freaking going to International. I am going to sing with 60 women I love. And I'm going to see and sing with so many other women who feel the same way and who are freaking fantastic at what they do. I am going to be a competitor on the International Stage! How cool is that?
I'm in the car with friends on the way home from bridesmaid dress shopping and my cell phone rings. I look down and see that its the lovely Ms. Sarah Lynn and answer the phone with great excitement. You see, its the weekend of SAI Region 16's contest. And this is the first year that my former chorus, Saratoga Soundtrack and the fantastic Ms Sarah, are competing.
Me: Hellooooo.
Sarah: Hello Ms Alexis.
Me: Hello Princess Sarah.
Sarah: Guess what's around my neck?
Me: Is it a medal?!
Sarah: Yup. Guess what color it is?
Me: Is it GOLD?!!?!!
Sarah: Yes!!
Me: Ahhhhhhh!
Saratoga Soundtrack won Divsion A their first time out with a 544! Now for those who don't know, we Sweet Ad's have small (15-30 women) and midsized (31-60 women) divisions within our regional contests in addition to our overall rankings. There is also a special contest for the top five in each of those divisions across the international organization called the Harmony Classic. But what is most important and impressive in this story is that the little chorus that could, Saratoga Soundtrack, took home the gold with 22 singers onstage the very first time they ever competed - Brava!
Steph, Sabrina and I all piled into Steph's sweet lil mini cooper, popped the address in the GPS and headed off to Philadelphia, PA for our first Sweet Adelines Regional Contest.
The very first stop on our regional journey was rehearsal for the Regional Young Women In Harmony Chorus. This was the first year that the region was trying this out. There were girls from three groups. The Gracenotes, a YWIH college group from Westchester PA that had been started by a tenor who grew up in Region 15 and brought barbershop to college with her. The First Ladies, a high school group taught by Laurie Woolever, the Region 15 YWIH Coordinator. And then there was Steph, Sabrina and myself - the YWIH of the Harmony Celebration Chorus.
All of us girls got the charts and learning tracks for the songs ahead of time and came to Philly ready to sing. Our songs were 59th Street Bridge Song and Yesterday so we also brought 'hippie' attire to perform in. I don't know why, but we were expecting to have a 2 or three hour rehearsal, but all we had was one hour! We were under the direction of the wonderful Ms. Harriette Walters. She gave us a quick voice placement based on parts and where we normally stand in our own choruses and then as we warmed up moved us around until she got the sound she was looking for. I wound up in the front row, just left of center with Steph over my left shoulder and Sabrina over my right, but up in the center of the chorus. We sang through the songs and got ourselves moving and really selling them. In the front row we had a bunch of the Gracenotes, so we added in a little kick and hand movement that they did in their chorus to spice it up a bit.
The rehearsal flew right by and before we knew it, it was over. Harriette and the other regional ladies all had to rush off to the quartet briefing. That left us young ladies some time to run around Philly and get some lunch before we had to get back to the hotel to change and prep to watch the quartet competition and be ready to performance at the end of it. We had, of course, made friends during rehearsal and so we went to out to lunch with the Gracenotes to the TGIFridays not far from the hotel. Lunch was great and we got to know some of the girls a little better. Their leader had actually been mentioned to us by ladies in our chorus because she sang tenor with Capriccio - the only YWIH Quartet to come through the region. Well since she was going to school out in PA it didn't look like we had found a tenor, but we made a new friend and Kristen was it!
After lunch we still had plenty of time before we needed to head back and get ready so we decided to go for a romp around downtown Philly. We walked down to the beautiful fountain and back up to the famous LOVE sign. We looked at that sign and said "Next Year. Next year we'll come here and take a picture under this sign as a quartet."
We headed back to the hotel and checked into our room - which was attached to the Harmony Celebration Hospitality Suite. So when we thought we would take a quick nap before getting ourselves ready, we actually ended up fielding the sign-in sheet and drop-off of food and beverages for Saturday night - oh well. After some rest anyway we proceeded to get into our jeans, peasant and tie-dye t-shirts, put braids in our hair and even put flowers and peace signs on our cheeks before heading down to the main ballroom to watch the quartet competition. As the YWIH Chorus participants we even got special seating! We sat and watched our first regional quartet competition in awe of the bravery and talent of each woman who crossed that stage. We had a lot of "hometown" quartets to cheer for too: Just4, Vanity Fair, Borderline, In Good Company and Fanfare! After each quartet sang we ran to the back of the room to cheer and hug them as them came back into the ballroom.
Before we knew it, the last of the sequined ladies had crossed the stage and it was our turn. We lined up in the lobby outside the ballroom and Kristen got us started in some soft vocal warmups to get focused as Harriette came to join us. I can still remember how exciting it was to walk out on that contest stage for the very first time. The best part was probably that Faith and Jeannie Froelich were sitting front and center and I could hear them screaming "Go Lexy, Go Sabrina, Go Steph!!" We opened with 59th Street Bridge Song, nailed all of our moves and our chords and it felt groovy - to the say the least. In the break in between songs I was going to MC for the chorus. I walked out to the mic to greet the region. I let them know that we had girls from three groups (we HCC gals had been omitted from the program!) and that not only were we thrilled to be there, but were very grateful to our music educators and regional leadership for getting us there. Then I walked back into the chorus and got ready to sing Yesterday. Well the pitch blew and as I took a breath and restated to step into the first note to sing my legs nearly went out from underneath me! My stomach clenched up so it was hard to breathe and I felt like my whole body had gone shaky. I made it through the song ok - but when we finally got off the stage and I got to take stock. I always get nervous before I go onstage - the little butterflies in the tummy that keep me on point and make sure that that everything goes right - but this was way beyond that. I had never felt like my legs would go out from underneath me onstage. For me it was a confirmation that barbershop was something I needed to do for the rest of my life.
The results of the Quartet Contest were announced and wow! Just4 and Fanfare! were both medalists - 4th and 5th place respectively. All us HCC Ladies were so proud of them!
Sabrina, Steph and I had roped our friend Katie into singing with us. We tried to learn two songs to sing around at contest, but only wound up with one. We called ourselved "Not Yo Mama's Quartet" and our one song was Kickin' It Up A Notch, arranged by the wonderful Ms. Nancy Faddegon. We sang in the lobby for some of the Gracenotes and for a bunch of the ladies in our chorus - it was a blast!
The next morning started out with a little rehearsal and our Chorus Breakfast. The Buzz was around because they were going to be singing on the show of champions that night and so Karen Breidert came to watch us that morning and give us some feedback and support. She sat there beaming while we sang and told us to trust the message of the songs and we'd do great. Next came the actual breakfast and (my favorite part) Chorus Rah!, lead of chorus by our very own Jean and Diane. This year's tribute to our contest journey was set to the familiar story and tunes of The Music Man, a musical which Scott is more than fond of. [sidenote: Scott Brannon is Harold Hill - in the he can totally play and sing the snot outta that part way] I think the highlight of it would have to be the Marian the Librarian parody. The line was something about "I hear the HC Chorus has a new director, do you know what they're saying? Their director is Maaaaaaaaasculine." We all laughed so hard! Next we had a double quartet who sang the Buzz's It's My Song. Well right around the time they got to "I give to you this part of my because you are my friend" I was in tears. It was the morning of my first contest ever, the first contest for this rebirthed chorus, and I couldn't imagine anywhere I would rather be, or any people I would rather be sharing it with. To close out the breakfast we recognised everyone who worked so hard to make sure we made it to Philly that weekend, and after one last quick of my cranberry juice and some quick hugs it was off to the room to begin preparing.
The first order of business was to get dressed and made up in time for our row-by-row costume and makeup checks. This was our first real encounter with "True Tan" foundation. Now of the three of us, Sabrina is fair and freckly; Steph is fair-ish, but is Italian and has that great olive glow; and I tend to be the tannest, but I still don't compare to "True Tan." The initial reactions of my fellows was a "you've got to be kidding me" but by the end of the blending process (which is not a quick one) and with all of the other stage makeup on, while we were feeling kind of drag-queen-ish, we did look pretty glamorous. Once we donned our sequined tops and spangled earrings we moved into the hospitality suite to gather as a chorus and takesomepicturestoo.
Next we headed to the elevator bank to line-up and warm up. The sound was crazy with such a low ceiling - it was bouncing right back at us. Scott reminded us not to over-sing into the sound we were hearing and just take it easy for now. The host chorus Hickory Tree, came up the elevators to get us and we were off into the pattern! Now for someone who has never been in a contest, the pattern is a series of stops/rooms that each chorus goes through on their way to the stage. First you hit thelobby, then the rehearsal room, the primp room (gotta love the last minute makeup details,) the photo room (where there is generally a little time for some singing), then its down the escalator to wait outside the ballroom.
From there the front row started into the backstage, SQ and I engaged in our pre-show ritual, and the fantastic Ms. Katie Holden lead the charge as the front row of the Harmony Celebration Chorus hit the regional contest stage for the first time. We were out there smiling for what seemed like forever when Scott finally followed our last member onto the stage and front row began our peel-off to head back to the risers. I can still remember how I felt as the lights came up on us for the first time as they announced us ... "from Ridgewood NJ, under the direction of Scott Brannon, the Harmony Celebration Chorus!" We opened with How Deep is the Ocean and closed with Yes Sir, That's My Baby. [A funny lil story about our uptune; earlier that morning we realized that our front row choreography was too big for the stage and had to change it! The lyric goes "one more time, here's the line that I'll deliver to the preacher, he's all mine." Well on line, we formed a line and then popped out the side and pulled back into a V as Scott comes storming up the middle. Well we didn't have room for an 11 person line from the risers to the front mics. So we pulled the back two people (Sharon Guzi and myself) from the line and made it so we pop to the sides and "present" the line. Luckily Sharon and I aren't the kind of gals to freak out about last minute changes like that. Still I love the fact that at my first contest we changed the choreo the morning of - makes for a great story.]
I would just like to take a moment to state the obvious and say that the end of a contest is the most nerve wracking 15 minutes (or so) of your life. We knew we had sung well, done our best - but at this point what would our best earn us? Well our best was a 593 which earned is Third Place Medals and status as the region's Second Place Midsize Chorus! We were ecstatic! Liberty Oak came in second, and Greater Nassau took home the gold.
The chorus met up in another ballroom immediately following the announcements to hand out our white ribbon 3rd place medals, and our pink 2nd place midsize chorus awards. We all had time toeat, come back and getchanged and have rehearsal before the Show of Champions that evening. The top 3 choruses and quartets all get to perform and we were so thrilled to be able to sing again that evening.
The show, like the rest of the weekend, seemed to go by in a flash and before I knew it we were sitting in the audience waiting for the final act, The Buzz, to take the stage. Now up until this point I knew all about Jeannie. I knew that she had won two crowns (one with City Lights, and one with The Buzz.) I knew that she had a beautiful voice (she stood right behind me in the chorus.) I knew that she was warm, inviting, and lots of fun. I also knew that all the Buzz-ladies had two crowns and clearly I was in for a treat...But I had no idea just how amazing the sound and performance that was coming right at me was going to be. I was covered in goosebumps within seconds and on the edge of my seat the whole time, unless I was rocking back in it from laughter or on my feet applauding. I remember very clearly turning to Steph and saying "Its a really good thing I didn't hear them sing before I auditioned for the chorus or I really would have peed my pants trying to sing for Jeannie." [sidenote: not because she would ever make me feel that way, but more because I would be quaking in the awe of her awesomeness]
After the Show of Champions it was up to the hospitality suite to make sure everything was ready. Not Yo Mama's Quartet performed for our chorus and also went down to sing our one song for the ladies of the Golden Apple Chorus. We also sang in our room for some of the quartets that been singing in other hospitality suites when we sang - namely Vanity Fair, In Good Company, and Hit Parade. Now I don't know how things work in other regions, but in ours we are fortunate enough (and small enough) that everyone and everything is in one hotel. So Saturday night every chorus goes back to their own hospitality suite and waits while different quartets come around and sing to them - its awesome!
Steph had to get to sleep early because she was working a NJ Devil's game the next day. I stayed up late singing tags. And Katie and Sabrina stayed up to clean-up. In the morning we caught the end of the Mass Sing down in the lobby as we checked out on our way to the Devil's game. We hopped into Steph's little red Mini-Coop with our medals around our necks and smiles in our hearts as we headed out from Philly.
