Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Great tour!

Hey gang,

Thank you SO MUCH for all your hard work on Leg 1 of our tour! I really appreciate your hard work, energy, and enthusiasm!

It's always so rewarding for me to see how much the tour program matures and takes on new life with each performance. While it's important to keep striving for improved performances, it's also important to look back, take stock of how far you've come, and realize what a high level of musicianship you've displayed. Several choir alums from 5-6 years ago were in attendance at last night's concert, and they were absolutely awestruck by your performance. I would never have attempted many of the pieces on this year's program 5 years ago.

It's EXTREMELY rare to hear choirs from a school of less than 1,000 students perform at the level you do. It just doesn't happen! You should feel proud that you can hold your own with schools that have 10 times the number of students (and more money and resources to boot).

Housekeeping announcements:

1. We will NOT have Lambuth Singers or Choral Methods today (Wed. 11/15).

2. We WILL have Concert Choir tomorrow (Thurs. 11/16), so we can get the "Many Moods" medley under our belts for the Jackson Symphony performance.

2. Friday--be ready to load the bus at 9:15! We'll eat lunch in Memphis at 11:00 and then spend a little time getting used to the Harding Academy auditorium while the All-SW students are at lunch. We perform at 1:30 for 20 minutes or so.

Thanks again, everyone! See you tomorrow afternoon!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Dr. B.,
Thanks so much for your hard work throughout the tour. Not only did the choirs have to dedicate time and sacrifice but you also have made your share of sacrifices. When a choir director makes time for extra practices and sacrifices family time, it really says alot about how much he/she really cares about the Choir and even the Music Program.
Though I always believe there is still room for improvement from this semester to next, and so on. The choir program has come a long way from what it once was. With higher numbers comes new challenges that can really help make or break the choir.
One of the things that I noticed, that I think would help the professionalism, is a little more structure when it comes to entering and leaving the stage. This past tour was definitely a musically challenging tour. But it seemed to be more entering/exiting situations that really showed lack of stage presence and professionalism.
I beieve that if there was more confidence in the way we entered and exited, it would eliminate alot of confusion leaving all of the worrying towards making music. I think maybe if we assigned students to scope out the buildings as soon as we arrive so that we can know when and where we come off the stage. This would then cease all of the confusion towards where to go next.
Kudos on not using any folders again. It really frees the choir to make facial expressions and let the music actually come alive. I know that this choir is making tiny steps towards one of the best music programs in west Tennessee. For an 800 student university, we're doing more than what most people would think. Soon enough we will be moving mountains!