You've Got 5 Minutes

For the remainder of September (and believe me, it's gonna fly people), I'll be singing with the Trinity Wall St. choir. Now, I've already accepted another church job (at Ascension), but that doesn't begin until October 1st, so why not make some extra cash in the mean time? Not to mention, sing with one of the best mixed choirs in New York City. I'll take it.
Last night I had my first marathon rehearsal with the group. All 9 of my readers are mostly singers, so you'll understand me when I say it was pretty intense. The rehearsal was 3 hours long, with one 10 minute break. ONE. Plus, it's all straight tone. Now I'm usually OK with that, since I've been doing Anglican straight tone stuff for the past 4 years. I've always sung Soprano II because I really can't straight tone above an A. And let's be honest, I really don't want to straight tone above an F. So you'll REALLY understand the rawness of my voice when I tell you I was singing Soprano I the whole night. Oy. As hard as it was, it also felt really great to get back in the game- the musicians are stellar, the music is great, and we were all sightreading 90% of the rep. Do you know how many wrong notes were sung? Maybe 5. Now THAT is what I'm talkin' about.

At any rate, the reason for last night's voice-ripping rehearsal was based on the amount of rep. we had to cover for this week. Being that Monday is 9/11, there are more services than usual, and everyone wants a good choir. So, after Sunday morning's service, we break for a few hours before getting back together for a private service for President Bush. Yes- a bunch of more left than right musicians will be performing for the man himself. Do you know what kind of prep. that takes? Apparently, all trains going to the Wall St. area will stop running for an hour or 2. All streets within a 4 block radius of the church will be cleared. No air traffic. And every hotel room that faces Trinity St. Paul's will be vacant. EVERY HOTEL ROOM. That means that anyone who might have booked a room to come visit Ground Zero will be SOL. Oh, and no windows in St. Paul's will be open. We don't even know what entrance the Pres. will be using until 5 minutes before we start singing. The President's days are divided up into 5 minute intervals. So we also had to time all of our pieces last night to make sure they fit within the allotted time frame. Isn't that crazy?

Anyway, after that service we rehearse with the American Boy's Choir and some string group for our appearance on Good Morning America Monday morning. Yes- a 6:30 AM call should be totally awesome. (Note the sarcasm.) If you can, tune in between 8:30 and 9:30 AM- that's when we'll be singing. And of course, after the show, we do 2 more services.

So, it's a whole hell of a lot of singing, and I know I'm going to be exhausted, but I'm also really excited to be a working singer in New York. Granted, I can't quit my day job, but I feel like my move is at last semi-fruitful.