Sunshiney Day!

Why is it always sunny when I'm at work?

Why can't it be nice on the weekend, when I'm allowed to play outside?

I sit in my office looking longingly out of the window, wanting nothing more than to run around on my lawn, jumping through the sprinklers. Wanna join me?

Teamwork

Some members of COC had the privilege, this week to join Robert Porco's "other choral family" the May Festival Chorus in Cincinnati, where he was being honored as their choral director for the last 20 years -actually 21, but James Conlon was celebrating his 30th season as MFC's music director, so Bob's 20th was bumped a year.

When we arrived in the rehearsal room members of the May Festival Chorus (MFC) were wearing T-shirts with "Team Porco" on the back.

That was a very telling statement. When you sing in a chorus, there should be no stars, no stand outs, no individuals. There should be a single cohesive entity working together as a team to create the most beautiful music possible.

However, a team will always need a leader. This is where Bob comes in. For the last 12 of those 20 years Bob has driven approx 500 miles round trip weekly, from Cleveland to Cincinnati to rehearse both choruses. Rehearsals are generally 3 hours long and cover the music we will be performing at our next concerts. Bob leads us in a vocal warm-up, then we go to work, learning, refining and perfecting the music. So who decides how the music should sound? Who translates what the composer meant by a certain marking in the score? Who has to know the back story to a piece of music heard often or possibly never before? The director of course!

So entering a new rehearsal room, in a new city with new people around us, we were naturally curious as to how it would go.

Warm ups sounded the same. On to the piece. "Belshazzars feast". Hmmm, same markings, same phrasing, similar sound quality - different singers obviously create their own unique sound. How is it possible for 2 choruses who live 250 miles apart, and who never rehearse together, to be so instantly harmonious....It can only be the leadership.

Bob requires, and expects, nothing but the best from us. He knows what we are capable of and won't let us get away with anything less - however hard we try sometimes to get away with it.

This is one of the reasons we all work so hard for him. Equally, this is why he works so hard for us!

As you'll see in the link below, all our hardwork paid off, for the audience and chorus members combined! So thank you MFC, for allowing Clevelanders to play on the Cincinnati team for a game. We loved it!

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100522/ENT03/305220012/1025/ENT/May-Chorus-honors-director

How did I get here?....

Don't worry I won't scare you with the whole "birds and bees" thing, by now I would hope you understand how all that works! I really just wanted to see this photo of my parents on their wedding day. Can you believe they were married at the sweet ages of 16 and 18? I can't even begin to imagine what that must have been like. Although at 16 I was living quite a different life to the one I expected.

Okay, so where to begin?
With music of course! That's been the defining factor from the start. My grandfather made instruments out of cricket bats, my mum played the accordian, my brother plays every guitar he can lay his hands on, none of them had training it was just in them.

Like alot of English kids I sang in the local church choir. Without realizing it I had started on my path.
So after a few years of choral singing and some pretty awful school report cards, my parents decided to let me try out for a school they knew I'd pay attention in.
Drama School! I auditioned and was accepted. Bliss! So at 13 my days were filled with acting, tap dancing, ballet, vocal lessons, auditions in London, oh, and math, english, science blah, blah, blah.
Then just as I thought it couldn't get any better, my world turned upside down.

My mum was diagnosed with breast cancer, she had 2 years of surgeries, chemo and therapy but it wasn't enough. Two days after she died, my dad decided that he had lived 2 days longer than he wanted to. So at 16 I was on my own.

So what now? Music of course....
I worked as a studio singer in London, sleeping on friends floors and not really minding all that much. So I went from choral to pop to jazz to jingles, I sang it all. Subsidizing with nanny jobs and waitressing. After a while I decided it was time to start fresh.

I had the option of working as a nanny in Brazil, Australia or California. I really didn't want to learn Portugese or sit on a plane for 36 hours, so "California here I come!"

I worked for a family with 4 children, aged 10, 9, 5 and 2.
I pride myself in introducing them to Queen, great memories of dancing to Bohemian rhapsody (full blast) until one of them spotted their mom coming home, that's when the music stopped and the homework began ;o)

After I married Sean, and we had our 2 beautiful children, life was great!
We moved from the Bay area CA, to Reno NV, to Evansville, IN where I just happened to hear a radio commercial for the Evansville Philharmonic Chorus it had been a while since I'd sung.
I couldn't do that again, could I? Well why not? The children could do without me 1 night a week, and I needed it, I was starting to ache without music.

I had 4 fun seasons singing with them before moving to Cleveland.
Thank God I was ignorant enough of American orchestras to not realize what a big deal the Cleveland Orchestra was, if I knew I probably would have psyched myself out of auditioning.

Well I'm now going into my 6th season, and am thrilled every time I step on that stage.
So life didn't go exactly how I expected it, but what does?

That's how I got here....Music chose my path for me!

The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus supporting the Cavs!

This is what I was busy doing all last week....
Singing Carmina Burana with the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. Singing with this group is one of the highlights of my life, I feel blessed each and every time!

A snippet, as defined by dictionary.com.

n. 1. A bit, scrap, or morsel.
2. A small or mischievous person.

This is what the blog is all about...little bits of information from a small, scrappy, mischievous person.

I've never been much into writing before, never kept a journal and not just because I didn't want anyone to find it, but because I didn't think I had anything that interesting to say!
Maybe I still don't, but nowadays, I don't care.....I'm writing it anyway.