A Dream Come True
My very first year teaching I was fortunate enough to have several students be selected to the Opus Honor Choir. I had an elementary colleague who was phenomenal and had started this tradition (with great success, I might add!) who helped along the way. But this young Minnesotan who was educated in South Dakota truly had no idea what the Iowa Choral Director’s Association Opus Honor Choir was all about.
I still can remember the awe I had that day listening to my lucky students sing in their ensembles. I knew I wanted to provide that experience for as many students as possible. Fortunately, I was able to do that! I also, young and naive as I was, dreamt of being on that stage myself someday.
Full disclosure: I am a full blown introvert, INFP, need alone time to recharge, thank you very much type person. That’s me. And while I thought being the conductor would probably be awesome, and imagine myself in that position, as any young choir director would, I was really drawn to the accompanist.
Each and every Opus Concert I went to after that first one, I’d always be watching and listening to the accompanist. I knew conducting a festival honor choir of any kind wouldn’t be in my wheel house (I mean, I DREADED running meer sectionals at honor choirs!), it also felt a bit ironic that I was most drawn to accompanying.
You see, I have always been a great piano player. I’m not saying that to toot my own horn. And I know I’m not *the best* because I’ve heard truly phenomenal concert pianists and I am not that. My earliest memories are all about piano—my desire to take lessons, playing it. I loved taking lessons. I loved practicing. I always sang as well, but piano was my first true love. I was the kid in 3rd grade playing amidst the 6th graders at the recital because I was in the same books as them.
But as a teenager my love for singing grew. My love for piano didn’t diminish, but my love for singing grew exponentially. I pursued extra choral opportunities. I got cast as the lead in a few musicals. I started being *annoyed* when I would have to accompany our high school choir because it meant I wasn’t able to sing. And when I finally succumbed to my calling to become a music educator (ironically, I also resisted this!) I was very explicit about my desire to teach VOCAL music. Not instrumental.
I even took this so far as to not audition for a piano scholarship. I used “I hate memorizing piano songs” as my excuse, but what I truly knew deep down was that if I auditioned on piano that is the scholarship I would get. And then what if I’d get pushed into an Instrumental major? What if I would keep having to accompany instead of singing?! Self sabotage it is!
I declared my vocal education major and began my freshman year in a Beginner Piano Class. I still stand by the fact that the skills I had to refresh on in that class were good for me…but the teacher made sure that I tested out and then I actually enrolled back in piano lessons the following semester. I clearly didn’t belong there with the other awesome music majors that had no piano background.
I also missed taking piano lessons. Like a lot. I knew I wanted to pursue Vocal Music Education, being a choir director and all it entailed, but I still loved piano. I just didn’t want to be put into the “she’s only a pianist not a vocalist” box. When you’re young and stupid you don’t realize you can be many things and your life can have many facets.
The fact that I took piano lessons for 16 years of my life and didn’t want to be only thought of as a pianist still boggles me. So when I began teaching I started to reclaim that part of myself. I started playing at weddings.
Sometimes I got to play at weddings with really awesome choir director friends I had started to make.
I mentioned that I am a big introvert. Well, I have learned one introvert life hack. The benefits of being a “choir person” and an introvert is that you are generally surrounded by extroverts. “Choir people” also tend to be loving and compassionate people. Every now and then, at least in my experience, one of these wonderful extroverts will notice the quiet reserved person who is there on the periphery, but not in the midst of things. The extrovert befriends the introvert and invites them to sit with them at a meal time or goes out of their way to bring them into the conversation. Then the introvert can, for short bursts of time, pretend to be extroverted!
This has quite literally been my greatest fortune for so much of my life. As a teenager, as a college student, as an adult. I have been blessed with many extroverts in my life who make my life a little more exciting and joyous.
One of these blessings is Rachael. We met during my first year teaching and then regularly saw each other at honor choirs, conventions, and we even have had the fortune of doing a few weddings together. She is a phenomenal musician, choir director, and possesses one of my favorite singing voices (I am also a soprano who dreams of the deeply rich and luscious tone of altos and basses).
On the exact day I announced my life change of opening a studio on Facebook for the world to know, she called me. As any introvert knows, phone calls are discouraged, text messages preferred, but I will answer Rachael’s calls because the conversation never feels awkward. Naturally, I missed her call, but her voicemail was intriguing because she needed to ask me something! My curiosity peaked, I immediately called her back.
Little did I know, she was about to make one of my only bucket list dreams come true. She had been asked to direct the ⅞ Treble Opus, but it was still a secret and she wanted to know if I would accompany her.
No hesitation. Instant yes. Of course I did!!
A little later I’m getting an email with a spreadsheet to look at her set. Falling in love with the repertoire, itching to get some music and start practicing. It took longer than we wanted to get the setlist finalized, but once I finally got the music in the summer I was in heaven.
I then spent the next few months practicing, perfecting, and highly anticipating this day.
And now it is over. As I write this I am sitting here in my hotel room after this glorious day and all I can think about is how wonderful it was and how quickly it came and went. I turned my phone on do not disturb before rehearsal even began so I could just be fully present. I missed a ton of notifications (some of which could have been considered important—like the birth of my niece!), but I don’t know the last time I was so completely distraction free and fully present.
It was truly magnificent. I really don’t have any of the right words to adequately describe everything. Rehearsals went so smoothly. The singers were just phenomenal. All of my practicing was well worth it because my playing also felt so good, solid, effortless. And most importantly, it was SO. MUCH. FUN. Working with extraordinary musicians, especially young ones with so much potential and energy, is just…well there is nothing better.
Bucket list item, check.
Day couldn’t have been better, check.
I couldn’t imagine the day with any other group of people.
It truly was a dream come true and this introvert is so incredibly blessed and grateful for this experience and for special extroverted friends like Rachael. There are so many more like her in my life that I’ve been blessed with. This is not only my love letter to Rachael and ICDA for giving me this experience, but a love letter to all my extrovert friends who have come in and out of my life over my 36 years. My life is crazier and more full because of each and every one of them. I feel the fullness of life after being with them. And then I need significant alone time to recover. But it’s always worth it!
