The Professional Choral Institute: Day 9

Monday, May 30
Memorial Day!
We didn't start rehearsals until 1. In the words of Misty Bermudez, “You tell a Seraphic Fire member that they have to sing before noon and I guarantee you that they will rebel.” So we started at 1. We arrived and we were seated AMONG THE SERAPHIC FIRE SINGERS! AAAAAH! It was terrifying to sit with them.
I sat by Emily Marvosh. May I just say, I knew that Seraphic Fire sounded stupendous...but then we sat WITH them and I could hear people’s voice individually. Emily has the most incredible voice. I was feeling pretty confident about singing and being in the choir and then I heard HER singing. Yeah, my voice just shut off. I couldn’t sing next to her. I was embarrassed for her to hear me. But I finally got up enough courage to sing a little. I was holding WAY back. She was very kind. She gave me some nice tips and things. One of the tips that she had to give me was to sing with more core. CORE. ME. Since when have I ever lacked core when singing ALTO? Oh my gosh, it was so silly. That just goes to show how truly scared I was to sing by her! She helped me so much in those few hours of rehearsal. She helped me with my diction, helped me with some placement, helped me sing with more breath support. We rehearsed for six hours as usual with a break in between. So we finished rehearsal at 9.
In between the rehearsals, Taliah and I went to Mel’s Hot Dogs with some of the USF kids. It was a completely classic place. Loved it. Apparently Dr. Bass worked there at some point. So there was a picture of him on the wall. It was vastly entertaining. Have I mentioned that Dr. Bass is the man? He is an INCREDIBLE conductor. He knows exactly how to pull the best sounds out of us as a choir. He has a remarkable ear. I don't know how he does it, but he does it every day.
He loves the Requiem even more than me. How is that possible? Thank you for the music, Brahms. It’s beautiful.