The Professional Choral Institute: Day 7

Saturday, May 28
We had a free day today! Everyone had plans to go out and explore Florida. A bunch of us all planned to head down to St. Petersburg to have some fun for the day. We wanted to see more of Florida and some more of the area. So Liz Anderson and Alex Solomon (both are USF students) drove us down where we met up with Brett Bailey, David Evans, Sarah Quick, and Shayna Isaacson.
It was absolutely beautiful. The city is right on the water and so there were sailboats everywhere and all of these neat little shops around. We walked on the pier and took some pictures and fun things.

Then we met up with some other kids and went to the Chihuly exhibit. It was absolutely incredible. I love it. The blown glass was incredible and it was so fun to walk around and see all of it. I have a new obsession with Chihuly glass. If I were supremely rich, my whole ceiling would be a Chihuly glass display. Just sayin'.

After we went to the exhibit we went to a hot shop and watched a local artist blow glass. Then we walked around some of the cute streets and we took the trolley around. We got gelato and then we drove to Alex's dad's house. His Dad lives in a penthouse apartment RIGHT on the water. On a little island actually called Treasure Island. So Jealous.
Taliah had only been to the beach once. So we ran out so that she could touch the water.

Then we went back to Tampa and most of the PCI people went out to a place called The Lodge. They served all of these different kinds of food. Things that don't usually go on a menu together. Sushi, burgers, salads, stir fry, cajun......it was SO weird. But the food was so good. I am now addicted to sweet potato fries.
I love this place. I love that we are all singing together and making this music together. It's an amazing thing.

The Professional Choral Institute: Day 6

So I couldn't do the first five days all individually, but now I am going to try to write about what happened each day. So much is happening, there's no way I could fit it all in with one post!

Friday, May 27
We had three hours of rehearsal from 10-1. It was GREAT, so productive, and the piece grew SO much! I feel like we all really connected with each other today. We really found that place where all of our voices fit together. AWESOME.
We had a two hour break in between the three hours rehearsal for lunch. Taliah and I went with a bunch of the kids from USF to a Vietnamese place for lunch. It was SO good. I had never had Vietnamese food before. They just kind of give you this big bowl of...stuff. It had little noodles, lettuce, bean sprouts, pieces of egg roll, curried chicken, eel sauce, fish sauce and...just...stuff. It was so good. It was so fun to hang out with the kids from USF. We got to hear a lot more about their school and their professors and what they liked to do for fun.
We went back to another 3 hour rehearsal from 3-6. We had a sectional and talked through some stuff with Misty, we got together as a group. Another good rehearsal. I will never tire of rehearsing this piece. Because I could just sing it over and over and over again.
Misty, by the way, is our Seraphic Fire section leader. She is awesome. She has this HUGE voice. Wow. If I can sing half as well as Misty when I grow up, I will be happy.
We got out of rehearsal a little early because we had a Liederabend tonight.
The Liederabend is this thing where we all kind of performed for each other. It was like a Student Recital type thing but with all of the PCI singers. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
So a bunch of us prepared some things to sing. Taliah and I both prepared something and we didn't even chicken out. We had many opportunities to change our minds and back out...but we were determined. We said to ourselves, "If we can sing in this....then we can do anything."
So we went home and got ready (dressed up, did our hair, and other girly things). We went back and warmed up and tried to settle our nerves. Everyone did really well. You could tell that all of our voices were tired but it didn't detract from how well everyone did. It was really neat to hear everyone--it just made me like everyone even more! Everyone was really supportive of each other. I received some of the best compliments ever which was surprising! It gave me hope for my future.
After it was over we all went to dinner at this German place in celebration. German food is TASTY and we had a lot of fun! Everyone was on this high from the day and from the Liederabend. Then Steve Cox came over to our table and invited us to his apartment afterward to hang out.
So after we got back, Taliah, Brett Bailey, David Evans, and I walked across the hall and hung out with Stephanie Beinlich, Tyler Schoen, Molly Young, Kyle Stevens, Adam Devries, and Steve Cox. We talked and played some games and it was a lot of fun. We were all hyped up on the day and so there was a lot of laughing and joking and fun.
Then Taliah and I left and came home and went to bed.
What a sucessful and fun day. I love this place.

The Professional Choral Institute: Days 1-5

Here I am! YAHOO!

I have been here for 5 days already. 5. How is that even possible? I arrived by plane to Tampa, Florida on Sunday evening and now it's Thursday. It's already been 5 days.
The days have flown by so quickly and I have already learned so much about being a person and being a singer. But even more than that, I am learning what it's like to truly be a musician.

There are 28 people in the choir. 28. That's it. Most of them are graduate students. They have come from everywhere. Illinois, Washington, California, Michigan, Maryland, Florida, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Utah, and New York. They have all come and payed a great deal of money to have THIS experience. To be in THIS choir.
Here is me--little Geneil from Southern Utah University who looks pretty suck-tastic next to all of these hot shots. But I am slowly learning that it's okay that I am not one of the hot shots. I am really learning. I'm not taking this experience for granted. Not one bit.
I have learned:
--Some musicians think they know more than they actually do. Yeah. For real. I am guilty of this, too. I've gotta stop that. It's irritating.
--Be nice all of the time. Not just sometimes. All of the time.
--Don't try to compete with the other singers around you. It's pointless. And nobody wins.
--Be supportive. I don't care if you HATE that tenor that sings out of tune all of the time....be nice to him and support him in what he's trying to do. No one likes a jerk.
--Fugues are HARD.
--Getting enough sleep really does help your singing voice.
--Nobody wants to listen to the complainer.
--You can learn something from everyone. You can be the best musician that there is....and you could learn something from that kid in the back row who started taking voice lessons four months ago.
--You will probably see the people you sing with again. You never know.
--All of the little details matter. Where each "t" goes, how each vowel sounds, taking quiet breaths, phrasing...it all matters.

I have learned so much more than that. But it's already a long post.
More to come, friends.
I love Florida. I love singing. I love music. Gosh, I love this.

The end.

The end.
Junior year is over.
I took all of my finals.
I sang a recital.
I went to NATS.
I worked.
I directed opera scenes, performed in opera scenes, and performed in two other shows.
I went to class (most of the time).
I played.
I practiced. A LOT.
I slept (such a difference compared to last year).
I ate (also such a difference compared to last year).
I lived. Bam.
A bittersweet ending. I only have one year left. One year. And then what? Grad School? I don't know. Who knows anything.
A well deserved break, Perkins.
Next year is going to be so different. People are leaving, people are coming back, new people are coming in....Wow.
Bring it on, Summer.

Me and Shaye in The Mikado:

Me and my friends in Vegas on Opus tour:

Me and my friend TaraKay after my recital:

FLORIDA!

That's right! I am going to Florida!
My voice teacher told me about this opportunity in Florida-- the Professional Choral Institute that was going to happen for two weeks in the summer. It was being based at the University of South Florida and it was with Seraphic Fire--a highly esteemed professional choir.
So I went ahead and applied for it.....and I GOT ACCEPTED!!
Yeah. Buddy. Oh, and so did my friend Taliah Johnson! It is going to be so fun!
The most exciting part of PCI is that we will work with Seraphic Fire to record Johannes Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem. Seraphic Fire Media will release the new disc in August 2011 which makes the recording eligible for the 2012 GRAMMY awards! This is pretty exciting, considering Seraphic Fire’s last partnership with the Western Michigan University Chorale yielded an album entitled Monteverdi’s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin 1610 that rose to No. 1 on the iTunes Classical chart!
Isn't that the most amazing thing ever?! I couldn't be more excited!
I am worried about finding the funding to go....but I am totally going to make this work. Somehow. Some way. This will work.

It's official!

I passed my preview! My recital is ON!
The preview actually went really well, which is good. I didn't mess up any of the words I was expecting to mess up! But then I did mess up the words at the end of one of my songs that I know really well. Random. But I kept going. BA HA.
So now I am starting to design cards and things. This is my favorite so far. So what do you think?

Junior Recital Drama

The beginning of it...
Spring Semester of 2010--
So I was planning out how my recital was going to play out. It is custom that you perform your junior recital with someone else who is doing a half hour recital.
So I tried to figure out who else was giving a half recital. Then I realized....Shaye Leavitt, one of my very best friends was going to be giving a half recital. Naturally, we jumped all over that!
So I brought up the idea to my voice teacher. She thought that maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to do our recitals together because my voice is dark and big and Shaye's is light and pretty. So that makes sense. But there was no one else that I wanted to do my recital with. Eventually I just begged. She finally said that that would be okay. So we were going to be able to perform our recitals together! Yay!
Fall Semester of 2010--
Shaye and I were still excited to do our recitals together and we got cast in an opera scene where we sang this REALLY fun duet. Our voices were just fine together--no one pushed or held back (I don't think).
In September we picked a date for our recital. We had taken Shaye's allergies into consideration because they tend to get really bad around April. So we chose April 7th because we wanted to make sure that we had it early in April so that we could avoid Shaye's allergy problems. We told all of the voice faculty and our accompanist. They were all fine with that and some of them even praised us for being so on top of things.
Spring 2011--
We came back from Christmas all geared up and ready to go. I just got gotten my rep for the recital and I had two and a half months to memorize 13 songs and prepare for our preview. The preview has to be scheduled 3 weeks before the recital and three weeks happened to fall on spring break. So we were going to have to do it a whole month early.
I was nervous about that, so I talked to Professor Modesitt and asked her special permission to do it the week after. She gave us permission and so we scheduled our preview for the Monday following spring break.
We both worked our tails off all semester to try to get ready for this preview.
Sometime in January, Professor Modesitt (Shaye's voice teacher) had to have emergency surgery and she was out for a very long time. So she left Shaye without a teacher and Shaye has been fending for herself for most of the semester. But she is a trooper, and she kept faithfully practicing and preparing her rep.
Then my voice teacher found out that Opus tour was the weekend before our recital and she...thought that it would be a really bad idea to go on tour and then try to perform a recital a couple of days after. So she told me that I would either have to reschedule my recital date or we wouldn't be allowed to go on Opus tour.
The problem with rescheduling was that Shaye's Dad is a Fireman. Therefore, his schedule is unlike other people's work schedules.
We eventually were able to push the recital back a week. So now our recital was April 14th and we rescheduled our preview for the Thursday following spring break.
And now the final result--
Shaye has had about 4 lessons this semester. She was so stressed out and she was working so hard all by herself, but she was so worried about being truly ready because she hasn't had a teacher.
And then my voice teacher recommended that Shaye do her recital in Fall of 2011.
Shaye thought about it and took her up on the offer--So now Shaye is doing her recital in the Fall.
And I am doing my recital. Alone.
And my preview is tomorrow.
Pray for me.