Summer Sings

Every summer, Eastman holds a number of summer sings - they invite everyone who wants to, to come to Kilbourn Hall and read through a pre-announced substantial choral work. If there are solo parts, they have guest soloists, and there are phenomenal pianists who play both the part of the orchestra and read from the open score all the vocal parts simultaneously. You can either rent a score from their ensemble library, bring your own, or purchase a new one from the bookstore rep (which can make staying together a challenge when everyone has different editions with different pagination and mensuration). Its a lot of fun and you get to sing a piece you may not know or have the opportunity to do often.

It also gives conducting students a way to try out a piece they are working on, or introduce the community to a piece that will be worked up by the town and gown Eastman Rochester Chorus the coming fall. I drove downtown with high hopes and not a little nervousness since I have not done any sightreading or serious singing for awhile and I was fearful of the state I might find myself in. How much had I lost? I put in a CD and began to sing along, warming up my vocal chords.

Tonight the selection was Bruckner's Mass No. 2 in e minor, a delightful yet challenging little work that, while short, has no solo parts so the choir gets to do a lot of singing. Bill Weinert was conducting, and interspersed our attempts with his wry sense of humor - commenting on Bruckner's habit of jumping from key to key without preparation or warning, encouraging the tenors not to let the basses intimidate them when they had notes close together, telling sopranos to sing louder (e gad). I was delighted to discover that I could do almost everything just fine. In fact, I seem to have improved a bit from the hiatus. Things clicked along pretty well. The few places I missed the first time I got on the second go round.

It was wonderful to be in the vibrant hall with upwards of 200 singers of all status - professional, amateur, tone deaf - we were all there. Before I had realized it, 2 hours had flown by. We had been introduced to the work, tried out the most challenging places, taken a short break, and then sung through the entire work before the clock struck time. It felt good to be singing again, even for a single evening.