In the chamber of singers
I had an errand to run yesterday, and I had a dilemma: How do I plan my attack? I'd normally go to the library, but if I go there, I'll want to work on my camp journal, but I literally have a page and a half left in the current journal. I'll have to go to Barnes & Noble first. But B&N is literally down the block from Wentz, and if I go there, I'm not going to want to go back to the library to write. And I'd need a flat surface in order to do that, so sitting in my car and writing is out of the question. Plus, it wasn't super warm yesterday, and likely a bit breezy, which was not conducive to my plans either. Sigh. Ultimately, I stayed at work and read my paper, and I didn't leave until 6:30, giving me the added bonus of having my dinner and brushing my teeth, a good thing given that lunch was tuna salad and dinner was chicken salad, each part of these Bumble Bee kits with crackers and a little spoon.
There's a nearby park where I, well, like to park if I'm going to Wentz. I don't care for the parking deck between it and B&N, and the bigger parking deck, I'd rather not walk there alone in the dark if possible, plus it's a number of blocks away. This way, I could run my errand, take my bag back to the car, then head to the concert. I was disappointed by the journal selection at B&N. You know me; I'm picky. I've been using a particular style of journal for many years and apparently it's either no longer made or no longer carried, at least at this particular B&N. I like the kind that are lay-flat and have an elastic to keep the book closed, and the dimensions are roughly 6"x8", meaning it fits in my Caboodles, which I've also been bringing to camp for a few decades. I was able to find a couple that fit the bill, though they were more expensive than I thought--one was $20! But it's nice and they had a few of that style in different colors. This could potentially be a good Christmas-type gift idea to give people, actually; either that, or maybe look online. But I like being able to see inside the journals because I like to have a lot of lines per page. Anyway. I took a while looking at the different styles they had; I went with a plain black one (the $20 one) and a pretty one with watercolor flowers on the cover plus gold edging on the pages ($12). By then it was about 7 PM and I panicked a little about the timing, unsure how long it would take me to get back to my car. I shouldn't have worried; I was back about 7:05, heh. And then I realized, okay, I can't leave just yet, because it's about the same distance to Wentz, and there's no sense getting there 20 minutes early. I found a bench to sit on at the park, made a few notes on the previous night's band concert program (five clarinet players had been omitted somehow, for instance), and then walked over.
My timing was serendipitous, actually. As I was walking through the bookstore parking lot, which then morphs into the Wentz parking lot, I spotted a familiar car...and in short order spotted its driver. I called out, Dr. K! And he looked over and said hi, and of course was like, what are you doing here? I told him I was attending the Chamber Singers concert, and he was like, ...why? Because my cousin's daughter is in it, and she's a senior, so if I want to see her perform I'd better do it now. He replied, touché! Heh. It was super random to run into him, especially since he looked like he was taking out the garbage or something, to be perfectly honest with you. He was down in the dock area when I called out to him, carrying a few things, and had to come up a set of stairs to say hello. We talked for a few minutes before he said he was going to grab dinner, and said we'd have to get together after his concert next month. I've already told him I can't make the concert itself--it's a Monday night, the week before Memorial Day, so I don't feel comfortable missing that rehearsal--but I could be available afterward. On to the concert.
I already had my ticket, and I didn't see my cousin at all, so I went to the bathroom first. Serendipity struck again when, just as I came out of the washroom and rounded the corner, there were my cousin, my aunt, and SJ getting their ticket stubs torn off to walk in the concert hall. Well, look at that. So we all walked in together, and my cousin said that T told her to sit to the side, so we ended up three rows back from the stage (WAAAY closer than I'm used to sitting). My cousin said she had to make a phone call, I'm guessing to check on the two kids left at home, and my aunt started telling me about her cataract surgery while SJ played on her phone. Good times. When my cousin returned a few minutes later, my aunt had segued into her Lasik surgery, but my cousin actually said, is she boring you, totally interrupted her mom, and then went on to tell me her own stories. Nice. Oh goodness.
The only time I've seen the Chamber Singers is during Homecoming, so it was nice to see a full concert by them. They've only been around since Wentz opened, which I didn't realize; that means the group is about a decade old. There had been a madrigal group my freshman year of college but it never happened again, and as I didn't join choir until sophomore year, I didn't have the chance to be in such a thing. I'd like to think I'd have been good enough to get in--being a low alto helps--and I definitely would have at least auditioned. This isn't a madrigal group per se, though they did a couple madrigal songs; they do works for smaller choirs, and it's an audition-only, select group. T has been in it for two years.
The concert was broken up into sections. There was a one-song prologue, a religious grouping, songs based on months (the madrigals, where the group split into two smaller groups and performed one song each), songs from other parts of the world, songs which celebrated life, and the "Joy and Hope" ending section. Each grouping held two songs, culled from what they'd performed throughout the year. For a number of them, we were able to see T pretty well from our vantage point, and I could hear her at times as well, which was pretty cool. She does have a nice voice. For one of the songs, which came from Haiti, the group had grabbed a number of chairs and stools, and one of the guys was sitting on this odd box. It ended up being some sort of percussion chair. I recognized the player as someone I'd seen playing with the band, including Wednesday night--he looks like another mallet percussionist I know, so it was nice to finally learn his name. The next song they did included water glasses; T was one of the players. Very cool! Supposedly she even had a solo at one point, except for this song they all sat on the floor, and one of the guys completely blocked my view of her. Her mom actually moved over a chair or two to see her. It was an interesting effect, and we were told the glasses were written into the score; they didn't just up and add them in themselves. Also, the director thanked the two people in charge of the water glasses, because it was apparently a Very Big Deal. The glasses themselves have to have the right pitch, and match with themselves, and then you have to have just the right amount of water in them, and the glasses have to be *very* clean, and it was quite the undertaking. When I asked T about it afterward, she said it was harder than it looked, because you had to press the rim of the glass with a particular amount of force to create the sound. I could see the guy next to her dipping his finger into the glass to moisten his fingertip before running it around the lip of the glass to create the pitch. It gave the song an eerie quality but I liked it. The last two songs they perform, one is the legacy song that I've heard at Homecoming (and can potentially sing along to it--I have the music care of the Homecoming concert several years ago), and the other is a folk song they started singing a few years ago that they really like. They stood in a circle holding hands, facing into each other for that one.
You could tell who some of the seniors were when they finished; a few people were wiping away tears, realizing this was their final performance together with this group. I'd had that realization myself while walking there, immediately before spotting Dr. K's car. Just...wow, T's a senior already! This is it! Holy cow. Her mom was all, I'm not going to see you perform anymore! Then she thought T should join a community choir, so I mentioned that my college choir director leads the Naperville Chorus, so that's an idea. The group posed for pictures afterward, including for their director; I got a picture of her acting as the paparazzi, which was cute. Then came a ton of hugs; this is clearly a very close-knit group. I swear T hugged every last person, and was the very last of the huggers left onstage. We were told there was a dessert reception afterward, which briefly excited me, but I'm still mostly off the sweets from Lent and ended up not taking anything. My poor cousin... So SJ grabbed three of the same thing, thinking they were little cheesecakes; they were not, and whatever they were, she didn't like. So my cousin got those. My cousin had grabbed a plateful of stuff, thinking her mom was in the bathroom; my aunt was actually right behind her in line, getting her own treats. So now my cousin has, like, her own smorgasbord of goodies and she's not looking to eat all of it, *AND* they were going to McDonald's for ice cream anyway. I think my aunt ended up with the plate somehow, with her plate over top of it, and they took the treats home.
T came over with a friend of hers, and they didn't eat much because they wanted to go out for ice cream. T then went, mom, do I have a fever? My cousin walked over, touched her forehead, and said, 100.3. Whoa. Well, I guess when you've had five kids, you gain that ability. And she said she's done that for, like, people at her church, too. Well, I think I just learned her superpower! Heh. T kept trying to get away and eventually did, saying the ice cream would get her through the night, helping to cool her down. She was taking her piano proficiency exam (she said she can't student teach if she doesn't pass it...so good luck to her!) and had other things going on, plus a retreat this weekend, so she basically wouldn't see the family the rest of the weekend. It was lovely to see her, and I'm sure she was glad to have another family member in the audience. I'll be there for her choir concert, too--luckily it's on a Tuesday, the night after the band concert. Not long after she and her friend left, out came the water. There'd been a label for it on the dessert table, but no dispenser. The director (Mona) was still there and said there'd been a mix-up with the timing, but let me tell you, basically everyone left in the lobby (just a handful of people by then) rushed over for the water. It was cool and refreshing. We left right after that. It was really nice to see at least some of my family members, especially since my goddaughter didn't have a birthday party this year. I found out she's now a manager at the store where she and her husband work...except, since she's only 20, she's not old enough to sign for packages. Who knew. I'll have to shoot her an email to say hello and congratulations.
There's a nearby park where I, well, like to park if I'm going to Wentz. I don't care for the parking deck between it and B&N, and the bigger parking deck, I'd rather not walk there alone in the dark if possible, plus it's a number of blocks away. This way, I could run my errand, take my bag back to the car, then head to the concert. I was disappointed by the journal selection at B&N. You know me; I'm picky. I've been using a particular style of journal for many years and apparently it's either no longer made or no longer carried, at least at this particular B&N. I like the kind that are lay-flat and have an elastic to keep the book closed, and the dimensions are roughly 6"x8", meaning it fits in my Caboodles, which I've also been bringing to camp for a few decades. I was able to find a couple that fit the bill, though they were more expensive than I thought--one was $20! But it's nice and they had a few of that style in different colors. This could potentially be a good Christmas-type gift idea to give people, actually; either that, or maybe look online. But I like being able to see inside the journals because I like to have a lot of lines per page. Anyway. I took a while looking at the different styles they had; I went with a plain black one (the $20 one) and a pretty one with watercolor flowers on the cover plus gold edging on the pages ($12). By then it was about 7 PM and I panicked a little about the timing, unsure how long it would take me to get back to my car. I shouldn't have worried; I was back about 7:05, heh. And then I realized, okay, I can't leave just yet, because it's about the same distance to Wentz, and there's no sense getting there 20 minutes early. I found a bench to sit on at the park, made a few notes on the previous night's band concert program (five clarinet players had been omitted somehow, for instance), and then walked over.
My timing was serendipitous, actually. As I was walking through the bookstore parking lot, which then morphs into the Wentz parking lot, I spotted a familiar car...and in short order spotted its driver. I called out, Dr. K! And he looked over and said hi, and of course was like, what are you doing here? I told him I was attending the Chamber Singers concert, and he was like, ...why? Because my cousin's daughter is in it, and she's a senior, so if I want to see her perform I'd better do it now. He replied, touché! Heh. It was super random to run into him, especially since he looked like he was taking out the garbage or something, to be perfectly honest with you. He was down in the dock area when I called out to him, carrying a few things, and had to come up a set of stairs to say hello. We talked for a few minutes before he said he was going to grab dinner, and said we'd have to get together after his concert next month. I've already told him I can't make the concert itself--it's a Monday night, the week before Memorial Day, so I don't feel comfortable missing that rehearsal--but I could be available afterward. On to the concert.
I already had my ticket, and I didn't see my cousin at all, so I went to the bathroom first. Serendipity struck again when, just as I came out of the washroom and rounded the corner, there were my cousin, my aunt, and SJ getting their ticket stubs torn off to walk in the concert hall. Well, look at that. So we all walked in together, and my cousin said that T told her to sit to the side, so we ended up three rows back from the stage (WAAAY closer than I'm used to sitting). My cousin said she had to make a phone call, I'm guessing to check on the two kids left at home, and my aunt started telling me about her cataract surgery while SJ played on her phone. Good times. When my cousin returned a few minutes later, my aunt had segued into her Lasik surgery, but my cousin actually said, is she boring you, totally interrupted her mom, and then went on to tell me her own stories. Nice. Oh goodness.
The only time I've seen the Chamber Singers is during Homecoming, so it was nice to see a full concert by them. They've only been around since Wentz opened, which I didn't realize; that means the group is about a decade old. There had been a madrigal group my freshman year of college but it never happened again, and as I didn't join choir until sophomore year, I didn't have the chance to be in such a thing. I'd like to think I'd have been good enough to get in--being a low alto helps--and I definitely would have at least auditioned. This isn't a madrigal group per se, though they did a couple madrigal songs; they do works for smaller choirs, and it's an audition-only, select group. T has been in it for two years.
The concert was broken up into sections. There was a one-song prologue, a religious grouping, songs based on months (the madrigals, where the group split into two smaller groups and performed one song each), songs from other parts of the world, songs which celebrated life, and the "Joy and Hope" ending section. Each grouping held two songs, culled from what they'd performed throughout the year. For a number of them, we were able to see T pretty well from our vantage point, and I could hear her at times as well, which was pretty cool. She does have a nice voice. For one of the songs, which came from Haiti, the group had grabbed a number of chairs and stools, and one of the guys was sitting on this odd box. It ended up being some sort of percussion chair. I recognized the player as someone I'd seen playing with the band, including Wednesday night--he looks like another mallet percussionist I know, so it was nice to finally learn his name. The next song they did included water glasses; T was one of the players. Very cool! Supposedly she even had a solo at one point, except for this song they all sat on the floor, and one of the guys completely blocked my view of her. Her mom actually moved over a chair or two to see her. It was an interesting effect, and we were told the glasses were written into the score; they didn't just up and add them in themselves. Also, the director thanked the two people in charge of the water glasses, because it was apparently a Very Big Deal. The glasses themselves have to have the right pitch, and match with themselves, and then you have to have just the right amount of water in them, and the glasses have to be *very* clean, and it was quite the undertaking. When I asked T about it afterward, she said it was harder than it looked, because you had to press the rim of the glass with a particular amount of force to create the sound. I could see the guy next to her dipping his finger into the glass to moisten his fingertip before running it around the lip of the glass to create the pitch. It gave the song an eerie quality but I liked it. The last two songs they perform, one is the legacy song that I've heard at Homecoming (and can potentially sing along to it--I have the music care of the Homecoming concert several years ago), and the other is a folk song they started singing a few years ago that they really like. They stood in a circle holding hands, facing into each other for that one.
You could tell who some of the seniors were when they finished; a few people were wiping away tears, realizing this was their final performance together with this group. I'd had that realization myself while walking there, immediately before spotting Dr. K's car. Just...wow, T's a senior already! This is it! Holy cow. Her mom was all, I'm not going to see you perform anymore! Then she thought T should join a community choir, so I mentioned that my college choir director leads the Naperville Chorus, so that's an idea. The group posed for pictures afterward, including for their director; I got a picture of her acting as the paparazzi, which was cute. Then came a ton of hugs; this is clearly a very close-knit group. I swear T hugged every last person, and was the very last of the huggers left onstage. We were told there was a dessert reception afterward, which briefly excited me, but I'm still mostly off the sweets from Lent and ended up not taking anything. My poor cousin... So SJ grabbed three of the same thing, thinking they were little cheesecakes; they were not, and whatever they were, she didn't like. So my cousin got those. My cousin had grabbed a plateful of stuff, thinking her mom was in the bathroom; my aunt was actually right behind her in line, getting her own treats. So now my cousin has, like, her own smorgasbord of goodies and she's not looking to eat all of it, *AND* they were going to McDonald's for ice cream anyway. I think my aunt ended up with the plate somehow, with her plate over top of it, and they took the treats home.
T came over with a friend of hers, and they didn't eat much because they wanted to go out for ice cream. T then went, mom, do I have a fever? My cousin walked over, touched her forehead, and said, 100.3. Whoa. Well, I guess when you've had five kids, you gain that ability. And she said she's done that for, like, people at her church, too. Well, I think I just learned her superpower! Heh. T kept trying to get away and eventually did, saying the ice cream would get her through the night, helping to cool her down. She was taking her piano proficiency exam (she said she can't student teach if she doesn't pass it...so good luck to her!) and had other things going on, plus a retreat this weekend, so she basically wouldn't see the family the rest of the weekend. It was lovely to see her, and I'm sure she was glad to have another family member in the audience. I'll be there for her choir concert, too--luckily it's on a Tuesday, the night after the band concert. Not long after she and her friend left, out came the water. There'd been a label for it on the dessert table, but no dispenser. The director (Mona) was still there and said there'd been a mix-up with the timing, but let me tell you, basically everyone left in the lobby (just a handful of people by then) rushed over for the water. It was cool and refreshing. We left right after that. It was really nice to see at least some of my family members, especially since my goddaughter didn't have a birthday party this year. I found out she's now a manager at the store where she and her husband work...except, since she's only 20, she's not old enough to sign for packages. Who knew. I'll have to shoot her an email to say hello and congratulations.