No, this is not a detailed critique of the Packers’ win over the Chicago Bears this afternoon ( a tense, ulcer-aggravating game ) . . .   but rather the story of an amazing, mountaintop experience this past Thursday evening which just happened to occur in the heart of Green Bay, Wisconsin -home of the aforementioned Packers.   This year,  Green Bay was also the home of this years state convention of the Wisconsin Choral Directors Association,  an organization comprised of most of the middle school, high school and college choir directors across the state of Wisconsin.    Along with all of the lectures and workshops are performances by some of the finest ensembles in the state, who earn their place in the spotlight through a rigorous and highly competitive audition process.   I’ve had the great pleasure  of being on the WCDA stage twice in the last fifteen years –  first with Polly’s exceptionally fine top choir from Bullen Junior High and few years later when she took her top choir from Tremper High School.   (That performance was especially for me because she had them sing my “Shepherd’s Gloria.”  A composer couldn’t ask for a more exciting stage on which to present his music – or is the word terrifying? – because the audience consists almost entirely of people thoroughly steeped in choral music. )

I’ve been teaching at Carthage since 1991,  and in those two decades there has not been a single WCDA convention performance by a Carthage choir. . . until now.  This year,  the Carthage Choir earned one of those coveted convention concert slots on the strength of a recorded audition which must have knocked their socks off – and moreover, they were given the grand finale slot in the opening night concert. Leading off the evening would be a superb high school group from Appleton,  followed by the top choir at Viterbo University- and then us.

I think ti’s fair to say that the Carthage Choir could not possibly have been any more prepared than they were for Thursday night.  Conductor Eduardo Garcia-Novelli’a burners are always set on High, but if anything he was even more relentlessly intense over the last couple of weeks.  And the choir responded with a minimal amount of grumbling and a maximum amount of effort;  I think most of them knew perfectly well that they were preparing for a very special sort of performance, worthy of their very best effort.

Adding to the sense of drama was that Maestro Garcia- Novelli decided that their concert opener, “Crows and Clusters,”  by Norman Dello Joio,  would be eveb more effective if it were choreographed, and he brought aboard my Beggar’s Opera collaborator, Matt Boresi, to do the honors.   What he came up with was quite intricate and challenging-  and it took some time to get every member of the choir precisely coordinated with one another-  but having that new challenge seemed to breathe some fresh air into everyone’s collective lungs- and the final result was spectacular.

 

The choir took a bus to Green Bay Thursday afternoon, and for me the highlight of the trip was discovering that there was Wi-Fi on the bus – – – which still boggles my mind! We made wonderful time, so rather than head straight to the church and have to wait around for 90 minutes until it was our turn to rehearse,  we spent a little bit of time at Lambeau Field.   (That was my brilliant idea, by the way, although maybe someone else might have thought of it as well.  But the fact that the suggestion came from a crusty old professor rather than a student might have made a difference.)   Even with that unexpected excursion, we still got to the church with a half hour to spare, which was just enough time to catch our breath, relax, and mentally gather ourselves for the dress rehearsal.

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We could certainly tell from the outside of the building that St. Xavier’s was a beautiful old Catholic cathedral,  but I don’t think any of us were prepared for how jaw-droppingly gorgeous the sanctuary was.  We walked through the side doors and immediately felt as though we had walked into a stunning cathedral in the heart of Europe.  And when we finally began singing,  we marveled at the rich, reverberant acoustics-  which nevertheless weren’t too reverberant, but just enough to to be truly thrilling.   We could hardly wait to perform the concert we worked so hard to perfect.

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As I mentioned, there were actually three choirs on the concert,  and it was evident from the start that this would be an evening of exceptional excellence.  Up first was a superb high school choir from Appleton which performed an abridged version of Ryba’s Christmas Mass,  a piece which is as beloved and familiar in the Czech Republic as Handel’s Messiah is in our country.   I became acquainted with this piece over a decade ago when a local musician of Czech descent, Karel Suchy,  asked if the Carthage Community Chorus (which I was directing at the time)  would consider performing this piece.  It proved to be lots of fun, and it was delightful to hear this music again after all these years.  And these high schoolers sang in Czech – by memory – in costume – to the thrilling accompaniment of the Fox Valley Youth Symphony.   What a way to begin!

Then the top choir from Viterbo University (all the way from La Crosse)  stepped to the front and proceeded to fill that sanctuary with some of the most beautiful choral sounds I have ever heard in my life.  The music they sang was not especially difficult,  but they sang it with gorgeous sound, flawless blend,  and faultless musicality.   And although the men were outnumbered by the women 33 to 12, they offered up the most beautiful singing of the whole night – a men’s piece by Gwyneth Walker – that left me shaking my head in wonder.   And when Viterbo finished,  I realized that the bar had been set incredibly high and Carthage needed to sing really really well or risk being an anti-climactic afterthought. But how would they respond to the fine singing they had just seen and heard?  By getting nervous and tightening up? By trying too hard and oversinging?  (or in Polly’s famous words, going into “auto pilot super blast”)    By getting distracted and making dumb mistakes?  All of the above? The worry wart in me was spinning all sorts of worrisome scenarios.

And then I realized that one of the reasons Eduardo had worked the choir so hard over the past two weeks was exactly for this scenario. . . that they would walk to the front of that sanctuary knowing with absolute certainty that they were ready.   There was no need to hope for the best or wish for good luck.   They were ready.   We all were ready- and I knew that something thrilling was about to happen.

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And boy did it ever!  The choir was on fire from the first notes of “Crows and Clusters” – and they went from strength to strength, singing an incredibly difficult and challenging program and making it sound easy. . . . almost.  And what was especially neat was how all of the hard work of those rehearsals – and the polishing of all those piddly little details – made sheer magic possible.   And when that audience gave us one warm, sustained ovation after another – and an exciting standing ovation at the end,  we knew we had earned it the hard way….. by achieving greatness that we didn’t even know was possible.   (And I couldn’t help but notice that the standing ovation was led by the young men and women of the Viterbo choir that had just sung before us. They were on their feet before anyone else was, which says a lot about them – and about the performance which Carthage had just delivered.)

By the way,  my little mini-drama was that I was playing this concert with a pair of old glasses (long story) in a sanctuary that was not very well lit.  There were times when I felt like I was practically climbing right inside of the scores from which I was playing,  just trying to see those little dots….. and there were a million little dots in some of these pieces….. but again, because we had rehearsed every piece every single day,  I knew them pretty thoroughly and was able to play them pretty well,  half-blind and all.

At the end, standing beside the choir and Maestro Garcia- Novelli as the audience’s vociferous applause washed over us,   I was so proud to have been a small part of this thrilling performance,  and honored beyond words to be a part of the Carthage Choir and this thrilling new chapter in its history.   And as I surveyed the faces of those choir members,  I could tell that to a person they knew that they had been a part of something truly extraordinary.

pictured above:  The Carthage Choir midway through their performance at the WCDA convention in Green Bay.

pictured below:  Dr. Garcia-Novelli has very warm words of praise and thanks to the choir just after everyone has boarded the bus for the trip home.  It was incredibly cold that night, by the way- but we were feeling warm-all-over, thanks to how smashingly well the performance had gone.

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