The scene you see in the photo probably looks entirely ordinary to the rest of you, but to me it’s an incredibly beautiful sight – because the guy in the the black and white plaid shirt is Nick Huff, the Carthage student who has been hospitalized and away from school for the last two weeks. Today was his first day back to school, and I’m not sure who was more thrilled about it- him or the rest of us who have missed him so much. Maybe we should just call it a tie. I just know that it is tremendous to have him back, and I could not be happier for Nick and his family- or more impressed with the courage, resolve and grace which they demonstrated through the course of what at times was a very frightening ordeal.
Nick’s absence has been four-fold for me. First and foremost has been the 45 minutes every Wednesday afternoon that was supposed to be his voice lesson; I suppose the one silver lining was the few minutes of extra free time these two missed lessons yielded me, but I would have given just about anything to be able to give that free time back and have Nick in my studio, singing his heart out with that uniquely beautiful voice of his. I’ve also missed his voice and exceptional musicianship in the Lincoln Chamber Singers- and so has everyone else. It’s one thing to lose an important voice in the group as big as the Carthage Choir- but to lose such a voice from the 16-voice chamber singers is a completely different matter. That’s like the Von Trapp Family Singers losing Friedrich! (sort of.) Then there’s the opera section of music theater workshop, which this semester is devoted to the works of Gilbert & Sullivan. Matt Boresi and I have tried to put together a smashing lineup of pieces … actually, Matt’s term for it is Kick-*** …. but having Nick out of the mix for the last two weeks has been difficult, and the prospect of possibly not getting him back in time for the concert was downright frightening. It would have meant restructuring the concert and re-blocking several pieces to account for his absence… but worst of all, it would have meant knowing that Nick was missing out on something he was so incredibly excited about.
But interestingly enough, I have maybe missed Nick most – or noticed his absence the most – in Vocal Diction & Literature class. This is a course I teach every other year in which we explore the vocal literature of Italy, Germany, France, Britain and the U.S. – as well as the essential rules for proper pronunciation of those languages. I’ve been blessed the last couple times I’ve taught the course to have exceptionally strong students- and this particular class is as strong and as fun any I’ve ever had. But in a group of 8 students, you acutely notice when one of those students is gone for an extended period of time. (That really IS like the von Trapp Singers losing Friedrich.) Over and over and over again, as we’ve listened together to a particularly wonderful song- or been caught up in a lively discussion – I couldn’t help but think “Nick would LOVE this” or “I’d love to hear what Nick would have to say about this.” That’s why it was so fun to meet with him for a catch up session last night – and why it was nothing less than thrilling today to see him back with his classmates as we finished up the amazing songs of Schubert and moved on to the equally amazing songs of Schumann, with still more exciting things to follow- with all hands on deck, as it should be.
It’s certainly no fun to feel like the world we once knew and understood has been turned upside down, but that’s exactly what happens when the normal course of things is so drastically disturbed – and Nick’s hospitalization is by no means the first time I’ve experienced this in my time at Carthage. Another instance that still haunts a lot of us at the school is when there was an outbreak of MRSA which affected some of the healthiest athletes on campus, including a great young man who was in one of my classes at the time. I still can’t quite wrap my head around the reality that a starter on the football team, in every other way a paragon of vibrant good health, could be laid low by this vicious little virus. It was absolutely crazy. But it also provided a lot of his classmates and teammates with a jarring dose of perspective on all that they- indeed all of us- tend to take completely for granted. It’s the easiest thing in the world to view that which we do every day as a grind, a chore, our cross to bear . . . choose your term. But when you see a classmate/friend/peer/teammate/fellow cast member suddenly taken out of commission by something so capricious, so unexpected – and when you know that they would give anything to be back doing what they were doing – it puts our irritations in their proper perspective. I have a feeling that the football teammates of that young man with MRSA slogged through practice on a rainy, muddy day with their frustration tempered by a newfound appreciation that they were healthy enough to be out there in the first place – and maybe a member of the Carthage Choir who finds singing in solfeggio syllables to be a maddening bore maybe muttered under their breath a little less, newly grateful just to be there, newly appreciative of the tremendous opportunity to be part of a superb college choir . . . knowing that Nick would have given anything in the world to be back on campus, singing and learning and laughing and sharing with his school mates.
And now he is.
pictured above: Vocal Diction & Literature students watch a video of a master class given by one of history’s greatest singers, Lotte Lehmann.