6:35 a.m. – I spring out of bed, ten full minutes before my alarm was set to go off. There’s no better way to begin a day.
7:55 a.m. – The day’s first adventure. I put our two dogs outside along with Spark, the corgi who belongs to my cousin Kristian, who stayed overnight with us, on his way to the Twin Cities. At that point, I hadn’t yet seen Kris but Spark made his way to the bottom of the stairs all by himself and looked interested in doing his business. Last night, he had showed not the slightest interest in wandering off, so I put him outside without any leash or anything – only to see him take off for our neighbor’s backyard as quickly as his stubby little legs would carry him. Summoning my best Usain Bolt impression, I managed to catch up with him- and fortunately, he allowed me to scoop him up into my arms without protest. (Had he chewed my arm off, today would have ended up being a very different day!)
8:40 a.m. – I bid farewell to cousin Kristian, and wish Kathy a fun time with three of her friends at a Brewers game at Miller Park in Milwaukee. It’s the first time either of us get to see a game there … and what curbs my own envy of her is my absolute certainty that I’m going to have an exciting day of my own!
9:20 a.m. – I have the enormous pleasure of playing the piano accompaniment for violinist Taichi Chen (a friend of a friend) as he played a sublime performance of the Meditation from Massenet’s Thais. . . by memory. You could hear a pin drop – and when it was all over, the congregation erupted in one of the longest, warmest ovations I can ever remember on a “normal” Sunday morning. Amazing! I also got to accompany him as he played the piece at Trinity United Methodist Church.
11:10 a.m. – The last run-through with the Carthage Choir of my piece “Strength.” It was exciting to hear how it progressed from the beginning of the rehearsal the night before through each subsequent sing-thru, with Dr. Garcia- Novelli adding one expressive detail after another, and the choir gaining confidence, precision, and expressiveness, yet somehow not sacrificing the sense of spontaneous fun that is at the heart of the piece. By the time this final run-thru finished up, I couldn’t wait to take it out of the rehearsal room and onto the stage… and that’s SUCH a delicious feeling!
11:58 a.m. – I had to march to the front of Carthage’s arena and perform my first official duty of the ceremony – to welcome the audience to the 2013 New Student Convocation, remind everyone to silence their cell phones and other noise-making devices, and inviting them to remain seated for both the procession and recession of the faculty. Mission accomplished! (Except that I might have said processionAL and recessionAL, which is incorrect, because those terms refer to the music played to accompany a procession and recession. Remind me to check the script.)
12:29 p.m. – My second official duty of the ceremony – to lead the crowd in the singing of John Ylvasaker’s hymn “Borning Cry.” This is something I’ve been doing for New Student Convocation for twenty years now, and it’s still as moving for me as ever – singing about the various phases of life and looking out and seeing a sea of young faces … the faces of our newest freshmen … and beyond them, in the bleachers, their parents, grandparents and other relatives- most of whom are probably trying to keep feelings of deep melancholy and/or uncertainty at bay. I’m sure there’s plenty of people in that room for whom that hymn doesn’t really connect or mean much … but I know for a fact that there are plenty of others for whom it provides both some comfort and some reassurance.
12:46 p.m. – The Carthage Choir sings “Strength” and absolutely rocks the house! (And in my third official duty of the ceremony, I play for them.) And the best part was that it seemed like the audience was really listening to the song- enjoying it- and, I hope, taking in the meaning of the text. The soloists did great: Liz, Neil, Clare, Anna, Bob – and the whole choir sang their hearts out. I couldn’t have been more pleased.
1:18 p.m. – Towards the end of President’s Woodward’s talk about the many and various ways in which we can contemplate the stars and learn about them, he turns his attention to the simple song “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” – and then nearly gives me a heart attack when he calls to me by name and summons me to the piano in order to play Twinkle, Twinkle and then a couple of spontaneous variations on that famous melody – variations of my own choosing. As I seat myself at the piano, I silently give thanks that he’s asked me to play variations on such a simple and familiar melody and not on something like Bach’s little fugue in g minor! Anyway, Twinkle, Twinkle I can handle – and it proved to be more fun than terrifying. And then, towards the very end of his talk, he actually called me back to the piano to play Twinkle, Twinkle one more time- this time in pretty, soothing fashion – as he read the final sentences of his talk. I think the point he was making there is that sometimes it’s the addition of music (or other arts) into the mix that can make a gigantic difference in how powerfully something penetrates our being.
1:36 p.m. – After the benediction and faculty recession and most of the audience has exited the arena, my faculty colleague and fellow Luther alum Jim Ripley walks up to me with a guy who looked familiar – but it took me a second or two to recognize him: Monte Dunnum, who was two years behind me at Luther; we sang together one year in Nordic. He was here because his son Brian is one of our new freshmen! I’m sure Monte and I have not exchanged a word or seen each other since I graduated from Luther 31 years ago, so it was one of those especially delicious surprises.
2:25 p.m. – After partaking of the world famous Opening Picnic Lunch on the grounds of the president’s house, I seat myself at the grand piano in the Recital Hall and begin what becomes a two-hour rehearsal for my recital. And after all the excitement and craziness of the day, it’s bliss to shut out the rest of the world and just sing to myself. I sang thru all of my “classical” pieces and also worked on a new song of mine which I’ll perform for the very first time at the recital. It’s supposed to be a funny song, and I realize today how weird it is to sing something amusing (or at least mildly so) in an empty room, and thus not get back so much as a single chuckle. I can only hope that there will be a few people there…. and that they will laugh. Time will tell.
4:40 p.m. – With Kathy not yet home from the game, I elect to spend a little time in my Carthage studio, reshelving CDs, DVDs and videotapes. It’s not the most acute mess in my office but on this exceptionally fun day, I can’t bring myself to tackle any of the yucky jobs. On a day like this, even cleaning has to be fun … which is why I did it while Broadway favorites from the Ed Sullivan played in the background. Thank you, Ethel Merman, John Raitt, Julie Andrews, Richard Kiley, Pearl Bailey and others for making the time fly by!
5:50 p.m. – On my way home, I swing thru a Taco Bell drive-thru on the north side of Kenosha, just to grab a little snack. Evidently, the manager of that particular Taco Bell has instructed his employees to ratchet up the friendliness, because most of the time as you’re waiting at the window for your order, they will ask you mildly intrusive questions. “So how are you doing, sir?” “I’m fine, thank you.” “So have you done anything exciting today?” “Er …. Yeah.” “Like what?” “All kinds of things. I can’t even tell you.” And it’s true; I can’t!
6:15 p.m. – Kathy’s relaxing on the couch, and I’m in the easy chair …. both of us happily, profoundly exhausted from the day’s excitement. In fact, the only thing that actually brings us to our feet is when we notice through the windows how odd the sky looks….. odd and gorgeous, actually. Suddenly, I find myself hearing the exquisite strains of Massenet’s “Meditation” from Thais all over again as Kathy and I drink in this exceptionally beautiful sunset. It would seem to be just the latest in a long string of gifts that have made this an unusually blessed day!
pictured above: This is what tonight’s sunset looked like from our front yard. There was actually quite a potent small storm that sliced through Southeast Wisconsin tonight, but it slipped just south of us. These clouds were on the storm’s northernmost edge.