Boy, do I LOVE this photograph! It comes from the concert at Holy Communion back in May which commemorated my 25 years as minister of music. It appears to capture a moment when I was gazing heavenward as the senior choir fills the sanctuary with glorious sound. This morning I was very much in this same state of being… utterly transported by the senior choir as they sang one of my newest pieces, one which they saw for the first time on Thursday. I am so fortunate to stand in front of a group which not only tolerates a steady diet of my smudgy, hard-to-read, hand-written scores, but seems to welcome them – and manages to sing the daylights out of them, often with very little rehearsal! Can you blame me for feeling ridiculously blessed? And after all these years, I am especially grateful not just that I still feel like this – but in fact feel as happy and grateful as I ever have. I know there are all kinds of people who cannot say the same thing because what once was fun and fulfilling work has become much more frustrating and stressful. It makes me all the more grateful.
This morning’s lovely singing by the senior choir echoed a similar experience I had at Carthage Friday afternoon, when I met for the first time with the current incarnation of the Lincoln Chamber Singers. . . 15 exceptionally talented young singers who sound absolutely wonderful together. Sometimes it takes a little while for a group like this to gel, but this particular array of singers already sound like they’ve been singing together for a long long time. Many of them were part of the group last year, but there are newcomers in every single section. So to have the group already sounding so good is incredibly gratifying. We spent part of our half hour rehearsal sight-reading “For unto us a child is born” from Handel’s Messiah, one of the most amazing choruses ever written. It’s a steep challenge for us to undertake, but judging from what they sounded like on Friday, it’s going to be wonderful addition to Carthage’s Christmas Festival. And on top of that, as if that weren’t already exciting and impressive enough, they absolutely blew me away with their beautiful singing of my Christmas piece “Pace,” which I needed to record in order to submit the score to Hal Leonard for consideration. This is not a difficult or complicated piece, in terms of the notes on the page, but it only sounds good if it’s sung gracefully and musically. How these young singers managed to make this song their own after a mere fifteen minutes of rehearsal is absolutely beyond me…. but it really shows what kind of sensitive and skilled musicians they are. I could not be more excited about the year that stretches before us!
And of course, beyond these wonderful choirs with whom I am privileged to collaborate, I get to teach voice lessons to some terrific young men at Carthage, plus a few high school students as my crazy schedule permits. I really cannot put into words how much I love teaching voice- or how good it feels to be growing and learning as much as my students are/do. At my faculty recital on the 8th, I was delighted to reconnect with Renata Waack Sievert, who was one of my very first voice students when I began teaching at Carthage in the fall of 1991. Seeing her got me thinking back to that first semester at Carthage, when I stepped in for Dr. Richard Sjoerdsma while he was on sabbatical, at a point when I had done almost no teaching at all. Fortunately, I could draw upon all I learned from my own marvelous teachers- Cherie Carl, David Greedy, and Richard Grace- plus what I learned from playing piano in the studios of many other voice teachers, including David Judisch and Donna Harler. But what was even more essential than whatever I knew about Good Singing was the patience and graciousness of those students who surely knew how GREEN I was but gave me the benefit of the doubt and appreciated whatever good I was able to do for them. That’s why things went as well as they did …. and why I was asked to stay on for another semester- and another- and another… So thanks, Renata Waack and Bill Mains and Chris Hill and Jane Thompson and all of the rest of you who helped me survive that first semester at Carthage. You’re at least part of the reason why I’m still there, loving what I do more than ever.
Which reminds me …. I would also not be at Holy Communion if it weren’t for the patience of those singers who sang under my shaky, inexperienced direction way back in 1988. I’m sure that every second of those first rehearsals, they had to have been thinking of the assured, masterful work of my predecessor, Dr. John Windh. And several years later, when I was asked to undertake Carthage’s chamber singers for the first time, it was the same scenario. I’m sure those students missed Dr. Windh terribly- especially because he was such an elegant, polished, and well-organized man while I was a well-meaning but disheveled mess in so many ways. And I can take this still further, into the work which I do at WGTD. When I applied for the job of Fine Arts Director, I was up against people who were much more experienced in radio and whose credentials were much more impressive. But the powers-that-be, including General Manager Gary Vaillencourt and program director Bonnie Orr, saw some potential and were willing to take a chance on me. 27 years later, I’m still there and very glad for the gamble they took.
So the moral of the story is this: For all of the cool things I am blessed to be doing right now, none of them – none – would be possible if somebody hadn’t gone out on a limb for me, entrusting me with an opportunity that I may not have fully deserved. It’s one of the very greatest gifts we can give another person …. to look past the surface, past the obvious, and see the potential there. And if we are in a position to open up a door for such a person, or to help them survive the challenge of their rookie season, so much the better. So for as thankful as I am for all that I get to do every day, my gratitude would be insufficient if it didn’t extend backward to include those who were there at the start.
I hope you’ll do some reflecting today and remember someone to whom you owe similar thanks. And if they’re still around to be thanked, thank them. Nothing you do today will make you feel better than this will.