In the past,  Kenosha’s Solo & Ensemble was for me a long, exciting and exhausting day- an intoxicating and irresistible combination for me- in which I spent most of the day running from event to event, playing everything from Henry Purcell to “Popular” from Wicked …. usually for twenty or more students in five or six different rooms scattered around Bradford High School.   It was quite a workout for me as well as for the other busy accompanists and teachers … but it was an absolute blast and one of my favorite days of the year.   (I used to joke that the amount of exercise I got in that one day of Solo & Ensemble was greater than what I got in the 90+ days leading up to it – combined!)  But several years ago,  the contest was moved to Indian Trails High School – a newer and larger school – and all of the vocal events were gathered together into a half dozen rooms at the end of the same hallway.  This meant- at least for someone like me who usually only plays for singers- that Kenosha Solo & Ensemble was no longer the track meet that it used to be.  And although I should have been grateful for that,  the truth is that I missed and continue to miss all of that frantic running around,  which was great exercise…. a stimulating challenge…. and which also allowed me to cross paths with just about everyone who’s anyone in Kenosha music who was at the contest.    And then came a new computer program for creating the contest schedule- one built around the accompanists-  and the pianists began spending long spans of time in the same room. This year the computer program went even further- to the point where my schedule was: 8:00 until 11:06 in the same room – and then I was done for the entire day!     Had I chosen to do so,  I could have easily spent those three hours without leaving my piano bench so much as once!  Honestly,  when I saw that schedule,  I was absolutely horrified. I was especially worried that I might be stuck spending three hours in a room with a so-so judge, which would have driven me insane.   And I wondered if it would be excruciatingly boring to be cooped up in the same classroom for that entire time.   Well, as it turns out…. I need not have worried.   It was a lively and exciting contest for me, in more ways than one- and here are some highlights:

Here Comes the Judge! –   As I approached the room in which I was going to be spending the next three hours,  I just prayed that it would be a judge whose judgment I respected and whose work I could enjoy.  Imagine my enormous relief when I walked into the classroom and saw someone who is pretty much a legend in music in Southeastern Wisconsin.  Sue Cawley was a very highly regarded public school teacher for many years and in her retirement years is finding all sorts of ways to be active and involved.  She is one of the best judges in the business,  and I could not have been more excited/relieved/grateful to know that she was the judge to whom I would be “chained” for the next three hours.

“I Shouldered My Bat and I Swung.”   That’s a line from a song in the show “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” – and I quote it because those words are an apt description for the effort of a seventh grade voice student of mine named Josh, who recently portrayed Charlie Brown onstage in the aforementioned musical.  Josh was my very first event of the morning with a spirited performance of “The Kite” with some excellent choreography by a former student of mine,  Colin Robertson.  I was very proud of Josh for this performance-  but I have to say that I was even prouder of the performance he offered up of J.S. Bach’s “Bist du bei mir.”  Josh may only be a seventh grader,  but he insisted on singing a Class A song-  and was not only interested in singing this particular song, but also doing it in its original German.  A lot of serious singers this age might be inclined to compete in a division where they were more likely to score a high rating- but not Josh.  He was most interested in being challenged – and he was- and he managed to score a I rating!   Needless to say,  I was delighted by this and couldn’t have been prouder of this terrific young man.

To Cough and Not Cry –  One of the young people I played for Saturday morning was a young lady who was excited to sing the song “Shy” from the delightful musical Once Upon this Mattress.  Unfortunately,  she was still fighting the effects of a terrible cold (or something) – to the point where her performance was interrupted at least three and maybe four times by bad coughing spells that forced her to stop singing.   Honestly,  I was all but certain after just the second coughing jag that she would dissolve into tears and be forced to stop completely and call it a day.  But no- she carried on as best she could,  and by the end was delivering a very convincing portrayed of Princess Winifred with charm and poise and powerful vocalism.  It was in many ways the Comeback of the Year!

Sam I Am –  I wanted to say a special word of praise for a private voice student of mine named Sam who was entered in two solo events this year:  Classical, which he had done before,  and Music Theater, which he had not.   Sam has never been in a show before-  in part because he’s busy being a skilled athlete in more than one sport,  but (probably) also because he’s a fairly shy guy, at least in some situations,   and probably never felt all that attracted to the stage.  But this year,  he decided to give Music Theater a try for the first time ….  and I can’t begin to express how proud I am of Sam’s performance of “On the Street Where You Live” from My Fair Lady.   I knew he would sing it beautifully-  but it’s the fact that he really managed to become the character of Freddy that impressed me the most.   And it must have impressed his judge as well, because Sam is going to state in Music Theater as well as in Classical (with Schumann’s Widmung, sung in the original German-  one of the toughest solos on the Class A repertoire list.)   So Sam should be incredibly proud of himself.

Another Sam:   One of the Tremper students that I played for was another young man named Sam-  and because he was donating blood the day I came to school to rehearse – and because they were a little behind schedule – he and I ended up having no opportunity to rehearse before his performance on Saturday. It happens from time to time but it’s far from ideal,  and I had no idea what to expect when it came time to do the song.  I had little or no idea what kind of sound would come out of his mouth – or how well he knew the song.  (Polly does not believe in spoon feeding her students their music – and I applaud her for that – but that means that a fair amount of responsibility rests on the students themselves to get their piece prepared and polished.   And while the vast majority of them do a terrific job,  there are certainly a few students along the way who don’t get the job done, for whatever reason.)  Imagine my delight when this truly lovely tenor sound emerges from this young man’s throat- and imagine my relief when it became clear that he knew this particular song (“Bright is the Ring of Words” by Ralph Vaughan Williams) perfectly.  He even introduced it perfectly by talking about the poem’s theme of Words Living On After We’re Gone,  such as Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream.”  So a moment in the morning that had a huge disconcerting question mark turned out to be a high mark of the day.

The Shushing:    There are plenty of things I don’t do very well –  and probably many more things that I can’t do at all –  but one thing I know how to do pretty darn well is accompany students at Solo & Ensemble,  so it tends to be a day where I can feel pretty darn good about myself and my abilities.   But every so often,  I will earn some sort of reproach from the judge –  and that happened Saturday when the judge (someone who knows me well, so I’m sure it wasn’t fun for her to do this)  had to criticize me for playing too loudly for a student.  The song in question,  Vaughan Williams’s “The Roadside Fire,”  is one of my all-time favorites- and those are the songs where I can get overly excited.   Moreover, it was one of my own private students – and a senior – and when I’m especially anxious for the singer in question to do well, I tend to play too loudly … which in this case caused the singer to sing too loudly as well.   I was truly embarrassed and under different circumstances,  I think it would have bothered me terribly for the rest of the day.   But fortunately,  I had more students to play for and just had to plow on; there was no time for beating myself up- or wallowing in a pity party.   But you had better believe that I was much more attentive to my dynamics after that.

Senior High:   That three hour block of playing included two of my private voice students,  Andrew and Daniel,  who are also seniors.   It’s only now as I’m reflecting back on the day that it occurs to me how different these two young men happen to be from each other.  Andrew is someone who I first got to know when he was a young middle schooler, lighting up the Racine Theater Guild stage as Charlie in our production of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.   He was a remarkable actor- so comfortable onstage,  solid with every challenge of the role, including the actual flying that occurred in the second act,  and a perfectly polite and appreciative cast member.   Andrew became my voice student as his voice began to change,   and he has been an absolute joy to work with- and I hope I’ve made a difference for the better as his voice shifted from boy soprano to tenor to baritone.  Andrew sang the aforementioned “Roadside Fire” (although his performance was not the one where I played too loudly) for his classical piece, and is musical theater song was “Giants in the Sky,”  which is sung by the character of Jack in Into the Woods.  Andrew nailed both of his songs like the consummate pro that he is, earning I* ratings for both,  and I couldn’t help but think of all of the joy he had brought me since my first collaboration with him when he was still a boy but on the cusp of becoming a terrific young man.

My other senior voice student singing that morning was Daniel,  who has never been in a show in his life – a young man who was a terrific linebacker on his school’s football team and a crackerjack baseball player as well.   But he is also a young man who loved to sing – since middle school – and at some point fairly early in his high school career,  he hooked up with me for lessons.   He was someone who had rather limited skills for reading music and who had essentially never sung a solo in his life –  but this was something he wanted to explore … and he did so with ferocious determination.  And over these last several years, Daniel has achieved dramatic improvement in every facet of his singing.   In fact,  this year he bypassed football and auditioned for and was made part of the Madrigal Singers- a proud achievement indeed.  And this year, in both of his solos –  “The Roadside Fire” (the performance for which I was shushed) and “O what a Beautiful Morning” – he earned I* ratings that will take him to state.  And I could not be happier about that.

The Big Race:  As it turns out,  I got to experience a little taste of the Frantic Running Around that used to be a hallmark of contest day.  Since I was done with my accompanying by 11:06,  that meant that I could lead a children’s chorus rehearsal that afternoon for the RTG’s production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” – a rehearsal that originally Kathy was going to lead before I discovered how early I would be done at contest.  But then I realized that if I finished on time and hurried back, I might be able to catch the two late-afternoon performances of another of my high school senior students,  Austin Voyles.  (His high school choir director signed him up with someone else to play for him.)  Well,  I knew it was going to be close,  and as Kathy dropped me off at the door,  I tore off running just like in the old days, not even knowing exactly what room he would be singing in.   By sheer luck,  I happened to bump into Austin’s former choir director in the hallway,  who just happened to know that he was singing in the very last room at the very end of the hallway.   So I took off running as fast as I could safely run-  and got to his room just as he had begun singing “Empty Chairs.”  But there was glass in the door and I could watch him and hear him perfectly.  And in some ways it was better because I felt such intense emotion in that moment and was glad to be by myself outside of the room as I listened and watched Austin’s incredibly intense performance.  It was mesmerizing.   And a few minutes later, I was able to watch his second performance-  yet again “The Roadside Fire”- from the audience.  The final tally:  two I* ratings for this terrific young man who lost his dad quite suddenly and unexpectedly several years ago,  but who continued to sing even through his heartbreak.  It’s stories like that which underscore the indispensable role that music can play in our lives as it accompanies us through the bright days and the dark days as well.