I made one of the all-time great entrances today, and it very nearly didn’t happen at all. I started feeling poorly over the last several days, and today was the worst- and I felt miserable enough that I not only pulled out of the Messiah performance in Zion for which I was going to be substitute bass soloist, I also decided that I was probably not going to make the trip down to Lombard, IL to hear the choirs of Paul Marchese sing three of my pieces. With the last week of classes and finals looming, it seemed like a good moment to try and husband my waning energy. But as I was playing for Kenton Rauerdink’s bassoon recital this afternoon and thinking about his weekend – he had the lead in the current play at Carthage, with performances the previous three nights plus his junior bassoon recital to play today – I decided that I was going to show what I was made of and drive to Lombard, even if it meant coming back hooked to an oxygen tent.
The trip on a Sunday should have been much easier than on a weekday, in terms of traffic, and I should have made it there in plenty of time . . . except that there was sleet and freezing rain which started slowing everybody down. For awhile there, it looked like there was no way I was going to make it by 6:10, which is when Paul thought the first of my pieces might be sung. He told me tonight that in fact he had calculated the piece as coming up around 6:25, but he told me the earlier time in order to get me there with a little wiggle room. Well, thanks to Mother Nature and too many cautious drivers, I pulled into the parking lot of Montini Catholic High School at eight minutes after the hour- and as I was escorted into the auditorium, the chamber choir was singing the last 60 seconds of its last song before I was to take over. Even for yours truly, who has had more last minute entrances than I would ever care to count, this was a bit too close for comfort. But it was also fun to see the big smile break out on Paul’s face, who told me afterwards that he had no doubt whatsoever that I was going to arrive in time.
(I should add that I wasn’t only there to listen to my pieces, which would have been plenty fun. I was also playing piano for them and conducting from the keyboard. If something had happened and I had been late or not come at all, paul said that the choir was ready to do them a cappella, so it would not have meant the end of civilization as we know it. But it would have been such a bummer to miss out on the fun.)
And it was fun. The kids were in fine form and so well prepared by Paul – and they sang with such enthusiasm. And the audience, which was comprised entirely of friends and family of the singers, really gave me a nice, warm ovation- which frankly surprised me a bit, in that a lot of them were there for the sake of their children and certainly not because they were interested in some composer that they’ve never heard of. But I felt really appreciated, as though my presence there was truly a big deal. One nice moment afterwards was when a guy came up to me who turned out to be a music teacher from a elementary school somewhere in Chicago. (I think he had a niece or nephew singing in the concert.) His question to me: “From which publisher can we order “Do Not Awaken the Sleeping Little Baby.” He just assumed that the song had been published- which I took as a compliment. I wish I would have thought quickly enough to answer, “ ‘ do not awaken’ is available from Illegibility Press of Racine, WI.”
After the concert, the Marcheses – including Paul’s mom and dad, who are so nice and such fun – took me out for supper at Olive Garden where we had a chance to talk still further and to bask in the good feeling of that exciting concert. By the way, I told my wife later that earlier in the evening I had to fight off the flirtation of very cute female. Kathy seemed more astonished than upset by the news – and was neither when she found out that the female in question was Paul and Nichole’s three-year-old daughter Juliana. When it comes to the 3-year-olds and 83-year-olds, I’m a regular babe magnet !
(Unrelated topic: Paul told me that the girls in his choir coined a nickname for me – Bergley Bear. I’m not sure if they were thinking Grizzly, Koala, Panda, or some mixture, but I’m going to hope that the nickname was some sort of compliment.)
Stretching ahead of me are the last two days of classes- which will be punishing for me because I will be cramming all 25 of my voice lessons into those two days in order to give everyone a last lesson before finals begin. And over the course of the next three nights I will be at Carthage for a total of nine hours rehearsing with people for their final juries. So I am grateful indeed that I can enter the week with a little extra wind in my sails. That’s what this little trip to Lombard, IL gave me and for that I am truly thankful.
pictured above: some of the members of Paul Marchese’s top choir at montini Catholic High School in Lombard, IL- from the day when I worked with them earlier this fall.