Even by my standards, yesterday was an incredibly long workday. It started at the radio station at 7:30 in the morning and ended in my Carthage voice studio at 11:20 that night. It included xeroxing my Popular Music America final (all five pages of it), giving the test, then hearing and playing for voice juries from 1:00 until 6:40, after which I was in my studio rehearsing until it was FINALLY time to go home. The weird part is, for the most part it was a wonderful day; call me a glutton for punishment, but it was an incredibly stimulating day. Of course, now at 7:15 the following morning, I don’t exactly feel like twinkle toes. But as I think about the marathon day (and Tuesday was almost exactly the same- and every bit as long) I smile.
I could talk about a lot of things that make me smile, but I’m going to limit myself to one. The young man pictured above is one of my freshman voice students at Carthage, Joe Torcaso. He is not a music major but he sings in the Carthage Choir and is also taking voice lessons. I’ve known of Joe for some time now because he went to Tremper where Polly is the choir director, and she always spoke so highly of him. His older sister Rita is one of the most spectacular musicians ever to go to Carthage (both a wonderful singer and pianist) and she’s actually one of the soloists for the Sing-along Messiah on Sunday. Joe is a quieter talent in every sense of the word – and in four years at Tremper he never once auditioned for even the smallest of solos. That’s just never been who he is. But he was a faithful choir member who added a lot to the tenor section and Polly really appreciated him.
Last February, during one of the Saturdays when we heard high school seniors auditioning for scholarships, I nearly fainted when into the room walked Joe Torcaso – followed by Rita, who was there to play piano for him. Joe proceeded to sing for us one of the nicest voice auditions we heard all year- singing with such a pure, gentle, lovely sound and almost no obvious sense of self-consciousness. He just did it – and Rita afterwards told us that this was the very first time she had ever heard her younger brother sing by himself. I had a lump in my throat. And I had another one yesterday when Joe sang his first solo jury at Carthage, for the voice faculty and hit it out of the park.
Some people – a relatively few people – are born for the spotlight. . . crave it. . . eat it up. . . and are loathe to leave it.
Most people, I think, are like Joe. . . and step very gingerly into the spotlight. . . that is, if they ever do. . . and are very happy to leave it as quickly as possible.
But for about six minutes yesterday, all eyes in the room were on Joe, and he was great. And I was proud.