Well, it was two long, draining, but ultimately inspiring days devoted to voice juries. . . and nothing could be a clearer demonstration of how much Carthage’s music program has grown than to look at the standard of juries now versus 17 years ago when I started teaching here. Back then, in the Stone Age, there were certainly plenty of superb singers performing excellent juries – but we also had to sit through a few really rough performances by singers of very limited skills, where things could and would collapse in a catastrophic pileup of forgotten words, forgotten music, brutal stage fright, etc. But that just doesn’t happen anymore- and hasn’t for quite some time. We certainly do have a few disappointing juries along the way, where a given student has not managed to do what they needed to do to be adequately prepared, but those are the rare exception. And nearly every single jury is praiseworthy in one way or another- whether they’re a talented, assured singer or someone brand new to this kind of singing and just finding their way. Over and over we who were the jurists found ourselves smiling at each other in great satisfaction and pleasure.
And let me touch on a couple of exceptionally fine moments without giving away any specific names. . . with one exception. I have blogged once before about a voice student of mine named Jon (see December 15th.) I feel comfortable singling out Jon because he has worked so hard and delivered such a fine performance that the hard- boiled voice teachers listening broke into spontaneous applause. (Which never happens.) Just ahead of his performance, as I hurriedly filled out his jury sheet, I wrote “Job” instead of “Jon” and we had a good laugh about that. (Jon said that maybe I shouldn’t erase it until the jury was over, because it might be a fitting mistake to retain if it didn’t go well!) As it turns out, his performance was not at all a page out of the book of Job – not even close. He sang gloriously and I could not have been more pleased and proud.
But beyond that were lots of other wonderful performances, including one singer’s absolutely mesmerizing rendition of “I will be loved tonight,” a tender and heartfelt ballad from the musical “I love you – You’re perfect – Now Change,” which the RTG did last summer. This young lady had us literally crying, her performance was so honest and poignant. Another young woman sang a lovely and heartbreaking song from “A is for Alice” about missing her mother, who had died some years before. For Amy Haines and me, that song hit close to home and activated our respective waterworks. And among my favorite moments with my own students was one of my seniors who sang an absolutely triumphant performance of “Non piu andrai” – the very first opera aria I ever learned (while I was still in high school.) So whenever I give this to anyone to sing, it feels like something out of a heartwarming episode of “The Waltons.” What was of special meaning to me was that this young man is not a music major- just a tremendously gifted young man who loves to sing and who has been an absolute joy to teach.
One thing that was especially gratifying was to see, over and over again, was how well-taught all these students were. You could tell that their songs had been lovingly and perceptively chosen by their respective teachers- and they had been guided and coached to do their very best work. That goes for the singer who’s a Beverly Sills-in-the-making as well as the complete beginner, scared to death, just trying to do the best they can. That so many of the singers succeeded in doing that – that is, doing their very best – was truly thrilling.
For all the joys that were part of these two days, they were still LONG days . . . 900-545 on Monday . . . 1000 to 345 on Tuesday . . . . which may not seem like unreasonable amounts of time for someone who digs ditches for eight hours a day – but it is not easy to remain focused and enthusiastic and coherent with written comments over that long span. But we made it – and I even managed to squeeze in six instrumental juries plus Polly’s choir concert dress rehearsal down at Tremper. I’m not sure if a day like that is likelier to drive me to drink or prevent me from drinking (because there just isn’t time for it, frankly) – but either way, if one is going to be cooped up inside on a gorgeous spring day, it should be for the task of listening to music and to seeing young musicians do themselves and their teachers and their school proud!
pictured: my final Carthage jury of spring ‘08- Joe Torcaso, singing for colleagues Amy Haines, Sarah Gorke and Corinne Ness.