A moment ago, I was sitting on the living room couch, wondering why in the world I feel about as energetic as a two-week-old pancake that’s been left out in the rain. Today was a somewhat busier Sunday than normal,  but not a bone-crushingly exhausting day by any means.    And then it hit me. . . .  yesterday was Solo & Ensemble in Kenosha.  No wonder Kathy had to scrape me out of bed with a spatula.  And no wonder she’s going to be carrying me up the stairs to bed.

But I’m not complaining.  This is the very best kind of exhaustion there is . . .  the exhaustion that comes after an enormous, exciting, and worthwhile undertaking,  like playing for 22 students at solo & ensemble.

Very early in the day,  I crossed paths with a Carthage colleague named Paul Chilson,  who teaches a variety of film courses there- and who has overseen the making of a new commemorative film for each of the last several Carthage commencements.   As soon as I saw Paul (there to watch his daughter perform)  I told him that Solo & Ensemble would be perfect fodder for a documentary film.  Someone….. and I think it should be Paul…… should take a film camera into contest and capture the kind of moments that make this such a memorable day.

  1. *The Young Virtuoso –   One of the first students I played for was Jacy Ripley,  an extraordinarily talented young musician who has been earning I ratings without fail for as long as I can remember.  (And it’s been my pleasure for me to play for her in each and every competition.)  But her performance yesterday of the final movement of the Hummel Concerto wasn’t just dazzling. . . it was flirting with sheer perfection.   And when she finished,  the judge essentially said the same thing.  And as I walked out of that room,  I felt incredibly grateful to have been a part of such excitement.

  1. *The Budding Showman –  One of my private voice students,  Jacob,   took a big step this year beyond his musical comfort zone (classical) by entering the musical theater event for the first time.   And he did so in a big way,  with the exuberant love song “On the Street where You Live” from Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady.   I saw a lot of performances Saturday that made me so pleased and proud,  but there might not have been a performance that made my heart soar like Jacob’s earnest effort with his musical theater performance.  It was far from a perfect performance,  especially theatrically –  but Jacob made me so proud just in how he went for it so fearlessly,  doing his very best to be young Freddy, head over heels in love with Eliza Doolittle and scarcely able to put his passion into words.  I know that next time Jacob will feel more comfortable and confident in this event – but in the meantime he is off to a wonderful start.  And I got to be there to see and hear it.

  1. * The granddaughter –  One of the most remarkable moments all day long came in the morning when a young singer,   scarcely a page into “Wishing you were somehow here again” began crying and was absolutely unable to continue.   I was so touched first by how caring and supportive the judge was,  assuring the student that she could come back later in the day and sing again, if she liked. (“It will be as though this never happened.”)  And Polly, her teacher,  knew exactly what to say and do.  It turns out that earlier in the week,  this young lady’s grandmother had suffered through quite a health scare,  and although she’s okay now this song and its lyrics touched a very tender spot in this student’s heart.   Well, she did come back later in the day – to the same room and before the same judge – and sang the song gorgeously and expressively.  Talk about the Phoenix rising from the ashes!  I’ve been doing this for many many years now,  but this moment ranks among my all-time favorites.

  1. * The Pretender –  One of the neatest things about this kind of singing is how very often it amounts to Playing Dress Up – of trying to become someone other than yourself – and when you see a young singer manage to do this,  there’s nothing more exciting.    Andrew is a new student of mine who may have the best work ethic of any high school student I’ve ever taught,  and it’s been wonderful to see his growth over the past few months.  Andrew is a very intelligent and mature young man – the son of a college professor – so for him to effectively sing Ralph Vaughan Williams’ famous song “The Vagabond” means taking on the persona of a rough, rootless wanderer with no place to call home – and who’s actually happy about that.   But Andrew actually managed to shed a bit of his own persona in favor of this character who couldn’t be more different from him – and to see him do that was quite exciting.  A couple of hours later,  Andrew had to take on the main role in Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars, which is based on the powerful novel Cry a Beloved Country. In this song, Andrew is portraying a middle-aged black preacher whose beloved son has murdered someone and faces execution unless he lies about what he did, which in turn causes this man a horrific crisis of faith.  That’s heavy stuff for someone not yet out of high school and who has never tasted any such tragedy himself,  but Andrew impressed me with his willingness to imagine such pain and take it upon himself for the sake of bringing this beautiful and powerful song more fully alive.

  1. * The Track Star –  If you ever wondered whether or not teachers really care about their students,  just go to solo & ensemble and see their devotion playing out in a thousand different ways.  I especially love watching Polly, who would walk through fire for her students-  who would gladly do the same for her.  Polly’s demonstrated her tireless devotion in the early afternoon, when it came time for the aforementioned Andrew to perform the “Lost in the Stars” song.   Some sort of snafu occurred,  which seems to have resulted in the paperwork being swapped between his two events,  so the judge had the wrong kind of score sheet.  Polly volunteered to run to the tally room to secure a copy of the right sheet – only to discover upon her return that she had ended up with yet another wrong score sheet (one intended for very young musicians who are only performing for written comments and no actual mathematical score) – necessitating yet another run to the tally room.  But she was glad to do it, and did so without a word of complaint.

  1. *The Helpers –    One familiar sight at the Kenosha contest is of numerous Carthage music students – members of our Lambda Kappa fraternity – serving as  volunteers.  This year I was exceptionally aware of what a great job our students do and what first-rate ambassadors they are for Carthage.  One of the first of our students I ran across was a fine percussionist by the name of Tyler Zumbrock, who’s one of my favorite people in the ranks of our music majors and minors . . . just an all-round great guy.   And seeing him camped out in front of Room 108,  performing his volunteer duties with such grace and class,  was all I needed to have a smile on my face which would last me the rest of the day.

  1. *The cheerleaders-  Speaking of smiling,  I think what made me smile most broadly was just watching students be so supportive of one another.   I remember looking out at the audience while a student of mine,  Max Dienan,  was singing –  and the people in the front row of desks all had completely enraptured looks on their faces.  It said a lot not only about what an exciting and charismatic singer Max is,  but also how perceptive and appreciative his Tremper schoolmates are;  obviously they know a lot about what careful, sensitive listening is all about.  That sort of thing played out again and again all day long, reminding me all over again that this kind of competition is valuable for all kinds of reasons,  but especially for the sense of camaraderie which is fosters.  And I say that anything which helps us appreciate each other and deepens our resolve to be there for each other is more than worth all the effort . . . and exhaustion!

So congrats one and all, for yet another successful contest. And special congrats to my private voice students – Jacob, Max, Andrew,  Sam, Landon, Nathan – who all sang so beautifully,  some in more than one event, and who otherwise carried themselves with such class and poise and made their teacher exceedingly proud.

pictured above:   My student Jacob Beckman, immediately after singing his first musical theater performance at contest, receives spoken critique from his judge.  For as crowded as the room might look in this photo,   you are seeing only a portion of the people who crowded into that classroom to hear not only Jacob but the other Tremper singers before and after him as well.