Highlights from this past Saturday’s State Solo & Ensemble competition at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, where I had to play (or maybe I should say ‘where I had the pleasure of playing’) for 28 different events . . . a busy State for me although far from my busiest. It was just busy enough to give me a healthy workout – and although it was an exhausting day, it was a happy exhaustion that left me with enough gas in my tank to attend closing night of “Flora the Red Menace” at Carthage. But that’s a story for another day. Here are some memories – each paired with a song title – from Solo & Ensemble 2019.
COLOR MY WORLD: To help me keep track of where I had to be on Saturday, Kathy was sweet enough to stay up late Friday night (after she got home from Racine Theater Guild rehearsal) to create a color-coded guide for me … a chronological list of every event I was playing for and in what room each event would take place. My biggest fear with contests like this is that I’m going to end up leaving some young student stranded without an accompanist – and it’s probably Kathy’s biggest fear as well. But lists like this make it at least less likely that I’ll commit such a transgression … and this year, once again, I somehow managed to be every place I needed to be.
HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAY! – The first major complication of the day came early …. in fact, it was with the very first event of the day I was playing for, when I found out that the student in question did not have a judge’s copy of the song she was singing. The rules are crystal clear and enforced without exception: the judge must be given the book from which the song in question is found ….. no xerox copies allowed ….. and if a contestant does not have a judge’s copy, they must be disqualified. This young lady (not a private student of mine) was beautifully prepared for her song, and the thought of her being disqualified absolutely broke my heart. So I rushed out into the hallway in the hopes that I might be able to flag down a teacher (Polly or somebody else) on the off chance that they might have a copy of the book this young lady needed. As it turned out, the answer to our prayers was sitting six feet away. Thank God for Rob Kroes, the choral director at Union Grove High School, who is one of those teachers that carries more than a dozen books with him all day long. One of those books was the one we needed- and he was delighted to help out this young student that he didn’t even know. And once it was all done, I made sure to snap a photo of the two of them – a gifted young singer and the teacher who so graciously came to the rescue.
SMALL WORLD, ISN’T IT? – While we were waiting to hear from this young student’s teacher on whether or not she would be coming with a judge’s copy, the judge in the room walked over to me with a hesitant smile on his face – quizzically peering at me through his glasses, as though he were trying to match a name with a face. Finally he asked me “by chance, did you sing a solo for Weston Noble’s memorial service?” When I said that I had, he explained that he had watched the live stream of the service and remembered my performance of “Amazing Grace.” And then he said “forgive me for being indelicate, but how in the world did you land a gig like that?!?” I smiled and explained that my mom had been Mr. Noble’s first secretary, so he was something of a family friend- plus I had managed to reconnect with him in a very powerful way when he came out of retirement to spend a year at Carthage as conductor-in-residence of the Carthage Choir. That seemed to satisfy his curiosity.
FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD! – The last student I was supposed to play for at the end of the morning did not show up – and 7 minutes after she was scheduled to sing, she still wasn’t there. (I had one of her friends who was there send her a text- but there was no reply.) I finally told that friend that I was going to head down to the cafeteria, but I told him to send me a text if she showed up- in which case, I would turn right around and hurry back to the room. I made a point of slowing my gait to a relaxed saunter, just in case- but I got no text. Certain by this point (a good 15 minutes after her time) that she wasn’t going to be showing up, I headed into the cafeteria and selected the day’s special …. roast pork, mashed potatoes, and mixed vegetables for a very reasonable $5. I sat down …. ate one bite ….. and felt my iPhone buzzing in my pocket. And you guessed it- The student had gotten lost (the campus is laid out in rather confusing fashion) but had finally found the room and was ready to sing. So I gobbled what I could in thirty seconds, sadly left the rest, and ran back to the room to play for the student. (By the way, she sang great.) Lesson learned: don’t go off to lunch until you are really, really, REALLY sure that you’re done with your morning events.
THE HIGHEST JUDGE OF ALL – When you spend all day at State Solo & Ensemble, you hear not only a day’s worth of music performances …. but also a day’s worth of judge’s critiques. There were several points on Saturday when I thought to myself “it would be really interesting to have this judge be judged on his or her judging.” Several judges I watched in action had decent advice to give but fumbled a bit in how to say it … another judge shocked me by his or her unapologetic sales pitch for the college or university where they teach (which I’m pretty sure is against the rules) …. while another judge essentially said the same thing to seven singers in a row: “You need to pronounce your words better.” But fortunately, the majority of judges I observed were much better than that – and one judge in particular was one of the very best in my experience. She had a lot of very specific and insightful suggestions to make- and made them clearly and crisply but with a leavening dose of humor and warmth. It is a good feeling to watch one of your own students being so richly helped; it’s the main reason we do this. And maybe because I myself judged a Solo & Ensemble competition for the first time this year, I know what a tricky challenge it is to do a good job when you’re sitting in that seat – and when I see a great judge, I appreciate it much more than I once did.
PLAY A SIMPLE MELODY – A few weeks before State, I received an email from a middle school choir teacher from another community; she was wondering if I would be willing and able to play piano for one of her boys who would be singing Scarlatti’s “Sento nel core” – one of my favorite Italian art songs. I didn’t hesitate to say yes! As it turned out, there was no opportunity for me to get together with him to rehearse- and in fact did not even meet until five minutes before he sang. I think a lot of eighth graders would have found that to be very disconcerting, but this young man seemed completely unruffled – and when we got in there, we just did it – and I don’t think anybody in the audience would have guessed that it was the very first time that the two of us had ever done that song together. Of course, it helped that it was a song that I have played literally hundreds of times before and know like the back of hand. But just as essential was this young man’s impressive level of preparedness- as well as his cool, collected state in a most unusual situation. My hat goes off to him.
CHILDREN WILL LISTEN – Sometimes, the coolest things you see at contest are the people who are listening to somebody perform -like the year that a voice student of mine sang and his adoring younger brother was in the audience, not only listening to his brother’s beautiful performance … but then listening with absolutely rapt attention as the judge critiqued him. It was an adorable scene. Of course, it’s far more likely to see younger siblings who look bored out of their minds, as though they would rather be anywhere else … including the dentist’s office! Then again, one can’t always judge that very accurately. This year, one of the Tremper students I accompanied had several family members listening to her- including what I assume would be a younger brother or cousin. He looked very disinterested in his sister’s lovely performance right up to the last measure. But when the song was over and people began applauding, he got this enormous smile on his face- and I realized that what I had mistakenly thought was boredom was actually deep seriousness. Shame on me for carelessly judging a book by its cover.
It is always fun to watch family members and friends listening to somebody they care about; it’s as though the acts of listening to them and rooting for them become one and the same. But I think what means much more to me is when I see people observing strangers perform. It’s an entirely different kind of listening and it’s why I am always imploring my own students to not just listen to their own friends and school mates … but also listen to complete strangers. That’s where you really learn a lot at contest. I snapped this picture after one of Polly’s students from Tremper performed. Instead of exiting the room as so often happens with young singers, she chose to sit down and listen to a couple of singers who sang after her – and whoever was there to listen to her chose to remain as well. And you could see on their faces a very genuine interest in the singers who came after her – singers I assume were complete strangers to them – and it made me realize that music can be a really neat vehicle for making connections with people whom we would otherwise never know. And it makes me all the more determined to keep banging the drum for my own students – so that contest is about much more than their own singing – but also about all of the other singing that they get to encounter.
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS – Contest is really not about the numbers. It’s not about the ratings. It’s about doing the work of preparing – and then trying to do your very best – and becoming a better singer along the way. It’s about developing an understanding of your own voice – as well as developing an appreciation for the immense diversity of voices out there in the world.
And yet, it’s hard not to care about the ratings – and they must matter in some extent or we wouldn’t bother to assign them in the first place. It’s just important to make sure that the rating does not become the whole reason you’re competing or the only thing you walk away with when it’s all done.
That being said, I can’t help but be really pleased that all of my private students at State – Josh, Irving, Noah and Ethan – managed to score I ratings across the boards …. and Ethan was given an Exemplary Award for his performance of “Sit down, you’re rocking the boat” from Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls.
BABY LOVE – There were two points during the day when I had to run from one end of UW-Parkside to the other …. for the two instrumental events I played for …. and it was while I was en route the first time that I noticed a group of people clustered at a window and looking out at something that appeared to have them thoroughly engrossed. Even though I was in a desperate hurry, I stopped to see what all the fuss was about. It was a family of geese – mom, dad and several tiny goslings – looking absolutely precious. There was something therapeutic about having my mad dash interrupted by such a sweet sight …. and through the course of the entire day, I kept thinking about that sweet sight. It’s good to be reminded in the midst of such a hectic and sometimes stressful day that there’s a whole world outside of Solo & Ensemble that keeps spinning on no matter what clinkers we hit or words we forget. And thank goodness for that!
