Open rehearsal

This is the last week of term II.

I recall a similar moment at the end of term I, realizing I'd survived ten weeks of a very steep learning curve with the Australian Youth Choir.  Every Thursday, I chug over to Essendon to spend three hours teaching around 60 young people the basics of music, and to prepare repertoire for their concerts.  For the last couple of weeks I've had to be the one-man show, since my accompanist went on tour to QLD on Fame.  He'll be back in time for the resumption of rehearsals in a couple of weeks, but I've never been more exhausted than last week, bouncing from music desk to whiteboard to piano and repeat all possible permutations of the sequence ad infinitum.

Now, the last week of term means only one thing in the AYC: open rehearsals.  The parents get to sit in on the last half hour of the rehearsal, and at the end one makes affable small talk with them.  It's probably the most emotionally draining rehearsal of the whole term, because so many of the parents have these incredibly intense responses to seeing their children sing.  I suspect it emanates from that comment I encounter so frequently -- "I always wanted to sing/play the [insert instrument of choice here], but never had the chance to learn..." -- the parent sees their child's developing ability through their sense of inability.

So, by the time you read this, I'll be getting parents to stand up and wave their arms about, and to learn one of the simple teaching songs the children have been working on.  They didn't think I was serious when I did this last term, but it'll be interesting to see if any of the parents who held back join in this time round (assuming they weren't scared off!!).  Asking them to sing can be a bit like a grungy magician holding up a blood-stained saw in the middle of an open air show and asking for a volunteer from the audience...

Then next week there's the craziness of the winter intensive: three days of non-stop 9am-3.30pm work on repertoire for two concerts and a CD.  After that, the remains of a couple of weeks' break.