The first was more of a classical one. We sang, amongst other pieces, Haydn's Organ Mass which is in Latin and Greek and without any exaggeration challenging. Our choir master is quite a stickler for detail and pushed us relentlessly expecting perfection. To say we were dreading the concert is also no exaggeration, as we did not want to disappoint him, but it went surprisingly well and, with the accompaniment of a string octet, it made us sound amazing. I wish I could include a video, but we had not invited relatives to come along to watch as we thought it would be ghastly so had nobody we knew in the audience to film us.
The second concert last weekend was even more challenging. A completely different genre from the first, we sang excerpts from Dear Evan Hansen and Hamilton, both very modern pieces, the latter having a lot of rapping too. There were other songs too and a youth choir also joined us to fill out the time a bit more more. The day was boiling hot at around 32C, the hall we were singing in was baking and no windows had been opened (or could be). The choir mistress in her wisdom did not want us to take water bottles on stage as it looks tacky, so we ran through a rehearsal from 4pm to 6.30 pm, grabbed a quick sandwich and the concert started at 7.30, by which time we were flagging. Add a hot sweaty audience and spotlights shining straight at me into the mix and you could have fried an egg on my back! We soldiered on but by the interval, one of my friends was feeling so faint and shaky, she decided to leave for home. twenty minutes into the second half, I too began to feel shaky and my heart was racing. I was terrified I would pass out in front of 300 or more people, particularly as I stood in a very prominent position, but managed to find inner strength from somewhere and made it through to the end. Here's a picture of us trying our hardest not to faint. After all, the show must go on!
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