Wild and wacky stake conference!

Stake conference is held twice a year and all the members of our stake (like a diocese) are invited to come to the conference.  Typically there are hundreds of people in attendance and things run like clockwork.

Not so this time!

1.  Two people were asked to give a prayer but at least one of them was not told it was to be the closing prayer, not the opening, so two people walked up to offer an opening prayer.
2.  The business part of the meeting (5 minutes or less) was forgotten until midway through the meeting.  It's usually done at the beginning of the meeting.
3.  Our excellent choir director brought the choir in a measure early on a loud, exultant piece.  Oops!  I was paying attention to her and came in early, along with about half the choir.
4.  A girl was accompanying her singing sister on the piano and the air conditioner kept blowing the sheet music around.  The piano was right in front of the choir but the people closest to the piano didn't notice the problem until the pianist had to quickly push the music back with her hand while still playing.  Then someone sat with her to manage her music and it was fine.
5.  The meeting ran overtime by about 9 minutes.  It usually ends right on time.

Despite everything, it was a delightful meeting.  The speakers gave us practical advice for raising our children, nurturing our marriages, sharing the gospel, finding hope for blessings in the future, and news about the temple that will be built in our area (nothing firm yet, other than one *will* be built) and how the expansion of the missionary program is going (swimmingly).

Here is my favorite of the three choral numbers we performed today:
http://www.lds.org/music/library/hymns/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise?lang=eng
We used this sheet music from Sonos.

Naughty dh

Look what dh is making for Sunday evening:

Chocolate chip walnut cookies.  Sigh.

But!!!  Tonight is the first high-powered choir rehearsal for our Stake Conference and early prep for the Stake Christmas concert.  Have I *perhaps* mentioned how much I like singing in good choirs?

I'm really disappointed!

My friend invited me to sing in an women's choir loosely associated with her children's school.  I've been longing to sing in a good community choir again after my excellent experience singing in the Gallup Community Choir for four years.

[This isn't actually my choir but I couldn't exactly take my camera along on a first visit now, could I?]

Everything was great until the conductor mentioned, kind of in passing, that it was, "Eighty bucks for ten rehearsals."  UGH.  I had asked my friend if it was a for-profit choir and she said she didn't think so.  Unfortunately, no one had told her it IS a for-profit choir.

My view is that if I'm going to volunteer to sing, I want the conductor and pianist to volunteer as well.  I don't want to have to pay to volunteer, even though I enjoy singing.  I don't mind buying my own music or making a donation to give the conductor and pianist a gift on performance night, but I don't want to pay an up-front fee.

So, even though I enjoyed singing tonight, I'm not going to continue with the choir.  I hope my friend does though, so I'll have an excuse to attend the concert at Christmas time.

Stake Choir

We have a great conductor and an enthusiastic choir of about 75 voices assembled for stake conference next weekend. Stake conference is when 8-12 LDS wards (congregations) meet. It's twice a year and always has excellent music. Our next stake conference is next weekend and I'm in the choir again. It's by invitation and there aren't enough invitations for everyone who wants to sing, so I'm always glad when I'm asked.

The three pieces focus on testimony and missionary work, two important themes in the LDS Church. In addition, the first is what I call a "Zion" piece and it's fast and upbeat and my favorite:

Next is another upbeat piece with a Zion feel to it and a focus on missionary work:

This the front page of the last which is a sweet hymn expressing the elements of a testimony of God and Jesus Christ:

In addition there will be two congregational hymns. Five hymns in two hours--I'll be in heaven!

Messiah!

Every Christmas for the past four years I have sung in a community choir. The first two years we sang the Christmas parts of the Messiah, which I love. The next year was John Rutter's Magnificat and last year was a selection of Christmas music from the 1400s to the present day. The Magnificat was really hard because it was almost all in Latin with which I am unfamiliar. I really liked last year's selections although one was in French and was a doozy to learn as, well, I don't speak French either. It turned out to be my favorite piece though.

Each year the wonderful director has mentioned doing a concert for Easter but it has never actually happened. Until this year! Since we haven't done any Messiah for two years and the Easter part hasn't been done in our town for seven years, that's what she decided to do. I hadn't sung all the choruses in that section previously, but all are very, very familiar to me as I've listened to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing it dozens of times on their 1958 album.

Thursday night rehearsals are my favorite look-forward-to event of the week and I'm glad it's Thursday late afternoon now.