by Annie Carlson

The holidays are a notoriously busy season for musicians, but our choirs have been working overtime. The week of December 8th to 14th, the Memorial Choirs had a wide variety of performances. All choirs had a concert, Show Choir had one performance, Concert Choir had one performance with the CVSO, and Madrigals had several throughout the week. Many people are in multiple of these choirs, bringing their number of performances up to 9 or 10 just in one week – sometimes 3 or 4 per day.

I surveyed a few people in choir about their experiences preparing and performing over the week. Here are the honorable mentions: 

How many performances do you have this week?

“Two.”

Do you feel prepared?

“No for one and kind of for the other”

Feelings?

“Excited but sniffly.” (Allergies.)

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How many performances do you have this week?

“Ten.”

Do you feel prepared?

“Mostly – less for normal choir, more for Madrigals.”

Feelings?

“Stressed out.”

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How many performances do you have this week?

“Three.”

Do you feel prepared?

“Yes, for two of them.”

Feelings?

“Mad, just in general”

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How many performances do you have this week?

“Two.”

Do you feel prepared?

“No.”

Feelings?

“Aaaaahhhh!”

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How many performances do you have this week?

“Ten.”

Do you feel prepared?

“Kind of.”

Feelings?

“I feel pain.”

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I did another quick survey the next week asking about people‘s experiences performing. Here are some of those:

How do you feel about your performance last week?

“Not great.”

How do you feel about your performance last week?

“Really good, I felt well prepared. It was really fun.”

How do you feel about your performance last week?

“I was nervous, but then I cooked.”

How do you feel about your performance last week?

“Okay, but I felt stressed out.”

The general feeling was that these performances were fun but stressful. This week had a lot of great opportunities and experiences, even for people who were unsure during the lead up to them. It’s easy for people who make music or art to be overly critical of themselves, but I for one thought everyone’s dedication and hard work showed in their performances, and they should be proud of themselves. Having to perform up to ten times in a week, especially with vocal music, is hard on your body and mind. It took a lot of work to get through the week, and everyone should be proud of themselves.