A time of Grace

Last weekend was our first concert for the Billings Symphony Chorale.  They do 2 big concerts a year, spring and fall. This one was called "A time of Grace."  It was $17/ticket or $27 for reserved.  Dad, Brenda, Stan, Jan, Steven and Melinda came.  It was fun to get to share this beautiful music with others.  My 3 favorites were "How can I keep from Singing" "My Song in the Night" and "Grace Before Sleep."  I loved the gorgeous violin and oboe duet at the beginning of "How can I Keep from singing?" and I loved the words and music in  "My Song in in the Night."  "Oh why should I wander an alien from thee, or cry in the desert thy face to see.  My comfort and joy my soul's delight..." are just a few of my favorite phrases.  That was probably my favorite song we sang.  A lot of the pieces were new to me so it was a treat to get to learn and sing them with a choral group of this kind of caliber.
I sit between Nancy and Kathleen, Kathleen is a nun actually and it was fun to get to know her and hear her take on things.  Nancy is a retired teacher who lived in Powell apparently.  She was one of the best altos in the group, featured in one of the Mozart solos actually.  Early in rehearsals, Steven (conductor) wanted a small group of soloists to go down to the front and sing the quartets when we did the Mozart pieces so the choir would get an idea of how it would sound.  Nancy encouraged me to go down with her, and when it got closer to the time of the concert when I knew he'd be having official auditions for the solos, I spent a lot of time on u-tube listening to the 2 Mozart pieces we did, trying to learn the solos really well, and I tried out and got to sing the solo in Veni Sancte Spiritus which translates to come holy spirit; fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle the fire of your love in them.  Steven had us translate it on our own at home and it was fun to get to see what we were actually singing and realizing that these long time, well known classical pieces are praises to God and talk about things I've believed in since I was a little girl.  As far as I can tell, everyone in the group is religious and its been neat to hear everyone's take on the music and what it means to them.  I am grateful for this little experience in my life that brings music back to my life.  I am also grateful for Michael since I couldn't do any of this without him. I'm grateful for a job that makes it possible for him to be home evenings and for his willingness to pitch in with the kids during rehearsals and performances.