A Taste of Real Life, or "I Have So Much Music to Learn!"

I confess, this post has potential to sound like a "kids today -- geroffamylawn!" missive -- 

But really it is simply a dose of reality for young (or any) people thinking that they are interested in pursuing the life of a professional musician who is a sole or equal-share breadwinner in a household.

I am leaving out people who have a "day job" or for whom music is part-time work.  I don't have experience in either area!

Instead, I am simply opening a window into the amount of music that has to be learned/practiced/memorized/taught in an average week when music is a full-time, living-wage job.

Funny thing about music -- though I do need some periods of silence to clear my head, I find that the more deeply I am into learning and practice, the more I want to listen to other artist's work.  Not just to clarify pieces I'm working on but also to hear different and fresh things that have no relation -- during the week I charted I was obsessed with the remarkable pianist Jeremy Denk, and listened to everything he has recorded, from the Bach Goldberg Variations to Legeti and Ives.  Amazing work.  I also became acquainted with "Honeymoon in Vegas," getting my all-important Jason Robert Brown fix.

This is an average week of music from Sunday morning through Saturday night.  It was not a performance week (aside from Sunday morning, which I treat with the same intensity and preparation as a performance) and I do not have the same memorization requirements as a stage performer -- but I make up for the lack of memorization by having to learn more parts!

Some pieces are repeated -- practicing and score study is a different experience than actually rehearsing, as is score study from practicing on piano, and each process takes up separate time.

SUNDAY!

(Lim needed a sub for Handbell Choir so I rehearsed once in the morning and then played twice)
Handbells:  
Revelation Song
Cornerstone

Singing on Worship Team (These are memorized, performance ready, and done for two services)
Light the Fire Again
I Need Thee Every Hour
10,000 Reasons
Let the River Flow
The Wonderful Cross
Overcome

Practiced to Conduct/Accompany Young Frankenstein (Selma Performing Arts)
Roll in the Hay
Man About Town

Vocal Coached (This means I have learned the song, accompany, and coach)
Sebben Crudele
Art Thou the Christ
Butterfly Kisses
Maybe
We're All In This Together
Happy Working Song
Reflection
I Wish I Could Go Back to College
Just Once
I Want You Back
Killing Me Softly

Piano Lessons 
Worked through 6 beginning songs from the Nikolaev Book

MONDAY!

Practiced to Conduct/Accompany Young Frankenstein
Listen to Your Heart
Surprise
Frederick's Soliloquey
Please Send Me Someone
Puttin' On The Ritz

Score Study/Rehearsal Prep to Conduct Broadway Concert (Fresno Grand Opera Chorus)
(Entire Program for run-through)
76 Trombones
Lida Rose
Sweet and Low
Till There Was You
Pick a Little
Goodnight Ladies
June is Bustin' Out All Over
This Was a Real Nice Clambake
If I Loved You
You'll Never Walk Alone
Tonight
America
Somewhere
Maria
One Hand, One Heart
At the End of the Day
I Dreamed a Dream
People's Song
On My Own
Bring Him Home
Les Mis Finale
No One Mourns the Wicked
The Wizard and I
One Short Day
For Good
Defying Gravity
Popular
The Phantom of the Opera
Angel of Music
Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again

Vocal Coaching
I'm Yours
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
Bushel and a Peck
I Dreamed a Dream
Learn Your Lessons Well
Riptide
Little Black Rain Cloud

Piano Lessons
3 Short Nikolaev Pieces

FGO Rehearsal
Conducted run-through of above program, cleaning rehearsal in second half


TUESDAY!

Vocal Coaching
In quelle trine morbido
Je suis Titania
Je suis encor tout etourdie
Seize the Day
Poison in My Pocket
Still Hurting
Much More
Honey Bun
Goodbye Until Tomorrow
Ani hava selet
On My Own
I Have a Dream
Alma del core
Younger Than Springtime
You Have to be Carefully Taught
My Girl Back Home
Route 66
Heidenroslein
A Dreamer's Holiday

Piano Lessons
6 Short Nikolaev

Practice Young Frankenstein 
Together Again
Roll in the Hay

Conducted/Accompanied Kids' Bach Passion of St. John Rehearsal
#1 Lord, Lord
#7 Chorale

WEDNESDAY!

Vocal Coaching
 Honey Bun
Where is Love
In My Life
A Brand New You
Seize the Day
Don't Cry for Me, Argentina
Wonderful Guy
Twin Soliloquies
Another World
Part of Your World
Route 66
I Had Myself a True Love

Young Frankenstein (Conducted/Accompanied Rehearsal)
Together Again Finale
Deep Love Finale
Hang the Doctor
He's Loose Reprise
Surprise
He's Loose
Together Again
Please Don't Touch Me
The Brain
Happiest Town in Town
The Law
Roll in the Hay


THURSDAY!

Vocal Practice
St. John's Passion Contrapuntal Chorus Pieces

Vocal Coaching
I Always Knew
Another World
Watch What Happens
Circle of Life
Maybe
Once Upon a Dream
On My Own
Backson Song
Into the Woods Narrator Parts

FGO Rehearsal
Conducted run-through of above program, then heard 21 solo auditions


FRIDAY! (MY DAY OFF!)

Practiced to Conduct/Accompany Young Frankenstein
Roll in the Hay
He Was My Boyfriend
Puttin on the Ritz
Together Again
Life!


Accompanying 
Do Re Mi
Little Black Rain Cloud


SATURDAY!

Rehearsal for Bach St. John's Passion
Sang Alto of all chorus sections

Vocal Practice
Learned/Memorized "Love is War" for Sunday Service

That is...  Wait for it....
OVER 250 PIECES that I was responsible for in one week!  

To be honest, it even scares me... but you just can't think about it -- another musician friend who has an equally ridiculous schedule advises "focus fully on what you are working on at the time and be sure to schedule in down time -- and when practicing, take a break if your brain can't absorb anything else."

As they say in "Avenue Q" -- this is real life -- You're gonna love it!   

"A Place to Foster a Love of the Arts..."

I can't let the end of the year come without writing about the best theater experience I had this year...
 After the shows, the recitals, the concerts, all the great stuff I've gotten to do this year were over, the week before Christmas I participated in one of the most important performances in the Central Valley this year. 
I got to help backstage at the CLIPArts Winter Performance.  
It seemed a lot like helping any other kids' group backstage.  Many reminders about volume (backstage we're not quiet, we're silent... but onstage be really loud!), lost costumes and props, almost-missed entrances, nerves ranging from jumping up and down to a few tears -- organized, joyful chaos.   But this is not just any other kids' theater program.   
These kids are not from the upper-end families whose finances and education lead them (and rightly so!) to seek arts programs for their children.  These are kids who are in foster care, or are at risk for gang membership, or whose families could never swing any extra dollars for a dance class or a voice lesson.  Many of the kids that donned costumes and sang and danced their hearts out have experienced worse things in 6-12 years than most will experience in a lifetime.  But at CLIPArts they are special.  At CLIPArts they are safe.  At CLIPArts they can experience a bit of the joy and light of performing arts

Lim Forgey (my husband, which I am bursting with pride to point out...), founded CLIPArts, or Christ Lutheran Academy of Performing Arts, in 2011 because he felt that as a young person the arts had turned his life around and they were something he could share with kids who needed something positive in their lives.  Since then, the mission of CLIPArts, to be "a free afterschool program offering professional education in the performing arts. CLIPArts is a place to foster a love of the arts, promote personal artistic skill, and build personal self-esteem. Our mission is to provide a service to families who might not otherwise have the opportunity to afford similar performing arts education." has grown from 20 some kids the first year to OVER 50! 

The teachers are kind and dedicated, the program is beautiful, and nothing --nothing-- can describe the glowing accomplishment on the kids' faces when the winter show was over.   They had done it all, from working on sets and costumes to the entire performance, and the experience of hard work being appreciated will certainly spill over into their entire lives, and the joy of music, dance, and theater arts will be a gift to them and into future generations.

I am so grateful that I got to be part of CLIPArts this year, even for a very brief moment.  I am grateful for the reminder of what the arts can mean, and why I love theater and music. 
 
If you'd like to learn more, click here:  CLIPArts Website

And, if this touches your heart like it does mine, please consider a donation to this entirely grant and donation funded program.  Any amount helps to bring arts education to these kids that need it so much!   CLIPArts Donation Page (via Paypal)

 

Wrapping Up 2014 -- Performing With Kids

Tonight is my last "official" performance of 2014! 

This year I've gotten to work with some of the "best of the best" from lots of different areas and still helping kids make awesome music together is the thing that probably makes my heart go pitter-pat more than anything else. 

LCA Junior Company getting ready to sing with Tulare County Symphony!

So a couple of thoughts...

1) I love working with kids because they are generally not jaded.  They are willing to work hard and get really excited when something is great. 

2)  They KNOW when something is great.  One of my giant pet peeves is that conductors/directors/coaches often underestimate kids.  Young people, regardless of their experience and skill, can do detail work beautifully!  They can have excellent diction, perfect cutoffs, bold entrances, arm angles that match in choreography, et cetera et cetera!  They just need to be taught how and then given enough opportunities to practice it -- and they are more willing to celebrate success than most of the adults I work with!
(and yes, kids can say "in excelsis deo" perfectly -- please believe in them and don't tell them "eggshells!")  ;)

3) Kids help me remember that I love music, and why.  In a month like this when I have played/sang/coached/conducted hundreds of pieces, it can really really become passionless *work*.  But in rehearsal last night, hearing "my" kids really bring it for the symphony rehearsal, I got chills.  They shared their passion.  They filled my heart.  Thank you!  ♥

LCA Junior Company Symphony Rehearsal Snippet!

Fresno Grand Opera -- Start of Rehearsals!

Monday night was the first men's sectional for the FGO Christmas on Van Ness concert.  What a joy to conduct this group!  Superlative musicians, and ready to try new things and take artistic risks (even Seth Rudetsky's three-ideas-on-a-long note that others might think is reserved for soloists or theater!) in order to bring a fresh, new performance.

Conducting an opera chorus through Christmas classics and other "fun" repertoire is an interesting task.  We are not a traditional choir.  We are a theater-based ensemble -- so in some cases, though we produce things that are very beautiful, entertainment and engaging the audience is a priority before beauty.  Our sound is energized and exciting, articulation is crisp and diction is paramount.

One of this group's strengths is versatility, which will also make this concert very interesting for the listener.  The variety of sound and tone colors is immense, producing a "Panis Angelicus" that could rival any cathedral choir and a hilarious character-filled "Nutcracker Jingles" that will keep an audience guessing -- and laughing!

It's fall and fall means musical projects!  More upcoming!

 Christmas on Van Ness -- click here for more information