Friday, February 08, 2008

One Year in the Vocal Majority

Today marks my first anniversary of singing with the Vocal Majority chorus!

One year ago, on Thursday, February 8, 2007, I walked into a VM rehearsal for the very first time. I was greeted warmly, handed a ginormous binder of music, and led to a spot on the risers -- and I was hooked before we ever got to a song! When the group began ringing chords in the warmup, they had me.

But for the record, the first song rehearsed that night, the first I ever sang with the chorus, was “Believe” from The Polar Express -- the group was about record it, as the title track to their new Christmas album. And introduced to the group that same night was our beautiful Jim Clancy arrangement of “What Kind of Fool Am I?,” which in July was performed to over 9,000 people at the Barbershop Harmony Society's international convention in Denver, one of four songs in our "swan song" set as the reigning champion chorus.

What a year it has been! According to my notes, in this past year I have:
  • Received music for 93 songs! (One guy compared being a rookie in VM with “drinking from a fire hose.” It's true!)
  • Sung 75 of those songs in rehearsal with the chorus at least once.
  • Performed 54 songs with the chorus publicly.
  • Starting with the international stage in Denver, appeared with the chorus 17 times, including the three Denver appearances, three Fall shows, four Christmas shows, one high school show, four private gigs, one funeral and one wedding!
I’ve had some amazing musical experiences in my life before VM, but I can say without a doubt that in this one year I have sung more, been challenged more, learned more, and enjoyed music more than at any time in my life.

What a privilege to be a part of this amazing group of guys. I can't wait to see what this next year holds!

1 comment:

robkroese said...

Congrats. Sounds like a good time.