Under the continuing life-expansion category, Ron and I decided to check out the Cairo Choral Society. We had seen advertisements for practices beginning in September, and with the potential-hindrance of location not being an issue (practices are held at the church 1 ½ blocks from our home), we grabbed another friend and walked over Tuesday night.
Both Ron and I have sung in high school productions and choirs, but neither of us has done anything (other than the odd spontaneous show at, say, one’s wedding) more formal in our adult years. We signed in, got our music, boldly claimed our singing parts (soprano and tenor) as if we knew what we were doing, and started milling about with the other choir members. It was a very internationally-eclectic group. There was a large German contingent, quite a few Brits, we met a nice Dutch man who had a great tenor voice that Ron said he relied on for note-matching, and I similarly relied on the American University student I sat next to.
The conductor was an American and I was definitely impressed with, and intimidated, by him. This adult choir stuff is the real deal! They take this very seriously. They have a strict attendance policy and practice is once a week for over two hours. My abs actually ached after singing practice – guess I was breathing correctly.
We’re practicing two pieces for possibly three concerts in early December. One is a Hayden piece, in Latin, and the other is Beethoven in German. Oh, and everyone sight-reads. So, even though we have an excellent piano accompanist, I swear Ron and I were the only ones who waited for him to play the notes we were to sing (or rely on Mr. Dutch or Ms. AUC), before issuing sound. Definitely intimidating.
But I think we’re going to continue (and get the music from iTunes so we can learn it in spite of our lack-of-sight-reading abilities). As an added bonus, when we were given a break and all raced outside to get out of the stuffy hot church, the outside of the church was rippling with little geckos here and there. So I was quite amused (I sound ADD, don’t I?).