Yesterday was AJoy's Friends and Family concert. We scaled it back this year because last year we had people standing in the entryway of the church and it was a wee bit of a fire hazard. I remember being so proud of how well we sounded last year, truly amazed at our progress since the year before. Contest was in mid-April in Alaska and by June, the chorus had improved so much that watching the contest videos was painful. By September, the June videos were too painful to watch. We haven't stopped that pace, and last night was the culmination of all our hard work.
We kept F&F small this year and required tickets for entry. The tickets were free but it meant that we didn't advertise the show to anyone outside our families and the church. Our audience ended up being about 200+ people excluding the 40ish members of the chorus. It meant that everyone had room to sit and nobody was squished. It also meant the chorus could sit down during the quartets.
AJoy started off the evening by singing our two competition songs. They felt strong and fabulous on the risers and from the reaction of the audience, they liked it. I liked that the building rang with our chords. The architect of the church's sanctuary did an amazing job creating a room that rings with energy naturally, and when we sing well and create the overtone, the building rewards us by humming along. Think of it as positive feedback every time we sing it right.
AJoy filed off to the left, and I filed off to the right to join my quartet-mates since we were next in line. This was definitely our best F&F concert of this season. We'd sung last Monday at Jet Cities' F&F, then again on Saturday at PSC's F&F, so this was our third performance in a week and everything just felt like it came together. I was nervous before AJoy unlike at Jet Cities or PSC - I guess I care how well I sing in front of my peeps moreso than when I sing in front of other people's peeps - but since we started with our uptune, I could direct that energy into our performance. I'm really liking starting with our uptune but we'll talk about our song order during tomorrow's rehearsal. Next up was our ballad. We started the chorus a wee bit too soft so there was no where softer to go for the next phrase, but other than that, I think we sang it as best as we are able. Since we had the option of singing a third song, we brought out "Codfish Ball". It's a funny song and we're still getting the choreo down while keeping the sound up, but the audience really seemed to like it. It's competable so maybe we'll perform it at competition next year but we're going to perform it this year at the Thursday night competition kick-off meeting.
Next up was Frenzy. Can I just say that I want dibs on their first CD? They don't sound at all like they did two weeks ago when I thought they were amazing. They've transformed in these two weeks from a region-winning quartet to a quartet worthy of being on the international stage. It's a monumental change and I could have just melted last night while listening to them. Larry's comment was that the bass' voice was like buttah - it just enveloped the sound and provided that perfect feeling that the other voices could layer their flavors on top of. The tenor's voice is so quiet and unassuming until you realize that she's singing those high notes so perfectly that you weren't even aware of them as separate notes but rather as just part of the notes the lead is singing. When she brings out her voice on the gospel song (whose name I should know but don't), you are suddenly laser-focused on how amazing she is - and how amazing she's been without you realizing it before. Nikki, the lead, has a voice that I thought I knew very well but when she sings with Frenzy, her voice is transformed into a sound that weaves seamlessly into the other voices so it becomes difficult to pick hers out of the mix. She is still undeniably the leader of the group but its more her presence than her sound. Having learned how challenging bari parts are - challenging note progressions and constantly rebalancing each chord to make it work - I have nothing but admiration for how seemlessly it was done. I think this Frenzy gestalt is the real difference from Frenzy two weeks ago. They were 4 fabulously talented singers singing really well together but now they are far surpassing what they can do individually. It's been an amazing transformation and I am privleged to see it happening.
Next up was Sunbreak, a brand new quartet. Not only is the quartet new, but two of the people have been singing barbershop less than a year and a third member has been singing for barely over a year. The fourth member (the bass) is experienced but that's quite a load to take on. The good news is they are all fantastically talented. I learned last night that the lead wrote their humorous tag song! The bad news is they had a coaching session three weeks ago where the coach basically told them to change most of the way they are singing. While they are all talented enough to make the changes requested, they are under significant time pressure with competition barely two weeks away. They sang really well but they are clearly still thinking about the mechanics. Overall, I think they are a better quartet than Champagne but we have more experience. They have a good chance to win the Novice Quartet Award if Frenzy doesn't qualify. I'm sure they'll be in the top 25% next year but this year is harder to tell because they don't yet have a lot of consistency in their performances yet.
Finally, AJoy took the stage again and sang our competition songs followed by "No More Sorrow", "Come Fly With Me" and "Happy Together". The last song is a really hard arrangement that Nikki thought would take us five or six weeks to pull together. Two weeks later and 15 minutes of sectionals, we were ready to add choreo :-) AJoy has worked so hard this year and we are really building on the firm foundation of basics we've been studiously getting down for the last few years. I don't know that we'd win the region but we are at least contenders and that's a good feeling. It's also a great feeling that nobody is getting anxious about scores. We don't have to score X in order to be happy. We're fairly consistently singing at 95% of our best and that is a great mindset to enter contest with!
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