Autumn Avanti

"Avanti" means "to move forward" or "moving forward" in Italian. Yesterday, Chorale had it's first-ever Autumn Avanti, a day-long choir retreat at a local elementary school (the principal is an alto).

We started at 9:30, though I had volunteered to help direct the food that was being brought by everyone, so I was there at 8:45. We had benches set up in the cafeteria, and the piano had been rolled in from the music room.

At 9:30, our director, Magen, started warming us up. What I love about warm-ups with Magen is that she takes a long time. We stretch. We move. We start low and gradually, slowly, work our way to the higher notes. By the time she has the sopranos singing a high B-flat or C, it's effortless, because we've spent the previous fifteen to twenty minutes warming our vocal cords up and getting things moving. Magen understands just how physical singing is, and how, like any athlete, the vocalist needs to slowly prepare the voice for singing to avoid injury.

After our warm-up, we dived into the Mozart. On Tuesday night, Maestro Jaffe of the Stockton Symphony will be coming to our rehearsal to work with us (he will, of course, also conduct both us and the symphony at the concert) and start getting us used to his style and his vision for the Requiem (though it shouldn't be too different than Magen's, as they've spent time discussing it at length).

Rehearsals with Magen fly by. Before I knew it, we'd been singing Mozart for an hour and it was time for a break. We did a "People Hunt" activity, which was quite fun. I talked to people I've never had a chance to talk to before. I learned that a lot of us were born in Midwestern states (Ohio, Iowa, and my own Nebraska), that Irene has a one-eyed cat, that Magen herself does not own a TV. People learned that jog for exercise, and that I actually kind of like Brussels sprouts.

When that was finished, it was time to sing some more. We worked several passages of the Mozart, concentrating on notes, rhythms, dynamics, and all of the hundreds of tiny details that a choir must think of--"That 's' must be staccato and pianissimo!" Magen pulls it out of us--demanding excellence while making us smile and feel that she's not asking too much of us. She demonstrates everything, and is a natural teacher.

Finally it was time for lunch. Some people had signed up for a sandwich from Subway, but not wanting to be stuck with mayo, I had brought my own lunch from home--apple slices, grapes, cheese, crackers. I kept it light, as there would be a big meal at the end of the day.

After lunch, we did a straight, non-stop run-through of the Requiem. At the end of this, we were vocally exhausted, but quite pleased with the progress we've made.

After this, we split into our sections and went off to various activities. Sopranos had voice-matching first. Magen listened to us all sing various pitches and vowels on our own and in groups of two and three. She lined us up in places where we would best match the person next to us vocally. It's quite a process. When finished with that, the sopranos left to another building for some bonding activities--which sounds like it should be horrible and cheesy but was actually fun and filled with laughter. I have a new appreciation for some of my fellow sopranos that I haven't known very well 'til now. The last activity we did was a simple answer-the-question. The question was, "What is the best thing you cook?" I told them of my love of soup, and that I can make a very nice potato-leek soup from scratch. I mentioned my desire to make pumpkin soup, and got a lot of "ooohhhhs" in response.

After this, we had our break time, then a quick sectional rehearsal. Finally, the singing was finished for the day. The barbecue was fired up by the people who had signed up for grilling duty, while the rest of us did one last crazy, cheesy activity. Everyone picked a paper out of a basket, with a barnyard animal on it. There were four of every animal. You had to find the three people with your animal...and you could only find them by walking around making the noise of your animal. I pulled a horse, so I walked around neighing and stomping my foot occasionally.

In our groups of four, we had to find three things we all had in common and report back to the group. My group discovered we all love to read, we all have two-syllable last names, and we all have pets.

Finally, dinner was served. It was a potluck. We had barbecued hotdogs, various salads, veggie lasagna that had been cooked in a solar cooker all afternoon outside the cafeteria, and an array of desserts. I didn't go overboard, but I did enjoy every bite. I sat with some fellow sopranos and enjoyed talking to them.

It was such a great day. I left at 6:30 after telling Magen how much I'm enjoying Chorale under her leadership. I was exhausted--all that singing, all the standing--singing is so physical. But I was also so very, very satisfied. Chorale has always been fun, but never at this level. We are really making music, and every rehearsal, I walk out feeling like I've become a better singer.

It's a marvelous feeling.