Reflections on a concert

Last night was my singing teachers concert, a collaboration between her students from the weekend school and her university and private students.

It was very exciting to be singing at The Sage Gateshead, which is an absolutely amazing concert venue. Although we were in hall 2, the smaller room, the intimate feel with the audience was great and appropriate to our purposes and the acoustics were gorgeous.

We started at 1.30 with those of us who were there, though it was mainly the soloists. I got asked to be a page turner so I was busy throughout the day taking care of this (David Murray was accompanying us on the piano... he is amazing! He's also my Music Language teacher at the Sage weekend school incidentally). But, this proved to be a great thing - seeing the transition from rehearsal to concert for other singers, and how they flourished or stumbled in front of an audience in comparison to the rehearsal was quite useful to be able to look at from an outsiders point of view. Sometimes it's easy to forget that you're not the only one who feels insecure, forgets words, or gets too nervous! Not that they all were, they all did amazingly in the performance, but talking to some of my friends about it made me feel much better about my own singing insecurities, to know that people I see as far better than me have the same feelings.

I got to know some of the other singers much better, which is great because I have a hard time talking to people sometimes. So it was really fun backstage. And everyone loved my dress which is always great. There were certainly some lush dresses worn by others, though many of them I'd have to be at least half my size to fit into! Exercise motivation? Perhaps...

The first song went great, I smiled (but kept my mouth relaxed at the same time, I think/hope) and then I was done until the interval so I got to enjoy the performances. Even though I'd seen them all in the rehearsal, I loved all of their voices so it was great to be able to hear such high quality music for free.

The second half opened with an excerpt from pirates of penzance, which went amazingly well. I think my acting skills are slowly improving and that I did a great job of being angry with him for suggesting that we were all "homely faced with bad complexion". The rest of the solos were great, and a lot more light hearted than the first half, and the finale went really well. Although, I didn't expect to be walking onto stage with anyone so when I was offered a hand to be led on I ended up looking slightly blankly at him for a while and probably made a complete fool of myself. But hopefully it was only my parents who noticed.

Overall it was a great night, though I was dissapointed not to have a chance to sing a solo this time. Hopefully I'll be offered the opportunity next year.