Christmas Together
We are into our final rehearsals for Christmas. We are combining our choir with Christ's Church's choir for the musical again this year. Normally I am rehearsing the orchestra on Wednesdays but the orchestra is now in with the choirs so I am free to take care of things behind the scenes and have fun playing timpani. Last year I wore an afro to the dress rehearsal. If you have never seen a timpani player play with an afro I highly recommend it. After all, Christmas is a time for joy. Everyone in the choir was having joy at that moment. I really did it for Lynn's sake (our choir director). Finally she saw what everybody was laughing about and gave me “that look“. She's a great sport though. One year our school band director who plays french horn handed out puppets to the orchestra members for an unauthorized rendition of a song that had that “Muppet Show” feel to it. “It's time to start the music...” Again this was mostly for the benefit of our “A-type“choir director who has done this for 26 years. One year I wore black and white tennis shoes with my tux (hey, they were new).
I think we have more fun in the orchestra than they do in the choir. Probably because we are smaller than the choir and mostly because we have a lot of characters in the group. You can plug in the musician excuse here if you wish. Todd (band director man) deals with Jr. High and Sr. High band members all day. That has to mess you up a little. He has things like... rubber chickens lying around the band room. The students love him.
When some of our members joined, they hadn't played since high school and decided to get the instrument out of the closet and give it a go. Many get back into their chops a lot sooner than they expect. We have an oboe and bassoon (hard to come by in volunteer orchestra). We have young and old. Some are not to far out of Suzuki classes. Others are very seasoned players. It is great to see them rub off on each other, play together, and laugh together like a family. Year by year our sight-reading improves, our skill usually increases but moreover, our appreciation for each other grows. It's just great to spend Christmas together again.
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