Off the Risers: Life as a singer (Jake 10/8/13)
There are weeks, and then there are weeks where you could really use a personal assistant. This past week happened to be in line with the latter sentiment for me. I can only imagine what I could have done with that extra 10 minutes I spent each day waiting for coffee at Starbucks. However, as some of my friends remind me, I am still vertical (and typing, as it were), so the complaints can stop.
Part of what contributed to my sense of busyness was the quick trip my partner and I made to Chicago last weekend to catch the Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago before it ended. I have to tell you, there are few experiences similar to seeing the original works of Monet, Manet and Degas up close. There is something about standing a foot away from a portrait and seeing the individual brush strokes with both blended and stark contrasting colors combine to form a beautiful scene as you step back. For the first several minutes that we wandered the exhibit, my thoughts centered around the amazing ability of the artists and how many years they must have worked and practiced to get to a level where they could produce such beauty. (Do you see where I am going with this yet?)
Before I could spend too much time pondering my inadequacies when compared to Claude Monet, I remembered that although my abilities in the fine arts begin and end at stick figures, I can make art through music. I started to think about how singing in a choir was essentially creating a visceral, three-dimensional work of art every day, which blew my mind. I also started to wonder what Edgar Degas’ “rehearsals” were like. I decided being a painter in rehearsal would have been similar to working one on one with each singer in a choir until the performance, which would drive me crazy. Therefore, and in a completely biased fashion, I came to the conclusion that I had the better deal when it came to creating art…even if that art sometimes resembles a Picasso (*cough* Benjamin Britten *cough*).
Although no one has EVER made the painter-musician reference before (…), I do think there is something special about what we are working every week to create. After all, “artist” is in our name and “artist” is definitely in our game.
Right now we are working on material for our autumn concerts which will include some of the “pop” hits of The Singers, like works by Morten Lauridsen and Stephen Paulus. Make sure to mark your calendars for the concerts: October 25th and 26th!
I’ll be talking at you again soon!
