Except when there's something missing and there seems to be no relief in sight. Then I'll step up to the plate to help fill in the gap. Happened when I was in college - the music library didn't have very many operating hours and a fellow classmate was having a hard time getting there to checkout the reserves for the piano rep class we were taking. Guess who volunteered to work so the library was open more hours? Moi. As you can imagine, it happened in a few areas of my life.
Earlier this spring one of my favorite activities, a monthly song circle, was going on hiatus for not just one but two months. The room was booked or the leader was out of town. Singing is one of the expressive ways I keep my sanity so not having this outlet for 12 weeks was like being asked to starve. So, I took matters into my own hands. I found a room for a group to sing in, booked it, gave the event a name and let folks know.
You may be wondering why in the land of 10,000 choirs I didn't just jump into a church choir or another community chorus? A couple of reasons: 1) as a choir director in a church, my role is to plan and lead. I needed an outlet where I could just show up. 2) ten years of classical voice training had freed a lot of my vocal technique into big sounds that some conductors don't like sticking out in choruses (unless it's opera and you're trying to sound like a crowd of different voices:). 3) growing up in school and church choirs, I was surrounded by structure. All well and good, but I was ready for a change to expand my improvisation experiences.
Sing Heavenly Harmony (aka SHH!) in the Library had its first sing/stopgap "intervention" on Wed, May 12, 2010. Two more are scheduled for the O'Shaughnessy Room at the O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library on the University of St. Thomas' north campus. I hope you can join us for one or the other!- Wed, Jun 9, noon-1p
- Sun, Jun 27, 4-6p
Blessings on your gap filling measures!
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