Looking Back (with a satisfied smile on my face)

I received a phone call this week from a somewhat confused Music Appreciation student. She was inquiring about tickets for our performance of "The Armed Man" which she thought was happening this weekend. It was sad to tell her that she was nearly two months late and that the performance was in MARCH and not MAY. She ended with, "That's too bad; it looks like it would have been a really cool performance to attend!"

I smiled into the phone. Then I said, "Yes, it was a very special performance."

Nearly two months have passed since the collaboration between Griffin Choral Arts and the Griffin Ballet Theatre as they together performed "The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace." Since that time, nearly every day something will bring my mind back to that magical week. Often it's a comment, email, letter, or phone call from someone who was in the audience. I allow myself to drift back into the thrill of being on that stage and I enjoy a few moments of reliving it all.

Quite often I talk about how choirs have always known that "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts." When you multiply that to include the twenty professional instrumentalists, the dance company, the five guest dancers, and the visual images and lighting effects, it's no wonder that we were all feeding off of eachothers' energy and contributions to "the whole."

Other times I will lament the fact that the performers never really had the chance to experience what the audience experienced. Certainly the choir could not see the visual images or appreciate the way the dancers filled the stage with color and movement. The dancers, running on and off stage and spending some entire movements backstage certainly couldn't realize the full impact of the music. None of us on stage could see the images and video clips that framed the subject matter in a very powerful way so that the music and dance could be better understood intellectually and emotionally. Usually I pity the audience, as they may have no idea what a rush it is to perform on the stage surrounded by creativity, talent, and a unified desire for artistic expression. But this time, to some extent at least, I was jealous of those in the seats!

At some point when I'm talking on and on about TAM, my voice just kind of trails off and I shake my head in half-disbelief that it actually happened.

Then I look up and smile one more time before going back to work on the next thing.