Verdi Requiem Postponed and That Long-Deferred Post

I don't think this Verdi Requiem concert is going to happen this year. It was partly my own fault. I kept waiting to see what was going to happen with the Gioconda production. I am definitely doing it next year, though, now that I know that the pastor will let me use the sanctuary without paying (I will just turn over the ticket money to the church to use for whatever charity they are sponsoring for Lent that year.) So I will set a date this November for next March.

My teacher says that he really would like to try to do it and the soprano who sang in my Verdi concert definitely wants to do it, she just had a few unforeseen issues to deal with this year.

As for the long deferred post, I am talking about what I referred to here.

Both my therapist and the nice man, Zachary, who reads this blog, said that I should "advertise" for older singers.

I want to post something on the Forum but I find that place daunting. Interestingly, I looked there a few days ago and there was a thread about dramatic voices so I posted something there.

I think I find the Forum daunting because when I first began reading it, probably 5 years ago (how time flies), I thought of myself as a "real" singer who had something to offer - I'm not speaking vocally, but simply as someone who had sung, who could claim singing experiences as a part of my past. So I would post a whole range of things from questions to health advice. I actually got quite a bit of help there both with my Samson et Dalila concert and with finding repertoire to sing as church solos. But then something would always scare me away.

I think I'm afraid if I start a thread looking for avocational singers in their 50s and older with big operatic voices, who are not professionals, but who would love to sing and help me produce concerts, etc., that someone will laugh at me (or worse, no one will respond).

I guess I just have to do it. I was going to wait until I saw my therapist (this wouldn't be until the 17th) because she said I could write out what I was going to say and read it to her and then just put it out into the universe.

What I had in mind was something like

"I am a 61-year old dramatic mezzo living in mid-Manhattan who began studying voice seriously at the age of 54. I am looking for other singers with similar demographics who are eager to perform standard operatic repertoire, with or without 100% technical proficiency, and would be willing and happy to help me out with the cost and planning of operatic concerts and concert operas. Of course older more experienced singers would be welcome too, but I want people who would really be interested in this and not jump ship if a better offer comes along. I am also just interested in meeting people with a similar demographic profile, even people who don't live here, so that we can correspond and share experiences.

So I will sit on this until Monday and see if I can bring myself to post it.

Now, as I have to get up at 6 to sing in a 9 am service (I defy any paid choir singer to tell me they take what they do more seriously than I do) I had better hop in a bath and hit the pillow.