Ending the Year on a High Note

Well, a powerhouse high G at any event.  (Or maybe this could mean the C sharp that I have been singing consistently for the first time in my life.)

My Sunday solo "O Magnum Mysterium" went really well.  It was the first time in years that I have sung a "big" piece in church.  This new Director of Music has much more eclectic tastes in singing and in fact when we rehearsed the piece I made a joke to the effect that the choir director (who is still the choir director but who no longer schedules solos) would have shot me through the head if he had heard me blast the windows out with the climactic top G, and the new Director said that no, he considered that sort of sound appropriate for a solo if it was marked forte.  (He also said once that even in choral singing, if the note is above the staff, sopranos have a "free pass" to sing as loud as we need to to make the note sound good.)

Best of all was that when I sang that piece yesterday I got a lot of compliments including someone telling me it was "awesome".

Maybe I will try "I Know that My Redeemer Liveth" again near Easter?  I hadn't planned to sing at all in April because that's when I will be rehearsing Carmen, but I might be able to squeeze it in right after Easter if that is not a choir Sunday.  Or I may get to sing another solo bit on Good Friday.  And if not I can sing at the noon service the way I did last year.  With all the freedom I've been given maybe I can try "Liber Scriptus".

So now it's back to the "Seguidilla".  My upper register didn't sound all that great in today's practice, on the other hand I did a lot of singing Christmas Eve (just choral singing and caroling), and then this solo yesterday.

Wednesday I have a lesson.

This year I have not made New Year's resolutions.  It seems that usually at some point in the year (usually between July - my birthday month - and September, which feels like the New Year to me) something big happens that leads me to reevaluate where I'm going and what I need to do differently.  This year it was the upset over my birthday.  Two years ago it was upset over all the snark in the blogosphere over my singing the "Habanera" in the bookstore.

Overall this has been a good year for me.  I have been singing better and better, achieving a level of technical proficiency that has surprised me.  I have discovered I like helping children with their homework.  I was mentioned in an article in Classical Singer.  Actually in two articles if you include the anonymous mention of my singing in the bookstore, which wasn't a putdown, really. And hey!  It was enough of a "thing" to keep being mentioned over and over.  So chutzpah pays.  Howevermuch talent, ability, or credentials you do or don't have.