Millennial Easter Performance

MCO picked right back up after Christmas break to start rehearsing for our Easter Program. "That Easter Morn". I was excited to get back in it and have another fantastic season! 

This go around, was a bit harder than our Christmas program. The music at Christmas was fun, beautiful, festive and a lot of the songs, I knew the basic words and rhythms to, so the reading of music, and memorization wasn't too tricky, but this go around I pretty much panicked right from the beginning of the first rehearsal all the way up to 5:00pm the night of our first concert.

The music was AMAZING, but incredibly hard to learn. Like the hardest music I have ever had to sing in my entire life. All semester long I have done nothing but listen to pre-recordings of our music over, and over, and over again. 

The hardest piece we had to learn was "Chichester Psalms" There are three movements, making the song last a solid 23 minutes, and all in Hebrew. There is no solid structure to these songs, so learning tempo, rhythm, and plus the memorization definitely kept me on my toes. We all were pretty nervous about it the first time we heard the whole thing. That song was on repeat, I even had it playing while I would run. I still can't believe we memorized that and it actually turned out amazing!! It is now one of my favorite pieces and I still listen to it... more out of habit now I guess. Haha 

Honestly if you have a second, go listen to it on you-tube or google it. Just listen for a bit. It's amazing and Leonard Bernstein is an insane writer but such a master of music. It's so crazy! (Think 'West Side Story' then some... and some more... then more...) 

Our rehearsals, I felt continued to get longer and longer as the season progressed. I think it was just because our music was so difficult that we needed the extra practice. 

This was our dress rehearsal night. We were all laughing, because we had already been there for five hours, and then we were scrunched into this tiny little stairway for what felt like forever!

My view from the stage. I mostly took this to show Dan where to sit so he could see me, but isn't this church beautiful. We didn't sing in a huge venue this time, but this church definitely was a fantastic place to sing. 

Our Program theme

Other Songs we sang were:

-Alleluia

-That Easter Morn

-He's got the Whole World In HIs Hands

-Rock of Ages

-Jesus, Lover of my Soul

-Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer

-Chichester... I  II III 

-When I Survey The Wondrous Cross

-I know That My Redeemer Lives

You can find all Millennial Choir recordings on I-tunes of these songs. I know you recognize some of them, through their text, but the arrangement is completely different! Go listen. 

Friday, March 27th we had two shows

5:00pm & 8:00pm 

The 5:00pm was not nearly as full. I hate saying this, but we kind of use the 5:00 show to get all our jitters out, and we scale back just a tiny bit to save our voices...

The 8:00 show was so much more fun. I feel we let go a whole  lot more, and I let loose a little more on my voice, because if I lose it.. who cares. It's got time to heal! haha We were pretty much sold out for the 8:00 show and the audience was a much more mature set, so it was more fun to sing in that one. 

Before our concert 

This is such an incredible organization. Children starting from the age of 4 are welcome to sing. All the way up until 18. Once you turn 18 you have to audition to be apart of the Grand Chorus, the one I'm apart of. This is everyone! 

After the concert I met up with Dan and we chit chatted with others for a while. 

Selfie Style

Afterward we went and had dinner and stayed out way later then we should have, given we had a packed Saturday, but we had a babysitter who didn't mind staying out past midnight so we took full advantage and enjoyed our night after the concert. 

I'm so so so grateful to be apart of this. To sing, and learn more than I ever thought possible. I have loved reading music again and getting back all my music theory that I have learned so long ago. 

Go listen to the music, it's inspiring and especially during this Easter Season, very appropriate to have playing in your home. 

MCO. YOU RULE!