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This blog contains the random thoughts of an 18-year-old vocal performance major. Proceed with caution.

About Eric

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Thornton, CO, United States

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The Tuxedo Post

This has basically been one of the best days of the year so far for me. Granted... there's only been nineteen days this year, but the first weeks back from school were kind of sucky and left me feeling defeated, plus the whole Zodiac scare didn't do much.

Anyway, the big news of today is that NYU apparently liked my prescreening CD I sent in and have invited me to audition on campus. Should I choose to accept this invitation, I'll go over to Manhattan one weekend and audition, and hopefully see a Broadway show while I'm there... maybe. We'll see. :D

I'm not as excited about NYU as I was earlier (I'm probably most likely going to CSU and then hopefully transferring to Manhattan School of Music), but I definitely want to keep my options open, and NYU is still my dream school, because it's freaking NYU. So if I get some sort of excellent offer, then so help me I'm going there.

But that's not the point of this post. What really put the icing on the cake was tonight's Senior Choir Concert. OH MY GOD. IT WAS SO AWESOME.

Everything went right... there was no "Groove Thing" Debacle like last year (though I'm of course not trying to say that last year's Senior Concert was in any was inferior to this year's... they're far too different to be even remotely comparable).

Last year's concert was a lot more traditional. All the choirs were separated, and there was very little movement among the choir as a whole. Sure, we danced and had fun, but it was different. We also ended on a mellower note, Josh Groban's "Thankful," a beautiful and meaningful piece, but not quite an audience-pleaser.

This year we ended with "Don't Stop Believin'," by Journey, to raucous applause. All the risers were placed in one long arch on the stage. There was no real sense of division between the choirs. And there was a heckuva lot more movement. I'm talking full-out dancing. I don't think I've even been in a show (and I've been in Footloose, the premiere dancing show) with such intricate dance moves that, overall, we're performed well by everyone. I would have never guessed that that would have happened, because such a large group of people would be difficult to do more than just a little bit of swaying, right?

Wrong.

Time and time again I am amazed at what this group of students can do. I first noticed it at the first dress rehearsal of Tale of Two Cities, where everyone was put together for the first time and everything just clicked, as if we'd been rehearsing for years. Then I was amazed on Art Day, when we have to maneuver ourselves around hundreds of students and faculty members AS A GROUP, all in the space of a few minutes. And now we managed to pull this off, against all odds. This group is truly miraculous.

Now, as a senior, I have the option to dress up formally for the concert as to contrast against the underclassmen, who are clad in the traditional white shirt and dark pants. I, being the freak about formal clothes that I am, decided to wear my tuxedo with my new emerald green vest. I figured there'd be a few other boys wearing suits, so the fact that I was being obnoxious wearing a tuxedo would blend in well.

Well, I was the only one wearing a tuxedo. A gentleman after the concert told me (and I choose to believe that he was just teasing playfully) that I had overdressed for the occasion.

I don't think I did.

I only get one Senior Concert. After tomorrow night, there will be no more Senior Concerts. No more miraculous dancing to tunes from Glee. Sure, I'll hopefully still be in choral ensembles in college, but there won't be anything like what I've had to offer from the THS choir.

So, I don't think it's possible to overdress for the occasion. There were plenty of girls wearing gowns worthy of prom... they didn't overdress either.

The truth is, when celebrating something as magnificent as this choir, there is nothing that can be done overboard. This choir deserves my utmost, sincere respect. In that regard, I was underdressed. There is no way to wear an outfit worthy of celebration of this magnificent group of people.

But I'm guessing a tuxedo comes close. And I'll be wearing it again tomorrow night. :)

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