Voice Recital

I've been taking voice lessons this summer as part of a workshop offered by my choir director, Don Anderson. We worked on two pieces, "Twisted", a jazzy piece recorded by Joni Mitchell in the '70's, and "With You I'm Born Again," a duet I sang with a tenor from our group, Dave Klosterman. After weeks of work, our efforts culminated in a "Cabaret-style" performance last night - really a recital - which I dragged Sarah, Emily, and Jeff to for moral support. Larry got called in to work at the last minute, and had to miss it... :-(

I was so nervous! Unlike me; I'm normally cool as a cucumber when I sing. But, we had a problem finding the written music/accompaniment for Twisted, so it was all done by ear. At the last minute, we decided to try to strip the vocals out of the recording, and use that to accompany me, but the stripping software took out the trumpet and bass, too, leaving me with only drums. It was hard to hear the first note, and I was afraid I'd miss it. Plus, I've wanted to sing this song for so long, and I wanted it to be awesome.

It wasn't awesome, but it wasn't awful. I let the tempo get away from me. I guess it's a good thing I had the drums, which I did catch back up to, or I'd have been like a freight train! My kids knew it - they've heard me practice enough, they know the piece as well as I do - but I'm hoping the audience wasn't quite as savvy. Many people spoke to me about it afterward; one guy told me what a tough tempo it was, and that I "nailed it". Guess there's a lot to be said for ignorance. :-) I had a hard time reading the audience as I was singing, too. I expected some chuckles, but all I saw was stunned faces. I couldn't tell if they were concentrating on the words, shocked that it was so different a piece, surprised by the out-of-context style for me, or what. The best reaction, though, was Don's Mormon wife. I caught her after I mentioned "getting into the vodka one night", and she definitely had raised eyebrows! She approached me afterward and said, "I didn't know you could sing like that, Joyce." Two reactions: 1) I didn't know she knew my name; 2) She's probably heard many voices that Don's worked with over the years, so I was flattered.

The duet I was thrilled with. I thought we blew it out of the water. There were moments when I was overcome with the blending of our voices, and almost had chills, it sounded so good! It was obvious that we worked hard on it, and the audience could appreciate the effort. I've been wanting to sing with Dave for a long time, and was pleased with the result we got from our combined efforts. Maybe Don will pair us up again, now that he knows what we can do.

Sarah taped it with my digital camera - our first attempt at using that feature. You can watch it below - once I figure out how to attach it!