As you may recall, WW Band member Brian Hoskins spends his days turning the voices of Renton's south-end youth into some of the most vital choral sounds you're likely to hear in a school auditorium. He sees nearly 300 students each day, spanning seven grades, including a Vocal Jazz Ensemble that meets beginning at 6:20am. Having just flown in from Chicago yesterday, I've dragged myself down to Lindbergh for a barely more reasonable 7:20 call to listen to the Ad Astra Choir take a crack at "Sing to Me," the song they commissioned me to write for them this year.
A few years back Brian had me arrange "Carry On" for his middle school group, a tremendous experience that has yet to fade away. But this is different: a completely new song, choral-focused from the start, for them; the group's one explicit request: tell a story!
We finish the second run through and one of the students I know fairly well tiptoes up to me. "Is it okay?" he asks. I nod. "It's just, well, you haven't said much that's been positive, and we're worried you don't like our performance of it." Oh, shoot... I'm blown away. The thrill of having sixty voices sing your song--a song they asked you to write specifically for them, no less--has knocked me over, and 'utterly blown away' (combined with feeble attempts to be an educator and offer workshoppy-feedback when asked) is reading as 'concerned.' I set everyone straight.
The evening performance is a gas...one great moment among many as the choirs give their last performances of the year. I tell Brian after: "I didn't hear anything that wasn't my own fault."
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