Mountain Peak Experience in the Midst of the Storm

Tom and I were filled with great anticipation as we neared our opening night performance of the Brahms' Requiem. Thursday evening, we were to be at Trinity United Methodist here in Arlington for our call at 7pm, as the concert would begin at 8pm. As most of you know, our area had been forcasted with a grim night of weather to include severe thunderstorms with lots of hail. But, the show must go on, so we trudged on hoping that the weather report would not come true and affect our music. Our choir president told the audience that if we needed, we would stop our performance in case of an impending emergency. And, it happened. As we were in the middle of the second movement, we could hear the hail pounding on the building. We watched our conductor to see when he would stop us. About the time time of a grand entrance, some of us heard the sirens sounding. We made it through the second movement, at the end of which our conductor, Randy, motioned for us to be seated. And then, he left his podium, entered the audience, and very calmly said that the people were released to go if they so chose, and could save their ticket stubs to return to Friday night's performance at University Christian in Fort Worth. Several actually did leave; however, they came back in after they saw that they could not make it to their cars for the heavy downpour. So, Thursday night, we finished the concert with rave reviews afterwards.
Friday night, was our mountain PEAK performance. University Christian's accoustics were very "live" as they say with wood ceilings and tile floors. The only fabric in the building was the cushions on the pews. All else was made of hard surfaces. The sound of the orchestra and our choir literally RESOUNDED, RANG, and REVERBERATED. It was the MOST EXCITING performance of which Tom and I have ever been a part. The Requiem lasts for one hour and a half, but that time seemed to fly because everything came together. Our feet and legs were very tired because we had to stand for that whole length of time. My left foot went to sleep, and when I exited the stage area, my legs were stiff. But, it was all worth the hard work during the past four months. The music of Brahms was a work of genius that only God could orchestrate. Tom and I had mixed emotions when we finished. We were ready to see how our audiences would respond both Thursday and Friday nights (we received standing ovations both nights), but we hated to leave such an indescribably AWESOME experience behind us. We are anxious to get our recordings. We received RAVE reviews, one of which was the choirmaster at University Christian, who is also the man over all the choirs at TCU. He told Randy that we were amazing and that we did things with the music that he could not believe we accomplished since we are primarily an amateur chorus. That means so much to all of us. We worked VERY WELL together...as a team with all the players giving over 100%!! We are still basking in the beauty and the message of the music. I don't think we will EVER forget this experience!!
As for next season, our president told us that we may sing Carmina Burana and Leonard Bernstein's Chitchester Psalms. There is even a rumor about a venue at the Meyerson in Dallas!!! We will see!!

Brahms Requiem

Tonight, Tom and I took off a little before 7pm for our Monday night rehearsal with the Arlington Master Chorale. We are enjoying that time SO much!! We will be performing Johannes Brahms' Requiem in English rather than in German a week from this Thursday and Friday nights with full orchestra. I can't tell you how beautiful, melodic, and inspirational this choral work is! It has 7 movements and lasts about 1 hour and a half. As we sing, I envision Heaven, worshipping God, and thinking that maybe, just maybe Jesus will remove the "veil" and allow Mommie and Daddy Mac and Daddy Dwight to see and hear it! The music is absolutely angelic and majestic, in that I envision and think that it must be a close resemblance of what the heavenly beings must sound like! A Requiem is a funeral service, but this one by Brahms does not have the traditional Kyrie, Agnus Dei, In Paradisium, etc. This one surrounds itself around the theme of "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted; and, "Blessed are they who die in the Lord." I wish all of our family could join us for one of the performances and experience the beautiful voices along with the orchestra!! Tom and I have never sung anything like it. If you have not heard the work, you can download it from Itunes for about $10. That is what Tom and I have been practicing with between rehearsals. If you can come, we will be at Trinity United Methodist Church on Thursday evening, the 17th at 8pm in Arlington, and on Friday night, the 18th, at University Christian Church by TCU in Fort Worth at 8pm., AND we have tickets for sale.

Aviation

As some of you may know, I am a huge Commercial Aviation fan. I love the airport and airlines. Some of you may know, that it has been a sad week for the airline industry. Three airlines went down in one week. Only one of these closing airlines is affecting DFW airport (our home airport). The three airlines were: Aloha, American Trans Air (ATA), and the Ultra Low-Cost Columbus, Ohio based Carrier Skybus. The only airline that is affecting DFW is ATA. Sadly, it will be ending a route from DFW to Chicago's Midway Airport. Hopefully, when the Wright Amendment is repealed in the coming years, we will receive a route to Chicago Midway on Southwest Airlines. Some other interesting airport news, is that KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has begun new nonstop service to Amsterdam (the only one offering this service nonstop from DFW). Some other carrier news is that British Airways and American Airlines have transitioned their London service from Gatwick to Heathrow. This is bittersweet news for me. The reason for this, is that we will only now have one nonstop airport choice if we ever go to London, because I believe that the last nonstop Gatwick flight will depart around April 12th. Also, if we need to connect on British Airways, we might have to take a bus around London to Gatwick, since BA has different destinations served from both airports. Anyways, hopefully we can get some more airline service to new destinations nonstop from DFW.

Working Weekend

The weekend of April 4-6 has been a busy one. Seems like we worked all weekend. Friday afternoon, Stewart did not have to work at his part-time job. That was a blessing because he and I were to be at his high school (Arlington High) by 5pm to help sort and price ALOT of stuff for the Orchestra's annual Parking Lot Sale which was held on Saturday. One could hardly walk in the orchestra hall that evening. We had sections marked office, electronics, housewares, toys, babies, furniture,clothes,and seasonal. Many volunteers like Stewart and I showed up to help perform this monumental task of getting all the "merchandise" ready for sale. Tom stayed at home because we had a special donation from our garage that we were giving up in addition to all the items I had already gathered. For a couple of years now, we have had Mommie and Daddy Mac's organ stored in our garage for lack of a place indoors since redoing our living room several years ago. We have not had much luck finding a new home in which for it to live. So, there in our garage, it stayed. Tom stayed home to help the boys load it in their truck. Well, it is gone now, and hopefully, Stewart will discover who took on that project as it needed some work for it to play again. If he finds out where it went to live, I'll include that information on a future blogspot entry. So, maybe NOW, we can get our garage cleaned out again and GET OUR VEHICLES IN OUR GARAGE before they get SMASHED with hail this spring!! We McGregors seem to have a very hard time keeping our garage clean and organized!! By the way, the parking lot sale was for 3 scholarships to be awarded to deserving senior orchestra students at their yearly banquet to take place in mid May. So, that was Friday night.
Saturday, we slept in, and then Stewart had a chance to work at a childrens' consignment sale at our church building and make money that would be put in his summer activity youth account. So, Tom gladly drove Stewart to the church to work so we would not have to foot some of the expense of summer activities such as ACU Kadesh camp, Work Camp, etc. He ended up working 6 and a 1/2 hours. Way to go, Stewart...WooHoo!!! Tom was finishing up a car that he had been working on for a lady in our Bible Class at church and I was cleaning inside the house as we had our Bible study group at our house tonight (Sunday). We did take time out to go eat pizza at a place called the "Mellow Mushroom" over by TCU; they have the MOST EXCELLENT pizza.
Sunday morning, we were up early as it was our turn to sing on Praise Team. We meet at 8:15 to warm up and rehearse the program of music before class begins at 9am. This afternoon, it was back to tying up loose ends regarding cooking dinner for our group, and finishing up house chores to make things presentable for our guests. Stewart went to his high school Bible study group. Thankfully, God provided one of the senior girls to come by and give him a ride. It was a great evening for both him and Tom and me.