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!!