Friday, March 24, 2006

The NATS competition

I just got back from my first singing competition around nine, and it went pretty well. I mean, there were things that could have been a lot better, and I know I could have done better, but being the first solo I've ever done I'm not too disappointed.

The atmosphere, however, was a bit... well, I didn't like it particularly. First of all, the woman at the front desk talked to me like I was about 2 years old when I was registering, and it felt like she didn't want to deal with anyone. That put me off a little. And then, in the room where I performed, there was this weird tension in the air and I got this really interesting vibe from the three judges; like they could tell I was a rookie, or something like that... it was a bit unnerving.

Other than that, I felt pretty relaxed during my performance; I was a little anxious, but compared to my other solo experiences I thought I did rather well. I did go flat or sharp a few times in my first piece, Goodnight my Someone; but I know that was due to air pressure, nothing out of my control; and that was probably due to nerves, because I have performed this piece flawlessly before. Lachen und Weinen, my second piece, went really well, except for again a problem with air pressure that made me go a bit flat. My last piece, however, was kind of sloppy because my accompanist (wonderful woman, and a really talented pianist) got off the music while playing; she lost her place, I think, and I got ahead of her, of course making a mess of that section. But it ended up being okay, because I just kept going and she was able to pick right back up at where I was. I don't really blame her for making that mistake, though, because the music for that piece (Another Hundred People from Stephen Sondheim's musical Company) is ridiculously hard and fast, way beyond anything I would ever dream of trying. Plus, when I photocopied the music for her and sent it to her, the music didn't copy well and when she read it she thought the timing was a quarter note to 116 instead of a half note to 116, so that of course made her think that the piece was really slow paced, like a love song, which it isn't at all... so until we met for the first time two weeks ago to practise it, she had already been playing it for a week or so at a really slow tempo. It was really hard to get us together on the piece, I mean the piano part and the vocal part, so I'm happy about the performance, and I'm glad that it went as well as it did, even if there was a small mistake.

So all in all, it was a very rewarding experience, and I'm sure that the more I compete the more accustomed I'll become to the environment and all that.

Nothing more really to add, so I'll talk more later.

"But then there's a moment like tonight, a profound and transcendent experience, the feeling as if a door has opened, and it's all because of that instrument, that incredible, magical instrument." - Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, Mite Makes Right, 1994.

1 comment:

Soulknitting said...

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