First Choral Performance

Friday was our first performance for the MS Choir. Actually they are students from 6-10th grade, however the choir is mostly middle school students with 2 9th grade students and 1 10th grade student. We sang a piece by Moses Hogan entitled "I'll Make the Difference". This concert was to benefit HIV positive and AIDS victims here in Addis. The director of the Motley Singers organzied this event. There were many instrumentalists and vocalists performing. So the piece we sang seemed appropriate for the occasion.

I was hired to do one thing...rebulid a program. So this performance being the first of many that will determine the path of our choral music program left me with a little self-created stress. Good Lord, I was stressed out all week. In the end the kids did a fabulous job. They sang with grace and confidence. Harmonies were exact and filled with love. It was pretty hot! I am so blessed to have so many excellent singers in the group. Most of the students I have are sixth graders and they can belt out some sound. I am impressed.

The thing that irritated me the most was that important information about the concert was not given to me. For instance, the concert was scheduled for one hour. 2.5 hours later it was over. The previously mentioned group, the Motley Singers is a community chorus that I joined a month ago and were performing at the end of the concert. Unfortunately I had to take my kids back to the school before 9:30pm wo I was unable to sing. But that wasn't the most irritating part. I should have asked the type of music that was going to performed that evening. There were excellent musicians performing including solo violinists, solo pianists, small vocal and instrumental ensembles, etc. However, these were musicians that you would pay $60 to go see in the states performing with a professional orchestra. I had no idea that my new task, after my kids finished performing, that I had to maintain 11-14 year olds through a very long pieces. I had to take them out after a while. They did the best they could sitting still for an hour and a half. So I couldn't be to mad at all of the talkin' and squirming around. Oh well, it is what it is.

Our next performance will be on November 17th for international day (formally known as UN day). They will be accopmanied by the HS band, the african drumming class, dancers and the elementary musicians. It should be pretty cool.

What's Happenin

I hope you all have been doing well over there. Sorry it has taken me so long to post another journal entry. You know how it is with most educators at this time of year. It has difinitely been an interesting ride so far. We host an education conference in Addis a couple of weeks ago. It was an organazation called AISA (Association of International Schools in Africa). Kathy and her kids performed and did a great job. When the conference came to our campus my African drumming class played during the afternoon festivities. That marked our first public performance. We recieved some great feedback to. Pretty much we just had a drum circle. But it was a good performance.

Our next performance slightly snook up on us. This Friday my choir will be performing at a benefit concert at the IEC (International Evangelical Church) to help raise money for AIDS and HIV positive individuals. As most of you know, Africa does have the highest percentage of HIV positive people. That doesn't mean that everybody and they momma have aids here. We are a very large county with a small amount of people with aids in regards to the 8 million in the population of Addis alone.

I felt that this would be a great opportunity for our students to get involved in the communtiy by participating in an event to make a difference in the lives of others.

Now, with that out of the way, my purpose here is to rebuild a music program. Even though I have had great feedback from not only my kids, but my parents, administration, and fellow teachers; I still feel as if I am under scrutiny. The pressre that I feel is the pressure I put on myself to not only have my kids have a great aesthetic expereince, but to also to perform to the best of their abilities. Since this is my first time working with them, I have no idea how they will react to their first performance.

No matter what were going to have a great time. My choir starts off the performance and then there will be a variety of instrumentalist and vocalist performaing. At the end of the concert the Motley Singers (a community choir that I joined a month ago) will be performaing as well to finish the show. The community chorus is actually pretty good. We are doing some cool 8-part a capella pieces. It's pretty sweet.

Outside of that, the musical is well under way. We are putting on The Wizard of Oz, with a little bit of music from the Wiz. It should be alright. Now being the music director I have to prepare the vocalists and the pit. Problem: No music parts for the pit. THe version we are doing is outdated and we cannot get the parts. So what am I doing....making many arrangements. Let's just say me and Sibelius (music writing software) are spending a lot of time together.

Anyway,
We have a 3 day weekend coming up. I will try to update this weekend.

Have a great night.

Cameron