Eastman Summer Sings

I'd been looking forward to the arrival of the summer sings at Eastman, since I completely missed them last year.  It's not easy to find information on them by googling (except for the ones in the past), and in typical Rochester fashion, information isn't even available until very close to the event date.  Never mind...  I missed the first one, but I was free for the 2nd one, so I decided to go and sightread my way through Mendelssohn's Elijah, with Concentus conductor Gwen.

My only prior experience of summer sings was back in the mid 1980s, when I went to one in a rehearsal room at Carnegie Hall by accident - I didn't understand the concept and thought I was going to a performance.  Instead, as I entered the room, in exchange for my $5 I was handed a rental score of Carmina Burana. Luckily, I could sing, and I had chosen this 'concert' because I had sung the piece before, so I wasn't totally a fish out of water!

I hadn't really set my expectations that high - I mean, this is Rochester, not New York City, right?  Wrong!  First, the sings are held in the beautiful Kilbourn Hall, which seats 444, and has wonderful acoustics.  Second, the soloists were not only all performance quality, but were actually professional singers - I would have been happy just to listen to them for 2 hours!  Third, William Weinert, the conductor, was professional but also injected humor as he stopped us to redo a few passages that we managed to mangle.

Incredibly, there were over 200 singers, mostly seniors, but a large contingent of students created an age barbell.  Some seemed familiar with the work, but there were many like me to whom it was (almost) totally unfamiliar (I say almost, because I've actually sung 2 movements - Lift Thine Eyes in Concentus, and He Watching Over Israel in college;  the latter brought back a juvenile moment as we sang "slumbers not nor sleeps"...).  What we all had in common was the joy of singing and the desire for the camaraderie of making music together.  It took about 2.5 hours to sing through the 200 pages, and I was slightly intimidated sitting next to Gwen;  I felt like I was re-auditioning and not doing too well, as I stumbled through several passages la-la-laing (at that point, it was either get the notes right and ignore the words or give up) or worse, completely lost or on a wrong note.  When the final "Amen"s came, I was tired, but exhilarated, and I'm sure this won't be the last sing I attend.

Now, if only one of the programs for a future summer sing would be Sondheim songs...