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I'm so proud of myself I could just scream!

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Last night I auditioned for the Oratorio Society of New York, a choir that performs regularly in Carnegie Hall and gets written up in the New York Times. I figured I wouldn't get in -- I am a good singer and have plenty of choral experience, but good singers are a dime a dozen in New York. But I also knew the only way I'd be 100% certain of not getting in is by not trying out.

Well, I tried out, and after the shortest audition of my life, I got in immediately! I nailed the sight reading, which didn't surprise me, but I was shocked that the director praised my high range (I am most comfortable in the low end of the alto range). I'm so excited -- the choir I've been singing with the past three years has an excellent sound, but lately we've been doing a lot of avant-garde stuff that can barely be called music (look up "Past Life Melodies" on YouTube for an example). Now I'm going to be singing Handel's Messiah and Bach's Mass in B Minor. Much more my style!

;)

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;) congratulations!!!!

P.S. If you ever need a composer... :P

Actually, the choir I am leaving, the Young New Yorkers' Chorus, sponsors a competition for young composers (I think 35 is the age limit) every year. Although I'm leaving the group, it's not because I don't like the choir and the sound we make -- the singers are very good indeed -- it's mostly because of the repertoire we've done of late. So I think the competition is well worth entering, and I'd love to see an Objectivist win. See www.ynyc.org for more details -- the entries are taken every year in the fall, three finalists are chosen and commissioned to write a piece by March, and the three pieces are performed at the group's year-end concert in June. Everyone who enters gets a monetary prize, but the winner gets a larger one.

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Congratulations! You're going to sig Messiah? That's like one of my favorite piesces, and the only way I could memorize the bible! Listening to that Oratorio in a small church in Lower Manhattan (the brick one, not the white one), ws one of my favortie experiences. And now you're going to be on the other side of the aisle! Congratulations!

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[...]lately we've been doing a lot of avant-garde stuff that can barely be called music (look up "Past Life Melodies" on YouTube for an example). Now I'm going to be singing Handel's Messiah and Bach's Mass in B Minor. Much more my style!

I'm proud of you too Stella!

As an aside, I looked up

(Pro Cantu) then I clicked on a related video beside it because I was attracted to the title
and after enduring about a minute of that, "Past Life Melodies" was a very welcomed relief when I clicked back (and I admittedly liked it before I did so too). Edited by intellectualammo
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Congratulations! You're going to sig Messiah? That's like one of my favorite piesces, and the only way I could memorize the bible! Listening to that Oratorio in a small church in Lower Manhattan (the brick one, not the white one), ws one of my favortie experiences. And now you're going to be on the other side of the aisle! Congratulations!

I adore the Messiah, and have never gotten to sing it in its entirety. My high school used to do selections from it every year, and I desperately wanted to sing it, but I played viola at the time and the orchestra needed me as a violist more than the choir needed me as an alto, so I never got to do it. You have no idea how exciting it is to finally do it!

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Congratulations!

I need to listen to the B Minor Mass myself, sometime soon--I've read that it was part of the very last things Bach wrote, and the culmination of his work. (Also that it was way too big to actually be used for a real mass.)

I'm a huge fan of Wachet Auf myself. I crank the first movement and it builds and builds...it surrounds me with glory. Unfortunately only one specific recording cuts it for me. All others fall short. (That's a thing with classical. You can ask a person "have you heard x" and they say "yeah it wasn't so hot" but you then have to ask "okay but which performance did you hear?" cause it can make all the difference.)

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Way to go!

I am also a fan of Handel's Messiah. Despite the religious subject matter, it always seemed to me to be very life-affirming (though I've not analyzed it carefully). e.g. The hills shall be made low, the valleys shall be paved... or something like that. :-)

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I'm a huge fan of Wachet Auf myself. I crank the first movement and it builds and builds...it surrounds me with glory. Unfortunately only one specific recording cuts it for me. All others fall short. (That's a thing with classical. You can ask a person "have you heard x" and they say "yeah it wasn't so hot" but you then have to ask "okay but which performance did you hear?" cause it can make all the difference.)

True!!! I collect recordings of Messiah, I could discovered the bass tones only after multiple hearings, and finally on a recording using original instruments. Well you know what I mean.

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Congratulations!

I need to listen to the B Minor Mass myself, sometime soon--I've read that it was part of the very last things Bach wrote, and the culmination of his work. (Also that it was way too big to actually be used for a real mass.)

I'm a huge fan of Wachet Auf myself. I crank the first movement and it builds and builds...it surrounds me with glory. Unfortunately only one specific recording cuts it for me. All others fall short. (That's a thing with classical. You can ask a person "have you heard x" and they say "yeah it wasn't so hot" but you then have to ask "okay but which performance did you hear?" cause it can make all the difference.)

it's gotta be the tempo that makes it more appealing to each different individual. But instruments too, I like Bach in Clavicord rather than in Piano (though Glenn Gould and Martha Argerich make me doubt this).

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