Ode to Choir

Women's chorus is a most interesting environment. We are led by one Mrs. Ramsey a tiny woman of about 45. Interestingly enough, she is not the typical choir conductor. Most musical people are a bit on the Mrs. Robinson side: creative, artsy, scatterbrained, outgoing, and slightly psycho. In contrast, Mrs. Ramsey is a perfectionist concerned with every little detail. She's paranoid about getting sick. Any girl that comes in coughing she forces them to sit on the far side of the room. One day she had a bit of a cold and she wouldn't talk the whole choir period in order to preserve her voice. We had an entertaining time trying to understand all the funny hand motions. I would have talked! Not talking for hours on end sounds like some sort of cruel and unusual punishment. I can go about 3 1/2 minutes tops without blurting something. But she's very dedicated. In fact her husband was in ICU for a heart attack on Sunday morning when we performed for a church. . . and she came! Wow.
Oh and another huge WOW for Mr. Wills, our accompanist, who is arguably one of the best pianists in the world. Ok well at least the best one I've ever seen. Doesn't Mr. Wills sound like someone from a kids show on PBS? like Mr. Rogers the sequel or something. Maybe you have to see him to understand what I mean. Anyways. He can sight-read anything put in front of him, but he ad libs all sorts of cool parts to our songs. One piece was written for four hands and ya, he does it all himself. Oh! He can play any song perfectly at the spur of the moment. I'm serious! Just say "Aladdin" or "Phantom" or "The Entertainer" and away he goes. His jazz music is incredible. There's a mini ode for Mr. Wills.
As for the girls, with whom I spend 4 whole hours a week, they are an...interesting group. At an extra rehearsal on one beautiful Saturday afternoon, all us girls were eating lunch. We happened to be chatting about movies that made us cry. A Walk to Remember. The Notebook. When suddenly...wait pause.
First, I have to tell you about Carrie. Carrie is the dear girl who sits next to me in choir. She scooters into class every day and never fails to make me smile. She is small (she looks only about 9th grade) and one of those extremely eccentric-spacy-but oddly cute girls. She takes copious notes all over her music. If Mrs. Ramsey says a certain note is "G", she writes "G" on the note. She has no idea what a G is, but if Mrs. Ramsey said it, it must be true. She has marks covering every inch of white on the music. She also loves to make up her own parts, so I hear many Carrie solos throughout the class. Ok play.
So us girls were getting worked up about how sad the Lion King is. Really though, when Mufasshah dies, it's heart breaking. We were rehashing the moving scene when suddenly Carrie clued into the conversation. She suddenly spouts out, "I cried when my boyfriend broke up with me." Um...awkward silence. Not expecting that. She had such an adorable, sad, spacy look on her face that one of the girls finally smiled and said, "Well...ya...that happens." I had to laugh (later of course).
Oh here's another spacy choir moment. We were sitting in class and Mrs. Ramsey couldn't find the measure she wanted because her eyes were too bad. "That's what happens when you get to an old age like me" she comments. "65!" a girl from the front row, Emily, called out.A hush fell over the room. A horrified look crossed Mrs. Ramsey's face. "I'm not 65," she said slowly. Emily looked confused and then corrected herself, "No, no. You're looking for measure 65 right here. I found it." A huge collective sigh of relief, as all the other choir girls let out their held breath. Everyone really thought Emily was aging Mrs. Ramsey by 20 years. Not always a smart idea.
Well that is my lovable choir. They love to sing "shark attack" over and over. They love to talk about hot guy composers as if they were movie stars. I can't help but love them:) So here is my ode to my choir.