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My musical life...
I decided I would summarize some of my experiences from my singing career so to say. I discovered I had a talent for singing back in the 5th grade. After choir one day my music teacher asked me to stay after class for a bit to audition for a honor's choir. I made the cut and every Wednesday after school I went to local middle school to practice. I was one of the best in my section and upon several occasions remembered things parts of a song that no one else did. Every time I did the conductor would always laugh. At the end of the school year my family was planning to move to Omaha and the director jokingly of course said he hoped I didn't move and that I failed. I earned a music scholarship when I graduated that I didn't even expect.
When I moved here to Omaha I joined Camerata of the Nebraska Choral Arts Society. I stayed with Camerata for one year and we went on a summer tour to Iowa to participate in some music festival. After that year I auditioned to join the most prestigious choir in the NCAS, Bel Canto. I was so excited when I made the cut and I felt nothing but gratitude for the conductor Dr. Stroope. I couldn't wait to get started in the next year.
As soon as Bel Canto started I had to start memorizing music at a rapid rate. Aside from the normal yearly schedule, Bel Canto was also putting on a performance of the Pied Piper of Hamlet. I was selected to be the Lame Boy and I had a lot of things to memorize. I was almost overwhelmed from everything I had to learn. After the performance was done things returned to their normal schedule and I was able to keep up. My hard work was rewarded because for our summer tour we were going to England and Wales. We spent two weeks there and participated in the Llangollen International Festival of Music and tied for second in our division. It was an experience I will never forget.
My second year in Bel Canto proved to be more routine then my first year. I had to again learn about 40 songs during the whole year. I had planned on that year being my last after the tour which was only a tour of the South-eastern United States. Regardless of that I decided to stay for one more year.
My decision to stay was greatly rewarded because our summer tour the year after was a trip to China. However, I believe I will give the details of these trips in later journals. This year was to be my last though because Dr. Stroope was retiring as conductor of Bel Canto.