Both of the ensembles I lead got to have cathartic ends to the year – an outdoor concert in May for Shades of Blue, and just last night, a year-capping concert with the Rockford Aces.
It wasn’t precisely the same as usual – we didn’t have our usual size of audience for one thing. We also hadn’t had a year’s worth of performances behind us to inform the performance. We had performed precisely one song, precisely once, before Friday night.
Nevertheless, we presented a nine-song concert, plus four specialty acts and one screening of a virtual choir. The hour flew by and I was beyond proud of my students. Never has there been a harder year, and never have I better understood the catharsis of a capstone performance.
In addition to feeling proud of my students, my overwhelming feeling was one of being blessed. Blessed to have had such an opportunity. Blessed to be on the other side of the hardest parts of the pandemic. Blessed to work with colleagues who support me and this work, and blessed to have alumni of my ensembles who support and inspire us, and have set a bar for us to aim for.
Proud & blessed. That performance will buoy me for a long time.