Friday, March 7, 2014

Incredible Moment

For the past two days, I have been attending the Southern Division Conference of the American Choral Directors Association at the Hyatt downtown.  As part of the conference experience, we are treated to various choirs from around the country who perform a 30-minute program in a 2-hour block.  One of the highest honors a choral director can receive is an invitation from ACDA to perform at one of their regional or national conventions.

As I sat in Jakoby Hall this morning, I realized that I recognized the woman who was announcing the choirs prior to their performance.  It was Sara Lynn Baird.  She was working on her doctorate at FSU when I was working on my Master's degree and is now the Department Chair in the School of Music at Auburn.  The final performance of the morning was conducted by William Powell who was in the same cohort.  His wife, Rosephanye Powell, was accompanying at the piano.  Rosephanye has become a pre-eminent choral conductor, composer and arranger of African-American spirituals.  She is an amazing woman.  Our former professors were sitting in the box seats to my left and grinning from ear to ear as this performance unfolded. I was texting my former roommate who was also a doctoral candidate at the same time.  She couldn't believe we were all experiencing this moment together and she was teaching in North Carolina.

The "musical" stars aligned today and I experienced such an incredible moment of music-making.  I graduated 22 years ago and haven't seen these folks in as many years.  Chances are, they wouldn't even remember me.  (I was the only Master's student among them!)

I never connected the dots when I was in school.  It never occurred to me that the person sitting in class with me would one day be my colleague, my confidante, my fellow conductor.  What a weird and wonderful musical moment I enjoyed today.  It was absolutely incredible!!

Until next time...

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