To Sing is to Fly and Affirm.

This weekend marked the official end of my first choir season with the Twin Cities Women's Choir, so in honor of that, I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on my year with the TCWC. For those of you who didn't know, I joined this wonderful community choir back in September in hopes of finding a bit of a sanity break from the craziness of grad school. I hadn't been in a choir since high school and was really missing it, so when I found the choir it seemed like a perfect opportunity.

TCWC is a non-audition choir that requires no previous musical theory/education experience. At first glance, you would probably wonder how in the world this works. Well, to some extent it's a self-selecting group (most people have at least some experience in a choir or with music in some way). But the rest is pure magic and we wind up having an amazing sound together as a group. The songs we sing are mainly contemporary, but there is a good mix of upbeat, fun songs, and more serious, slower songs. It's exactly the type of music I enjoy singing most.

Anyway, I was hooked after the first night... the energy the director and all of the women in choir give is incredible. The director has a way of giving enough musical theory information to understand the piece (and for those who have some background in it), but not going overboard for those who don't read music. We work hard and take a break only for announcements, but our director mixes in anecdotes about her day job as an elementary school principal (cute kid stories always win over a crowd!), and we laugh and joke between songs, so the two hours fly by. I have always loved singing, but I've never enjoyed choir rehearsals as much as I have this year. In the past, rehearsals have felt largely arduous, but I stuck with them because I know I'll like the end result of all the work. This year, rehearsals have truly felt like a break. I come home feeling happy regardless of the day I've had, on some nights I border on giddy.

We have had three big concerts this year -- a holiday concert (Illuminations), a Winter concert (I Am Beautiful America), and our Spring concert (Divas and Desserts) this weekend. Each has been completely amazing in its own way. The holiday concert was the first time I felt a true outpouring of support from my friends. A group of about 10 of them came to see the concert... in as many years as I've been singing/doing activities, I can think of only one other time (my Honors Thesis presentation) where I felt that supported. It was an amazing feeling to look out into the audience and see a little cheering section for me! At the Winter concert, I again had some great supporters. But it was also possibly the most amazing concert I have ever performed in. The songs were all wonderful and fun to sing (they all really came together at the end!), and the energy of the audience was like nothing I've ever experienced. It was fantastic to be a part of that energy... our last song became an unplanned encore because people were on their feet cheering and singing, so the band re-started the chorus and we just joined in. I have never felt so elated by singing before in my life!

This weekend, at our Divas and Desserts concert, I was again privileged to have a full table of supporters! One of the best parts was that two of my closest friends from college were able to see the concert this time... neither one of them had seen me sing before, so it was a real treat to have them there. A couple of newer friends also came, which was fantastic as well (not to mention my more "established" but equally awesome grad school friends who came out to the concert!). Overall, it was great. But the concerts were a little bittersweet for me because I knew. To know that I won't get to have this feeling (and the choir nights themselves) every Wednesday night -- we don't rehearse over the summer -- is really sad. Of course, I know I'll be back in the fall (it's hard to imagine my life without choir now!), but it will definitely feel like there is a big space in my life for the next three months.

The title of this post comes from one of the songs we sang this weekend, entitled "To Sing is to Fly." It sounds cheesy, but the song is really pretty and the lyrics couldn't be truer:

To sing is to fly and affirm. ...
To fly and soar, to fly and soar.
To coast in to the hearts of people who listen.
To tell them that life is to live...
That nothing is a promise.
But that beauty exists and must be hunted for and found!