How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?

You've all heard the story about the New Yorker who was approached on the street near the great concert venue and asked, "Pardon me sir, how do I get to Carnegie Hall?"

His reply? ... "Practice, practice, practice."

Sadly, I won't be "headlining" at Carnegie Hall anytime in the near future because I missed a very important practice (rehearsal) last night.

This coming Sunday evening (February 21 @ 6 PM) our Adult Choir will be joined by the Adult Choir from First Baptist Church in Huntingdon to present a concert of ten musical selections .. it means songs (I learned that in college).

The program will be at Huntingdon the next week.

We will be accompanied by members of the Bartlett Community Concert Band (the group that plays for our Christmas program each year) .. if we are lucky.

Let me explain (I wish I had a dollar for every time I've uttered that phrase).

When I lived in Memphis, I developed a "working relationship" with this group (they played for several of our programs when I was Minister of Music at Whitten Memorial).

I distributed the music ahead of time to the players and they rehearsed .. on their own .. for a couple of weeks after their regular Monday night practice time (7:00 until 9:00 PM).

On the Monday before our program, I would come in .. along with our church's accompanists (piano, keyboard strings and drummer) and go over all the music (from 9 o'clock until ...).

The day of our presentation, the choir would join the instrumentalists (for the very first time) and pretty much go straight through (if everything went as planned and the moon and stars were in perfect alignment) the program one time before presenting it to the general public.

Scary, huh?

When I moved to Humboldt, I asked the band if they would be interested in continuing the "tradition."

Their response?

ROAD TRIP!!!!

That was ten years ago and (with only one exception) they have played every Christmas since 1999.

When Henry Simpson suggested this cooperative effort between our respective choirs .. and one, not so respected choir director .. I immediately checked to see if the BCCB could work this project in to their busy schedule .. and they have.

Unfortunately, the weather was "sketchy" .. at best .. yesterday (the Monday before our program) and I made the difficult decision not to risk "life and limb" by driving to Memphis and back (we wouldn't get home until around midnight .. plus Dinah doesn't have a DVR and would miss 24).

So .. this coming Sunday afternoon at 3:30 will be the first time all of us will be under one roof (our two choirs have never rehearsed together either .. oh brother!!!) to go through the music.

You are all invited to attend this fiasco .. I mean .. presentation.

It may not be good .. but it should be interesting.

Now, where did I put those blood pressure pills ... ?

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." - Romans 8:28