Rehearsal

Jordan is performing at Benaroya Hall tonight as part of LENS, a fundraiser for Children's Hospital. The featured guests are the indie rock duo Pomplamoose and the pop-electronica-ambient-something performer Imogen Heap; the boychoir is singing backup vocals for each of them. Last night there was an extra rehearsal downtown. I didn't know why we had to schlep all the way to some club room at the football stadium for a rehearsal, but whatever, I do what I'm told. During warmups the choir director explained to the kids that the next room they would go to would be a lot like this one except bigger and maybe a little chaotic because of all the instruments. Oh, I thought, the band, of course they are rehearsing with the band, and that's why we're here. Great.

Imagine my surprise when we went to the next room and there was a full 100-piece orchestra! And the rock stars too! I had forgotten that they are all performing with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra. It was pretty stunning. It was also a lot of work. There were something like six leaders for any one song (the rock stars, the orchestra conductor, the boychoir directors, and the composer responsible for the whole event, who was also playing drums). They had a lot to work out, in the "do you want us to come in on the second one of these? shall we hold this note a little longer? I need more strings here" vein. The boychoir had to stand at performance attention for a long, long time, sometimes singing and often just waiting.

For me, it was so darned exciting I was out of my skin. What an incredible experience, to be part of such a production, to see how much work real musicians have to do to make an event happen! I had planned to get a bunch of work done while Jordan rehearsed, and instead I was just so pumped up I ran around taking pictures and movies and kvelling with other parents the whole time. It was not actually a photogenic venue at all - it was very crowded, and there was no way to get everything in a frame. But here is a picture in which I have circled Jordan on the far left, the composer (Mateo Massini) on the drums in front of him, and then from left to right Maria and Ben the choir directors, the orchestra conductor, and Nataly Dawn, the singer of Pomplamoose (the instrumentalist Jack Conte is in the blue hoodie next to her). I also took a video of them all practicing a fun 70s hit.

After this event Jordan was exhausted. He had not been able to hear himself at all over the orchestra and the miked singers, so he had been working like a dog the whole time to be as loud as possible while also staying in tune, and when he wasn't singing he still had to stand at attention and be ready to sing on cue. He did this for 2.5 hours with no break. As soon as he was released he drank a quart of water in giant gulps. When we got home he went straight from the car to bed and slept for 11 hours. But he is also excited, and presumably tonight he will be able to hear himself.