Aaron is in Lessons and Carols for the first time this year, which is an extremely demanding and rewarding experience. This is the real initiation into the Performing Choir: there are eight high-stakes performances in ten days, to thousands of people, and the director’s expectations for classical perfection are very high. This is all good: the boys learn that they are capable of great things if they work very hard. And the performances are truly transporting. I see why people keep coming back year after year.
The first performance of the year was at a church a few blocks from our house. There was a windstorm, and guess what: the power went out. They were rehearsing in the sanctuary and were plunged into darkness. Yikes! Amazingly, the church allowed us to go ahead with the performance… by candlelight. I was an usher, so I popped home to get every headlamp we own (phone flashights are great but sometimes you need your hands free) and started welcoming people at the front door. People arrived with nervous questions: Why is it so dark here? Will the concert go on? I cheerfully said (one hundred times), “Welcome! The concert is on, in spite of the power outage; the choir will be performing by candlelight; it’s going to be magical,” and showed them in. People were delighted.
Afterward, the boys were pretty clear that this was not their best performance; they could barely see the conductor, the pianist could barely see the conductor, and probably they were all thrown off by the strange circumstances. But a few days later there was a rave review in the newspaper. And look at the beautiful photos! Aaron is at the bottom left, and Jordan is in the back row just left of the middle.
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