November was a busy month for the musician in me.
I played the organ for Sunday service, I had the pleasure to conduct our choir for another Sunday service because our MD had to be elsewhere, and last weekend there was „the“ concert: two choirs, a brass quintet, an organ solo, and additional solo and duet singing. Plus I accompanied another choir during their Sunday service yesterday.
Overall, everything went okay. Of course, there are things that could’ve gone better. I’m not happy at all with my solo performance at the organ, I managed to muddle through and save the piece by improvising wildly while having some kind of brain shutdown and technical problems with the instrument, and I suppose it wasn’t as bad as it felt, but while it happened, I just wanted to be somewhere else and never perform again. I haven’t listened to the recording yet and my inner perfectionist is still sulking.
The good thing was that the organ I had available yesterday was a very decent instrument and made up for everything else and I’m almost back to feeling confident about performing 🙂
The two duets I sang together with another soprano worked really, really well and were a lot of fun. We’ve been asked to sing together again at a concert in March next year, so I’m now looking for suitable pieces.
Also, I’ve learned a lot for future organ recitals – for example that my preparation should include a plan B for technical difficulties with the instrument and that my improvisation skills are good enough to survive even some kind of blackout in my head.
December won’t be as busy, a few Sunday services, a solo for the choir’s advent/pre-Christmas event, and hopefully some practice time before the year ends.
And did I already mention the 2nd of September 2017? This is when I will play my organ recital and it has now been officially announced in the „Luther year calendar“.