Recital, the after party, and everything leading up to it

The past six weeks, while it could've been a time of dread, was actually just exceptional. I felt so prepared for yesterday's recital, there wasn't an ounce of nerves or fear in my body. During the intermission, I was just ecstatic with how well it was going. And the energy that I received from the crowd that came was electric and a crowd of love and joy for me and my accomplishments. The biggest thing for me is that every week, in preparation for this recital, I have been going through the music, music which I love by the way, in hopes that I could manifest how much I love and care for the songs, and the audience in attendance.

My wife, Sarah, wanted to make this day one of the best days I've had, in celebration of me and my accomplishments. So, when she first heard about it, she invited me to invite as many people as we could think of as possible to my recital. I took that admonition, and texted them, saying we would be celebrating my upcoming graduation and birthday party afterwards. We invited my family and her family, and all of our friends, and all of my teachers and colleagues. We invited so many people that we in reality had no inkling of how many people would show up to this. But we definitely gave them enough time to make that decision to come if they wanted and could, some being from out of state.

In the end, Thirty-two people came to support, here is the list of attendees:

Stephanie Redd Large and her daughter, Rosie

LauraMae and Kyle Klinger, and their son Lewis

Ammon and Michelle Czuba

Billy

Forrest and Lindsay Chapin, and their son Jacen

James Ferguson and his son, James

Dr. Craig Peterson and his wife, Tracey

Dr. Radmilla Stojanovic

Dr. Simmons and his wife, Carol

Colleen Lewis, from Amazon (work)

Danna Julliette Durney (ASC)

Spencer Irvine

Travis Jensen

Trevor Gipper (my videographer and friend)

My mom and dad

My Aunt Ann Palmer

Peter Faux (friend of the family)

Sister Pendergrass

Garrison Cluff

Me

Tommy Strawser (my voice coach)

and Jenn Crandall (my accompanist) 

The recital was so good. It hardly went on without a hitch. There was only one song where I flubbed the second half of the first verse, and surprisingly it was my own song that I composed, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love. I'm sure Jenn was wondering if we should do the second verse ending or start again but with the second verse (because I had sung the second verse ending section), but we worked together and the second verse went well.

But for that one small mistake, the recital at large was just a huge success. I was beaming after the first half. It had gone so well. Preparing the note cards and introducing each of my songs engaged the whole audience throughout. My favorite note being the one about how Abendempfindung is a song that I love so much that I want it to be sung at my funeral.

It just felt natural being up there in the spotlight which was a change from the very first performance I ever made 3-4 years ago, where I was swaying back and forth and where I was definitely green in my performing chops.

After the performance I was able to greet all the people that had come to support me and I just loved it so much. I love seeing all my friends, family, colleagues and teachers that were there. They had very nice words to say about my performance, including commenting on my compositions, the loveliness of my French pieces, and the overall quality of my performance.

The graduation/birthday celebration luncheon that we had afterwards was all that it was cracked up to be and more. I said more hellos to my friends and those who stayed and we just had an enjoyable time being with people that love both Sarah and me.

Setup for the event was a lot more difficult than the take down. Sarah and I were by ourselves when we set up the cultural hall for the event by bringing in the piano and nice chairs. We did enlist the help of a person that was at the institute the day before the recital to help bring chairs in with us and it was a little easier. But the hall was a bit messy and things had to be moved. Taking down everything was a lot easier, as we had three men and a child in attendance (Spencer, Travis, James and James Ferguson) help us with everything.

Lastly, Sarah went all out in helping me prepare this party and the printing of my program, concert lyrics, and program notes. She was instrumental in helping me accomplish this and without her it would have turned out very differently. She ordered all of the above things and came up with the ideas for the food and cake. In total, we spent $500 at Costco and AmeriCopy on this smashing success.

Now that it is over. I am looking forward to graduating from Mesa Community College and Ottawa University very soon. I will be starting my student teaching in the Fall of 2023. I look forward to sharing my skills and talents with the kids that I will have in my Elementary General Music classes.