Chorus Concert

This Friday night I sing in a concert with my chorus, Essential Voices USA, and The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall:

Lights, Camera, Action: A Night in Hollywood
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
You can almost taste the popcorn when The New York Pops performs great film music classics. This concert of Hollywood’s memorable musical moments includes favorites from The Wizard of Oz, celebrating the beloved classic’s 75th anniversary, and the music of the late Marvin Hamlisch. There will also be selections from some of today’s most popular cinema scores, including The Dark Knight, Forrest Gump, Pirates of the Caribbean, and others.

We’re singing some beautiful scores, such as a suite from The Mission by Ennio Morricone. I’ve also loved revisiting the music of The Wizard of Oz, which was my 8th grade musical. I played Glinda, my first big role, and, thinking back, I realized that the song that begins “You’re Out of the Woods, You’re Out of the Dark, You’re Out of the Night” was a significant milestone in my vocal development. In the film it’s sung by a chorus of “Optimistic Voices” (also the title of the song), but in our version it was a solo for Glinda. The lyrics begin:

You’re out of the woods
You’re out of the dark
You’re out of the night
Step into the sun
Step into the light

Wizard of Oz

And then the music leaps up for the words:

Keep straight ahead for
The most glorious place
On the face of the earth
Or the sky

I wanted to sing that line an octave lower. I was an alto then and didn’t think I could sing that high (I think it was an E… :)). But the pianist/music director told me to try it, and lo and behold I had a high voice.

I thank that song and that beautiful line about keeping on a straight and steady path to the most glorious place in the world for allowing me to discover something in myself I didn’t know was there, and for starting on my path to becoming a soprano (who occasionally sings alto).

This entry was posted in Concerts, Singing and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.