Well, my busy week of carting my harp around Tennessee and Alabama and performances is over! Due to health reasons, I was forced to back out of the performance with the Belmont Camerata on the 26th. I was devastated to not be a part of the performance, but was blessed to be working with such kind and understanding musicians. I hope to have a chance to perform with them in the future!
The performance of the Bernstein Chichester Psalms with the Belmont Oratorio on the 21st was fantastic! The orchestra performed with a choir of over 200 voices, far larger than the largest choir I’ve ever had the opportunity to perform with. Bernstein wrote the harp parts before any of the other instrument parts because he felt they were most important, so it is a great and fun part to play. I was thrilled to get to play alongside one of my best college friends, a fellow harpist that moved to the Nashville area around the same time I did.
My time with the Jackson Symphony was awesome as well. I’ve never been to Jackson TN, so I got to spend 3 days exploring the area and attending 10 hours of rehearsal Thursday and Friday before the performance on Saturday. The venue was enormous and packed full of people for the performance, many in costumes. This time was one of the rare times that I was positioned on stage left (I’d say about 90-95% of the time, harp is stage right), which meant that I spent 3 days with all the loud trumpets and trombones blasting into the back of my head. I think I’m still recovering my hearing!
I had an awesome experience in Huntsville the weekend before the performances, but I think I’ll save that for a later post. I’m happy now to have some time to recover and work on some projects of my own. I’m hoping to record some Christmas music at my parents’ house in the coming week.