A couple weeks ago, I attended the Lakeland Music Camp... In Sheboygan WI. I went with an old friend. (Who was the only real reason I went in the first place...)
It was a lot of fun... But I didn't think so at first... The first night, I was extremely tense, I missed my family... And earlier that day I had tried out for the Honors Recital, and was still waiting for the results. (I thought I had horribly messed up during my audition...) Needless to say, I was dreading the entire week. I called my mother, and she did a very good job of calming me down. After talking to her I felt a little better. I finally decided that I would have fun when it came time for the guest performer, who was performing the next night... His name was Stas Venglevski, he played an instrument called a Bayan, which is pretty much a giant Accordion. He played it so beautifully, so skillfully, it made my day to watch him play it... (And I learned I had made it into the Honors Recital.) After that I had a pretty happy outlook on the rest of the week...
Day one, Sunday... Drive up... Moving into the dorm... Melt down... That's pretty much it...
Day Two, Monday... On day two my real schedule began... I had breakfast, and then the fun began with Theory. Theory was fun, the teacher was funny. Her name was, Jeanne Mueller, and she couldn't help but talk about her other job, where she worked at a Funeral Home... :-)
After Theory was Choir rehearsal, As directed by Janet L. Herrick... It was AWESOME!!!! It was the first time I had sung with a such a large group of organized talent, we were singing college level music. I was one of only six other Basses -one left the day before the final performance, so we only had five when we actually performed- and we still sounded great! I LOVED IT!!!
After that came Camp Choir, where the entire camp -band members included- would practice "singing" a few pieces... After that came my Guitar elective. That was fun...
After Guitar was Lunch, Lunch, ah Lunch... Lunch was always fun, I can't quite remember who I sat with every day though... After Lunch we had our Choir Sectionals. That was one of my favorite parts of the day. Our sectionals leader was named David Bourgeois. He was extremely nice, and hilariously funny. He was determined that -even though the Bass section was the smallest- we would be louder than the rest of the choir. I believe that we did pretty well on that count... After that we had another choir practice... And after that choir practice, I had my Conducting Class. The person who directed that was funny, and it also gave him credit that he was a huge Bugs Bunny fan :-) ... After that there were a couple hours of free time... After free time was dinner. And after that came the afore mentioned guest performer. (And good news concerning the Honors Recital..)
Day three, Tuesday... Tuesday began wonderfully, I woke up at Five-Thirty A.M. And was first to Shower, and first to Breakfast, I got there One-hour early, and read Pride and Prejudice, until they opened the doors to the Cafeteria... I sat with someone who was one of my first friends at music camp... His name was Lukas Shelton, I had, had Breakfast -and Lunch- with him the day before... Well it just so happens that I had forgotten to tell him I was in the Honors recital... He asked one of his friends to sit with us. And when she did, the first thing she said was, "Oh, Congratulations on making the Honors Recital." Lukas turned and looked at me and said, "You didn't tell me you were in the Honors Recital..." I replied that I thought he had seen it when they put it in the Camp Newsletter the night before... He replied, "Why would I look at that if I didn't try out?" So, for the rest of the week, he called me, "Mr. Honors Recital" or, "Mr. 'I'm gonna get into the Honors Recital and not tell Lukas.'" or, "Mr. Get make it into the Honors Recital and not tell me." the most common one was the first... The rest of the day was same until that night... The Faculty Recital... It was mostly typical performances... Except for two... One, was one of the councilors. Singing a German piece called, Erlkonig, in English The Earl King... And the other interesting one was the entire faculty performing, Jump Jive and Wail. And Jump by Van Halen. On Handbells... That was cool... Whoops, I forgot to mention that on this day I tried out for the Talent show... I didn't make it... But oh well...
Day four, Wednesday. The day of the Honors Recital... Other than the Honors Recital, there wasn't much going on... Same schedule. The Honors Recital... The hours before the Honors Recital, I was constantly singing my song to myself, to make sure I made no mistakes... When it came time I didn't feel that nervous... But as the wise Jeedai once said, "Your feelings can deceive you." I was nervous as anything... My voice didn't shake, but my hands did. I went out on stage and sang, "The People That Walked In Darkness" -From Handels Messiah- for the thousandth time. And by the time I was finished, I couldn't feel my fingers... I didn't win the competition. No, a much more skilled musician than myself won... She played the Cello with the utmost skill. After that there was a Pizza party.
Day five, Thursday... Same daily Schedule... until the Talent Show, 8-)
It was HILARIOUS!!!!! There were only a few serious performers... All the rest were people goofing off... Like the "Spice Boys" a group off shameless guys, who put on crazily colored wigs, and did the Spice Girl's dances, to their proper music. After that there was a dance. At first I was quite determined not to dance at all... But then Lukas (Good old Lukas,) Walks up to me and asks me why I'm not dancing. And despite all protests of how I couldn't dance, he made me dance. I danced all but three of the songs after that...
Day six, Friday, last day before I see my Brothers and my mother, YAY!!!!
I don't mean to say that it wasn't fun... But I missed them... Same schedule as usual, except that instead of free time, we had our Final Camp Choir rehearsal... And that night was the Elective Classes Concert... I was quite glad that I was not in any of the groups performing... The best ones, were the Stage Combat groups... They did skits that really had very little to do with actual fighting... But they were funny...
The last day, Saturday... The Main Ensemble Concerts, Awards, and Departure...
The Main Ensembles consisted of many, many Piano Ensembles, two, or three Bands, and two Choirs... I was in the more complicated of the two Choirs. I believe that we did extremely well.
Then came the Camp Choir performance, and the Awards Ceremony... And much to my joy, I won an award! The Director of each major Ensemble, was allowed to give two awards away to the two people who they believed contributed the most to that Ensemble... It just so happens, that Ms. Herrick awarded one of these to me. :-) Isn't that nice... And then I was homeward bound, listening to Classic Rock all the way... The End :~)
