Queen; Mercury's Rising!!

Tonight we were able to practice with the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra and the lead singer and band that we are accompanying.  My son, Kelly II and I are singing in a 50 voice choir in a tribute to Queen this weekend!  It's going to be an awesome show!! This experience so far has been one of the most fun things I have done in a long time.  I love to sing, but don't get a chance to do more than karaoke every once in awhile.  Singing with a choir again made me realize how much I have not been singing in my range or using my voice in the proper way lately.  It's feels good to exercise that skill again!

I have always been a first soprano.  I easily played the part of Mabel in the Pirates of Penzance and hit all of the high notes when I was in High School.  I sang in a tour choir all through high school and into college...always doing the descants and highest parts.  After years of singing only occasionally with a church choir and singing karaoke type stuff, I had some work to do....it took me about 3 weeks of warming up, vocal exercises, and practice to get my voice back into the range it once was.  I will definitely be looking for more opportunities to keep my voice in shape after this!! :-) Hallelujah Chorus next winter!!

I forgot how happy I am when I sing, I mean truly sing.   The kind of music that starts at your toes and pours out of your heart.  Queen songs are a great tool to elicit such passion...Freddie Mercury was brilliant!! There is such intricacy in the choral parts and I was overwhelmed with the complexity of the orchestra parts tonight.  Wow....I hope that you have a chance to come to the show and experience first hand the beauty of this music washing over you.  It will be an experience!!

Tonight we were in the middle of a song, and the conductor for the orchestra stopped and said...."is there a name for your choir?"
No!
He's like..."How about the Stevettes? (after Steven Alvarez, the very talented director who got us ready for a show of such high caliber).
One of the tenors next to me blurted out...."Mercury's Rising!"
Yeah!  we all loved that.  The lead singer paused and asked, "who said Mercury Rising? NICE!!"

Tomorrow night.....Anchorage Symphony Orchestra and Mercury's Rising present One Vision: The Music of Queen!!

One Vision: The Music of Queen