Never have we ever had so much fun!

The large recess between my last post and this one is thanks to another sort of new project that I've been working on. It was a weekend-long festival for the quirky and fun world of a cappella, and we called it VoCALnation.

Treble readies in our dressing room

The event was presented by the leading national organization for our little aca-world (CASA), and my a cappella group, Treble, served as the event's local "host". That meant that we had the privilege of performing at the Saturday night headliner concert, and also held much of the event planning responsibility. As part of an event production team of 4 from Treble and 2 from CASA, we spent 14 months creating a brand new event in New York City designed to bring the growing community of post-collegiate singers together. We're the kids who just couldn't leave the glory days of college a cappella behind. You probably remember us as your friendly campus music dorks. Now, we just wear that badge proudly by singing in bars, snapping with one hand, holding a dirty martini with the other. This dork life ain't so bad. 

In the days or so leading up to VoCALnation, I decided to pause on my new experiences blog because I wanted to focus on the event, and still make time for the joys of job-hunting. One of my friends argued that the event itself should be a part of my 30-day project, and I did consider it. But, this event was much more than a one-day new experience. It was months of planning, hundreds of emails, dozens of rehearsals, and three days of the most fun and joyful music event I've ever been a part of. With all do respect to these here interwebs, it's just simply more than a blog post. 

Where the magic happens

It was a fantabulous event. And I don't use amalgamate adjectives often. Semi-pro groups came in from all over the country: North Carolina, Boston, Memphis, LA, Vermont, DC. Our headline act, the Grammy-award winning Swingle Singers, came all the way from London (and blew everyone's minds; if you don't know them, check them out). The evening concert was held at the beautiful Florence Gould Hall, which is a dramatically steep black-box theater with vintage orange-marigold velvet seats. There isn't a bad seat in the house. There were FIVE standing ovations during the performance: one for Duwende, the infectious first headliner that rocked Michael Jackson and Prince, and a whopping 4 standing O's for the Swingles, every one of which they deserved.

Both the Friday night and Saturday night after-parties went until last call. New friendships were made, old ones were enjoyed, none of us wanted the weekend to end. But, we kinda needed it to. We were exhausted. And we just can't party like we're in college anymore (well, OK, seems like we can. But only for a weekend...)

It was a blast, and I'm so grateful to have been a part of this project with the production team, the ladies of Treble, CASA, all the instructors, performers, volunteers, attendees and singers, and especially my incredibly supportive family and friends, who have graciously sat through more a cappella concerts than any human should ever have to endure.  

I'm back to the bloggery, which, admittedly, is dragging on wellllllllllll beyond the 30 days. Oh well, it's fun! The longer, the better. I do plan to wrap up soon, and I have my final "new" experience all planned and booked, and it's a goodie. It won't be happening till April 15, so stay tuned, friends. 

*For those wondering, the odd capitalization in VoCALnation stands for the "Contemporary A Cappella League" which is a membership-based alliance of post-collegiate, semi-pro groups. In other words, we're the grown-up groups. Most of us perform regularly, are known in our local communities, and mostly take only paying gigs, but we don't make a living by doing it (and yes, some groups actually do.) 

Treble's on-stage moment

Duwende, sound-checking

The Swingle Singers, being inhumanly awesome

all photos [except top photo] by Michael Eldredge, (c) LivingFiction Photography