I have always loved writing music for younger players, but this was the first time I had written for first-year musicians.  It was a challenge, but I think I succeeded in writing something that was compositionally sound, had educational merit, and most importantly, be actually playable!

For other composers out there, I can’t recommend writing for kids enough.  Every time I saw one of the students from Kings Glen, either from my visits to the school, or just at the neighborhood pool, someone has come up to me to thank me for writing the march for them.  They are so grateful and excited!  No matter what the grade level, students take enormous pride in performance when they feel that sense of ownership.

Thanks again to Kelly Stratil and the fantastic students of Kings Glen Elementary!  Let’s go band!!

Performing for the Nation’s leaders is a big deal and an enormous privilege and responsibility, but it’s amazing how commonplace it seems. I’ve been to the Rotunda four or five times with the Chorus now (see, I’ve already lost count), and I figured this event would be like the others. For some reason, however, this turned out to be a particularly moving event.

We knew we were in for something special when Nancy Reagan came in the room and received a generous, warm round of applause (from everyone regardless of party affiliation).  The colors were presented, we sang the National Anthem, and the speeches began.  Republican and Democratic leaders praised Reagan and spoke eloquently about the America he loved and worked for.  Sure, there was some politicking in there, but the tone was respectful, and when it was time for us to sing I think it’s fair to say that the room was feeling especially patriotic.

So then we sang America the Beautiful.  And it was stupendous; a perfect, emotionally-charged, musical performance.

I often say that the job of military musicians is not to make great music, but to represent the excellence and professionalism of the military.  Which we do by making great music.  An added responsibility I have is to use what we have to offer to appropriately support the events we attend.  There are times when we should be center stage and others when we should allow the spotlight to focus on others.  This was an event I just felt great about afterwards because we sang the perfect song at the perfect time, and to try to elbow our way in further would be to make it less effective.  We came, we sang, we said “goodnight everybody.”

When the entire event goes well, then all parties involved look like heroes.  We received some terrific kudos from bloggers and the press:

Peggy Noonan: “The U.S. Army chorus sang the national anthem so beautifully, with such harmonic precision and depth, that some dry eyes turned moist, including those of the crusty journalist to my right.”

Paul Kengor: “…the crowning touch came before Nancy spoke, and before the statue unveiling. It was the sole musical selection for the program: the U.S. Army Chorus singing, a cappella, “America, the Beautiful.  This love-song for the nation captivated the room. It was beautiful. I caught a camerawoman struggling to hold up her long-lens as she wiped tears flowing down her face.  But what struck me was the perfect choice of that patriotic hymn, unwittingly tying together not only the thoughts of Rev. Black and others, but the origins, ends, and legacy that was Ronald Reagan’s career.”

Michael Doyle: “The 87-year-old presidential widow spoke briefly, declaring the statue sculpted by North Carolina resident Chas Fagan to be ‘a wonderful likeness of Ronnie’ and praising the ‘lovely, lovely singing’ of the U.S. Army Chorus.”

Great stuff!

And superstars there were at the national Memorial Day concert given by the National Symphony on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.  Among the performers were Laurence Fishburne, Gary Sinise, Lang Lang, Trace Adkins, and Katie Holmes.

The actual performing demands for the Chorus were pretty minimal, and frankly, once we arrived on site there wasn’t that much for me to do.  Erich Kunzel was conducting the orchestra so I just made sure the military folks were treated well.  Apparently, they hadn’t in years past.

On the day of the dress rehearsal, some of our guys had the opportunity to speak with Trace Adkins after his sound check.  Yikes, this is a BIG guy.  And what a voice!

And onto more stars…how about Laurence Fishburne…

…and Katharine McPhee…

…and Gary Sinise…

But here’s the big one…where you find Katie Holmes you’re sure to find Tom Cruise!

Both of them were very kind to stop for photographs after the show…

A brief observation on movie stars, having not spent much time around them: these people know how to pose for a picture.  It seems like not much of a talent or skill, but point a camera in their direction and ask for a photo and they’re instantly poised to be on the cover of People.  That was actually a fascinating thing to watch.

As I ventured from workshops to concerts, I kept thinking to myself the Army Chorus should be here.  The Air Force Singing Sergeants and the Navy Sea Chanters were there in the exhibit hall with booths, and we had a handful of guys from our organization, but there were no performances by military vocalists.

Perhaps because I had no scruples, I went to the ACDA website and fearlessly fired off an email to the Executive Director, Dr. Tim Sharp (going straight to the top–shameless!).  The jist of the message: we’d love to be a part of a future ACDA event.

FIVE MINUTES LATER comes the response: he’s coming into DC anyway and would love to see a performance.  Well, rats, we didn’t have one during his visit, so I offered a rehearsal as a consolation prize, and he agreed!

The bottom line is that he did come visit, but the bummer was that I couldn’t meet him.  My new daughter Allie was born and I was suddenly not so interested in anything but her (I hope no one would fault me for that).  But I was delighted to see that Dr. Sharp not only came to see the Army Chorus, but he also brought his family along for some sightseeing, and even did some conducting of the group!

So thank you Dr. Sharp for visiting us in Washington, and I sincerely hope that I will get to meet you in the future!

A couple of nights after this picture was taken, we went to sing at the Chairman of the Joint Chief’s quarters for a holiday party.  Here’s me and the Chorus with Admiral Mullen and his wife:

And although I don’t have a picture of it, a few nights after that we performed for General Casey, the Army Chief of Staff.  So I basically began at the top of the chain of command and worked my way down.  Since then, there have been two more White House jobs but we’re still waiting for those pictures.  I’ll post them when I get them.

This morning was our dress rehearsal for the Inaugural Parade.  As I type, I’m still thawing a bit, but I’m coming along.  I shouldn’t complain, because the weather could be A LOT worse.  Early reports expect the actual day of the event will likely be comparable to today’s weather.  Even if it’s really cold, it is going to be an AMAZING event to be a part of.  The Army Band supports the 3d U.S. Infantry Division (The Old Guard) which is the official escort for the President, so we render honors at the Capitol, then lead the official party to the reviewing stand at the White House.  This morning there were a few onlookers who saw the rehearsal, but I can imaging what those streets are going to look like lined with thousands of people.  I am thrilled to participate in this incredible historic event!

The other picture was taken tonight while we were waiting to perform for the President in the White House.  It was my first time visiting; I’ve never even taken the regular tour!  President Bush stood with us for a picture after our performance which I’ll post when I get it.  In the meantime, here’s a shot of me and a couple of the guys in the East Room taken with an iPhone.  That’s SGM Andy Patterson, first tenor and Chorus group leader on the left, and MSG Al Maly, bass section leader on the right.

Just another day at the office!

And what a heckuva way to see New York for the first time…conducting performances in Trinity Church, Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, and at the Liederkranz!  All of them went very well, of course.

Hopefully, I’ll have more pictures of those performances to post later, but as of this writing all I have is this photo from the Liederkranz.  Our brush with fame for the evening: Charles Osgood was in attendance (and I would be remiss in not mentioning our special guest singer for that performance, feature soloist from the United States Marine Band, SSgt Sara Dell’Omo).

Since this was my first trip to New York, I did as many touristy things as I could manage in my off-time.  First things first–I walked south toward Times Square, since it was only a few blocks away:

But taking a glance down a side street, I saw Radio City Music Hall, so Times Square was no longer interesting to me.  I’m fickle like that.

But the next morning was really fun; I decided to go see The Today Show live.

Who is that riding in on the big flatbed truck with the Rockefeller Christmas tree?  Why it’s none other than Al Roker!

Ooh, Al, can you hold still so I can focus for a picture?

Al?

Oh, well.  Anyway, after the Concert at Trininy, I walked over to see Ground Zero and then south to see the Statue of Liberty.  And here she is, in all her glory and splendor…

Well, you could see all the splendor if it weren’t so hazy.  And if she’d turn around.  This is interesting–if you turn around from this position, you’ll see this:

I don’t know exactly what this abstract piece is supposed to be, but I find it…stimulating.

Here’s a poster I saw.  This is what we conductors look like on the inside.

Feel free to comment with your proposed captions to this picture (Here’s mine: “The Maestro wished the brass had played with a little less volume.”)

More to follow…

Let me take a moment to welcome those of you who are reading this only because “Army Chorus” set off your Google alert.  Hello!  By the way, the Chorus is the most manly, masculine musical force ever to walk the face of the Earth.  So there.

The Chorus was on hand to supplement the Colorado Symphony Chorus in Schoenberg’s Gurre-lieder, his beyond-massive magnum opus for three men’s choruses, gigantic mixed chorus, and a ludicrously-sized orchestra.

The score calls for seven, count ‘em, seven harps.  Because six simply wasn’t enough, I guess.  (There’s only six in this picture, but the seventh would come later.)  You can also see a few of the ten required horns, some of which doubled on Wagner tubas.

And here’s the huge bassoon section, complete with two contras.

All in all, it was a 160-piece orchestra squished into the music tent.  The venue itself was quite beautiful.

And here’s a shot of the choruses in rehearsal with Duain Wolfe, conductor of the Chicago Symphony Chorus.  He came and worked with the Army Chorus a few weeks ago to prep us for this performance.  He is quite brilliant.

He sneaked in behind me the evening of the performance and it turned out to be a pretty nice shot.

Overall, it was a tremendous experience.  I don’t know exactly how much I contributed vocally (hopefully, not too much), but it was a rare treat to sing with such a huge ensemble…on a piece that is rarely performed…under the baton of David Zinman…at scenic Aspen, Colorado.

(Okay, so I didn’t write this on July 23.  I’m backdating it so that it appears the evening after the event.  It’s my blog I’ll date things as I please.)

The Chorus performed this morning at a ceremony hosted by the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the integration of U.S. Armed Forces.  The guest speaker was retired General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.  Also present were a contingent of Buffalo Soldiers and Tuskegee Airmen.  For the chorus, it was the usual ceremonial music; nothing out of the ordinary or special (except my ‘America the Beautiful’ of course).  But the event itself and the speakers were excellent.

Colin Powell is a fantastic speaker.  As far as we could tell, he didn’t have any notes to read.  He simply spoke fluently and from the heart.  He probably spoke about 25-30 minutes, but it felt like ten.

My favorite story he told was one about his childhood.  President Truman signed the Executive Order allowing blacks to serve in the U.S. military 60 years ago, and present at that signing was the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.  (This is as good a time as any to point out that the military certainly predated the civil rights movement by several years, though I’ll certainly admit it wasn’t smooth sailing, pardon the Navy pun.)  Powell said that the eleventh Chairman was a kid of eleven playing in the streets of Brooklyn at the time.  He joked around saying that he was not terribly interested in what was going on in the news at age eleven or saying to himself, “Self, you’re going to grow up to be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.”  The idea of course was beyond imagining that a black man would be in that position, let alone be one of the most respected ever.  A truly inspiring story.

It was a special event of which we were proud to be a part.  Afterwards, we were told that our music was the perfect prelude to a memorable ceremony.  I thought it was most appropriate that we had SFC Colin Firth, an African-American man, sing ‘American Soldier.’  Very cool.  SFC Alex Helsabeck invited the audience to sing ‘God Bless America’ at the end of the ceremony, bringing it to a moving finish.

Thanks to SSG Jason Gottshall (or whoever took this photo) for the picture.

But even after 8-1/2 years in the Army, I still have to laugh sometimes at what I do.  It takes a different kind of artistically-minded musician to accept the grind of military life.  For example: This morning I go for a run around Washington as I do nearly every week.  I’m out for about an hour and cover probably six miles.  Running by Arlington National Cemetery always makes me run just a little faster than I would somewhere else.  I figure those thousands of servicemen and women buried there gave everything for their country; maybe I can give a little more running near them.  I cool down in the shadows of the Iwo Jima memorial, and I look at those Marines hoisting the American flag as I stretch.  Then after a shower, what do I do?  I sit down to study Shoenberg.

Well, of course!  Because the Gurrelieder has everything to do with winning the War On Terror!  This makes perfect sense!

This ranks up there with a command inventory at the 82d Airborne Division Band, where nylon straps in O.D. green designed to hold combat packs at the knees of a fully loaded paratrooper are counted in the same breath as sousaphones and clarinet reeds.

Also funny how military terminology invades (see, there’s another one) the musical vernacular.  Sometimes if the ensemble doesn’t stop immediately after I cut them in rehearsal I will show the hand signal and call out “cease fire” as if we’re at the rifle range.  No one thinks twice about this.  Using the right kind of language is important because we have to be able to articulate what we do to people for whom the military is the only life they know.  So when speaking outside of the band building, we don’t rehearse, we train.  We don’t work with people, we coordinate with them.  And we definitely don’t perform concerts, we conduct band operations. 

It’s a strange clash of cultures, but it’s also a lot of fun.