A singing career re-emerges!!!!

Or not!

This is totally related to my previous post, about spirituality and how I connect with that side of myself. Curious???

Not many of you who know me, or read my blog, know that my original career choice, while I was in high school, was to be a singer. Long before American Idol, I was going to go to college and study music performance, and try my hand at making it in the industry. I attended a two week music camp at Hartt School of Music in CT, I competed vocally with my high school choir, I sang barbershop with three other women, I was very versatile in my singing. However, my dreams of such a career were crushed by my well intentioned music director, who told me that I didn't have the chops to make it, to deal with the rejection. She is probably right, but I was devastated.

Two years after I graduated, my brother also got the singing bug, and spent his last three years of high school also active in the choir, and competing. He then formed a few different bands that played some local places near our home in New Hampshire, and the notes, lyrics, and the energy brought him alive every time.

My brother lives about forty minutes away from me, the closest he has ever lived to me in our adult lives. He no longer has a bar band, but rather, a church one. Along with the pastor of his Lutheran church, they have created a band called Living Stones. They have made CD's, played concerts at coffee houses, and sang at services weekly for a couple of years. I have sang with them here and here, but this weekend is the mother lode.

We are performing, the band including me, a musical tribute to the life of Jesus, all in song, from his birth to his death and resurrection. We are doing tunes from Godspell (my absolute favorite show, next to "Rent"), Jesus Christ Superstar, and a show called The Witness, which I was never familiar with. I am singing with the band, and singing a solo tune, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Superstar. The performances are tomorrow and Sunday, free and open to the public.

I cannot fully express how excited and filled with joy about doing this, for many reasons. First, my love of music is intense. I have not had opportunities to perform it in the last few years, and when I am able to, due to time constraints or breathing constraints (I have asthma) I fully embrace the moment. Another reason, is the opportunity to perform with my brother; I love his singing voice, and we rarely get to do things like this together, and it really brings us closer.

One final reason, most closely connected to my previous post, is that I feel like God is fully in my heart when I raise my voice in song, especially songs about him and his son. The love that embodies a tune, the angst of the struggles, the power of his message, it all comes through so much more intensely for me in a song.

I am bursting with joy and anticipation!!! My song will carry love to the heavens!!!