I love my singers. They are as great a bunch of people as I know. They pitch in, volunteer and give their honest opinions when I ask. They talk up the MMS every place they can and talk us up even when the can’t!

They are some of the best people I know and I feel honored to work with them. And they sing great.

I was a guest conductor at a church choir festival yesterday. I also sang as a “ringer” for the organizer’s choir. It was amazing how many people I knew from my travels in the south suburbs. The choirs sounded good and I conducted the massed numbers. I learned about a contemporary church choir composer I didn’t know, saw a few friends and laughed with some of my favorite local choir directors. But, I had fun as did the other participants. Singing together is always fun, no matter what level and with whom. I wish we could sing together more……..

I suppose I should come clean—I LOVE COLLEGE BASKETBALL! I am as mad as anyone in March, waiting for my favorites to come to the Big Dance. I make predictions and choose brackets and think this year, THIS YEAR, I will have the winner. I have my sentimental picks and then, go for the rest by the book. It starts Thursday and I can’t wait.

Back to music. And rehearsals. But I still love college basketball!

We had our first rehearsal of this concert cycle tonight. Wow! We have very, very good people returning and the new members are just wonderful. I always worry about how the old and new will mix, vocally and socially, and this time everything seems great!

I knew it would be good but the sounds, the sounds!

This concert may be the best I’ve ever had. And we hope to build on it.

We begin rehearsals for our spring concert cycle next week. There is so much to do to prepare, almost from the moment we finish our last concert. Of course, the music was chosen a while ago but sometimes, the timing of music orders makes it seem I didn’t. I burn repertoire CDs so the choir can hear the music as it is suppose to be sung. There are auditions to conduct–and they are still being held–and deciding who will ‘make it’ and who will not. Some believe I take anybody who auditions, but that is not the case.

I plan out, in my head and sometimes on paper, how I will structure getting all the music learned in time. I’m flexible but I do have an idea as to how it will work.

Once rehearsals start, it is almost on automatic pilot because the tough stuff has been done months ago. And it’s fun–I can’t wait!