Carnegie Hall

In April of 2006 Glenn and I, along with other members of our community went to New York and performed the Messiah in Carnegie Hall.

We practiced in one of the ball rooms of the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Our director decided to arrange the 400 plus performers by having us line up in our separate sections according to height, but no one could stand by somebody he knew! This is our director Jonathan Griffith was awesome.

He proceeded to seat us row by row. He started seating the Soprano's on the right, row after row. Then he started with the alto's on both sides of the middle. row after row. There were about 10 alto's in each row past the middle, leaving room for the tenors. I was number 10 in my row, meaning that I would be standing next to a tenor. I was watching the tenors come in and all of a sudden, I realized that Glenn would end up very close to me...wait for it..wait for it...wait...! Glenn was filed in and placed right next to me! It was truly a tender mercy and made all of our time in New York, very special.

Our practices were 4 hours long on Friday and Saturday, the rest of the time, we were tourists.

Sunday we practice for two hours, standing! Then had a break, while the other chorus practied the second half. It was grueling. Glenn wanted to sing the whole thing, he was told he could, if he practiced with them, so he practiced another two hour, standing and performed the whole thing. It was a 31/2 hour performance altogether. Glenn stood a total of 71/2 hours!. It was very painful on his legs and feet, but he says it was worth it!

After the performance we took a cruise around the Hudson Bay, out to the Statute of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge.

We saw shows, the empire state building, walked Time Square, visited with New Yorkers, went to the temple, but my favorite memory is being at ground zero and seeing the pictures the children had painted!