(no subject)

I am hoping that I am now Done with the time-intensive parts of April church, which were a) giving a talk at church (this was very time-consuming, because although I now have deconstructed the process of how to give a very effective talk at church, I have to rehearse a lot and go through a lot of drafts to smooth it out) b) the "Easter concert" that was last night, and c) planning the Easter music for actual Easter.

I honestly don't really understand why people thought doing an Easter concert was a good idea, given that we sort of scraped by on the Christmas concert even though everyone had a good time. But okay. Except that the two stars, whom I guess I have called Operatic Music Guy Tenor and Smooth Music Guy Tenor before, both got super sick (not with covid -- one of them lost his voice and the other had a flareup of long-standing heart issues) and couldn't participate. (Smooth Music Guy Tenor was doing a trio of "Savior, Redeemer" with me on violin and our other friend on piano.) The lady running it is... umm... very intense, and she managed to persuade another of our mutual music-friends to sing in the place of Smooth Music Guy Tenor. The catch here is that the new singer was still in a walker because of a bike accident she had a couple of months back (which is why she hadn't been previously asked to sing). I would have said no! But she didn't say no, except that she couldn't walk to the stand. And then the special mike she had (because she couldn't walk to the stand with the usual mike) malfunctioned so this poor woman was singing unmiked to the entire audience. Fortunately she has a voice that carries pretty well, even if it's not super operatic, and I did a lot of volume modulation so as not to drown her out, but that was exciting. The good part for me is that all my brainpower was going towards how I was going to make sure that I wasn't drowning her out, with none left for being nervous, which usually I would be and which usually makes me play noticeably worse in concert than in rehearsal. But anyway, everyone had a good time and it went just well enough that they'll probably do it again next year, joy.

(The lady running it also sang, and... I... feel that someone needs to tell her that while it was fine ten years ago (the last time I heard her sing), she kind of needs to not sing at these events anymore.) (Hilariously, I'm pretty sure she was not asked for the Christmas concert.)

I am also super pleased that the music drama for this year ended both happily and in a way where I don't have to do anything, lol. So this was unforced error on my part -- I had agreed with Awesome Alto that she would sing "Savior Redeemer" at our ward at Easter and I would accompany her on piano, and then I had suggested the same song to Smooth Music Guy Tenor to sing with me at the fireside without thinking about it at all, and once I did, AAlto objected at doing the same one. Well, she found another song, but couldn't find it in the appropriate key, and there is no way I can transpose music on piano, especially (for me) difficult music like this was. Fortunately, Amazing Organist was just standing around randomly waiting for his wife after church (he's very often traveling for work, so this was doubly fortuitious that he was around this month at all), and I was like "I bet AO can do it, he's right there, let's ask him!" and dragged her over, and AO was like "Oh, I've played this before, and sure, I can't transpose it from the music but I can do it by ear." (I told you he was amazing. Gosh. I can do that on violin but there is NO WAY on piano.) So they rehearsed and now not only are we all set, I also don't have to spend all my spare time learning a new piano piece this week, which as you can imagine I am very excited about ;)

(If you've been following all my vague references, you may well be asking, why didn't Awesome Alto sing "Savior Redeemer" for the fireside? She could only sing it in another key, and this was like a few days beforehand so our pianist, who was not AO, wouldn't have had time to learn in the different key.) (Though I would have preferred it as the violin part is easier in the other key, lol.) And also she wasn't super excited about singing for it so might have just said a flat no anyway.)

...Very fortunately D. is on the ball with regard to, like, buying chocolate and hard-boiling Easter eggs for the kids to color and such, because that was not even on my radar.

Also Hugo nominations are out! I've read the short stories now, starting in on the novelettes, and at some point will Post My Decided Opinions, and have a couple of novels queued from the library. Anyway, She Who Became the Sun and The Last Graduate are on the novel and YA ballots respectively, which is really all I wanted :)