Success is all in how you look at it.

I'm sitting in my living room at 1:00 a.m. My oldest son is at an after prom party. Even with all of the craziness of our ND spring, parties and special events still take place. We had our State 'A' Vocal Festival yesterday. I brought 29 students to Minot for the day. They really grew between regional and state. 28 of the students will receive a medallion at our music appreciation banquet in May. We'll give out 52 of them. Wow! I am so happy for them. They know they did a great job and that means more than what anyone else could say. It was good to see that Valley City was able to pull it together enough for the students to participate. I think we all view success differently. Some use the stars as the end goal, some say state is the reward for success. I really always just want forward progress in the 'right' direction. It's all in how you look at it. Sometimes success is observing a student celebration in the form of spontaneous song on a school bus. Truly the Cathedral Choir experienced their own form of success when the sang for the Triduum. They were wonderful.

Who decides when you have success? We went to the gala event for Sister Thomas Welder last night. Now there is a success story. She is a beautiful woman with a heart of gold. Sister has touched so many lives. How can a woman be so strong, yet serve so many? 1400 people turned up to honor this humble leader. Thanks God, for the opportunity to have been within the reach of a true servant leader.

I have 9 big events left before relaxing into summer. Grandparents Mass, Art & Song, Cinco de Mayo w/ Voices+, Blues performance at Saint Anne, Music Appreciation Banquet, 2 graduations with choirs, Pentecost and Solemnity of the Body & Blood of Christ, and diocesan ordination of three young Catholic men. In the back of my mind I am preparing for teaching at IMC, getting the 80th Messiah performance ready, and planning the activities involved in touring to NYC with the HS Choir. I'm sure I've left things out, but they say the brain can only handle 7 things at a time. Oh, I remember another one, recording soloists for the NCACDA. Success to me? Finding JOY in each day. That's true success. Joy is found in friends and family, in making progress - not perfection, and enjoying God's gift of beauty. This picture is of the volcanos surrounding Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. Truly a place where you can see beauty and believe it or not... JOY.

Vigil is in View

Easter Vigil is around the corner - at the end of the week. What a journey we've taken. I think what I learned most this lent was to breathe. There's a time and a place for anxiety. Only when it will move things in the right direction should it be given life. In the last 4 days, the music in my life has been more than satisfying. The Cathedral Church Choir sang very well last night. They have so much potential and will be so amazing in a year, it will be hard to recognize them. I hope it continues to grow and that those involved are spiritually moved to a place that is truly bringing them closer to God. The choir will be singing for the Triduum.

We had a concert today at SMCHS. It's our annual "Text & Tone". Speeches by the speech club (3) and music by the vocal jazz choir. It's a really nice afternoon, and the performance was quality! But, we can't seem to get the audience there. I wish I knew how to change that. I think it's just the time of year. PR was done appropriately. Tomorrow, the SM Blues get to sing for Holy Hoops. It's in front of the entire school and we'll sing the National Anthem. Not a lot of pressure, but a big gig. So, little time to rest up, but that's life during the school year. I'm going to watch the news. The camera man was there today and took a bit of footage with an interview. Thanks Tom S. for taking such nice video of our St. Mary's Men when they were singing "Johnny Schmoker" on Thursday. Thanks also to: Aanders, Glenn, Don, Pat, Tami, Jim, Leann, Michelle, and all the others that helped with the concert yesterday and today!

I received a site suggestion from a colleague at school, so to see what you can create with Wordle, you can go to http://www.wordle.net/ . Today was a great day for our Singing Saints. The students really had to do a lot on their own for our West Region Vocal Contest preparation after I started them on the task due to our crazy March (musical march madness) and our unusual weather circumstances. After a short pep talk and prayer they were off to many adjudicators and performances. What we came away with was nice. Our choir starred in 18 events bringing home 62 stars and better yet, 31 of the 35 participants qualified to advance to the State Class A Vocal Contest to be held in Minot on April 24th. Way to go Saints!! I get to break the news to them tomorrow. There is abundant joy in knowing they worked hard and will be rewarded. Sunday we have a concert. The vocal jazz choir shares and afternoon with the speech club. Text & Tone... It's a nice afternoon, seated around tables, great friends, conversation, entertainment, and even original music by our students. Well, that's all for now. Later.

Coming Down

I'm sitting in the living room after a long needed nap. The snow is really coming down and if we hadn't just been through the crazy week, I would dare say it's beautiful. Thick, heavy, swirling, clinging and covering all it touches. We still have our belongings in our living room. I attended the NDMEA conference on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and then on Wednesday as the Missouri river was threatening Fox Island and the homes along the river, I was taken by surprise. The roads around our home were being closed. The mobile home park by our neighborhood was being evacuated and the ditch by our street was FULL. The picture is from our local newspaper. I taught one class and went home to meet Patrick. We spent the rest of the day moving the downstairs up. So did the rest of our neighbors. The river is continually coming down and we are all relieved. The fight or flight really kept the Bismarck Mandan community in a good place. Our Saints sand bagged for 3 days until they called off the effort when the amazing ice blasting plan freed the river up just enough to lower the levels. I had a proud calming feeling watching our Governor, Mayor, and General S. go to work. They are all Cathedral Parish members. Many events have been postponed or cancelled. I even cancelled some rehearsals. That's not me. The Internet has kept people in touch with the vivid photos and quick links to alumni and friends. I read this morning that the wonderful Oak Grove Lutheran school had a breach in their permanent dike. So sad. I wonder what we can do for them. My heart and prayers go out for the Fargo area people. I know how much work Rebecca Raber at Shanley HS put in to their choir tour and can't even imagine how her students are coming down after the efforts of preparing and now the efforts of holding back all that water. As we get ready for Easter, and as the Red River continues to come down, and when all the sand bags eventually come down, may we keep up the connections we have with friends, family, and new relationships due to the predicaments that have been delivered to us.

I Love to Sing!

NDMEA All-State... and Educator's Conference - Educators from all over the state are gathered in Bismarck Sunday - Tuesday. We have 3 choirs: Mixed Chorus- Jamie Spillane, Women's Choir - David Brunner, and Vocal Jazz Choir - Jennifer Barnes. 8 students from our choir are singing. That's really nice considering we have 38 students in our choir this year. Way to go Saints! Anyway, I sing with the Dakota Chamber Chorale. It's a choir of adults (about 20 of us) conducted by Dr. Thomas Porter, conductor at University of Mary. I wanted the chorale to be called the Tom Porter chorale, but he's a humble man. You can see I've included a picture. This was taken last summer. We're doing a variety of choral music. That's an understatement. Mongolian, Latin, German, English, and Sousa. I love to sing. It's my favorite thing to do, barely in front of conducting lately though. Since taking on the position of conducting the Cathedral Church Choir, I've begun to look through different glasses. It's nice to communicate musically with adults. So, DCC sings for the conference attendees on Tuesday morning at 10:00 a.m. I really only have one complaint. No auditorium at all, for any of the choirs! It compares to taking a fine meal prepared by a great chef and rinsing the food off before you eat it. You just don't get the full effect. I don't have a great solution, though, so until I do, you won't hear that again. I hope the rest of my choir students show up for the 2:00 or 4:30 concert on Tuesday. The all-state students will really work hard to prepare the music and they'll make you proud by representing you so well. I pray they "connect" with the music, with the conductor, with the audience and with each other. :-)

Are you Irish?

St. Patrick's Day. What a wonderful day. We had mass at school today. The band played and the St. Mary's Men sang. We are doing the Latin mass parts. I think the student body is joining in. Hard to tell sometimes, but I look around and they are daring to make a joyful noise. After hearing the choir at St. Paul's Cathedral in Minnesota this past weekend, the students show a renewed interest in the beautiful chant. I took this picture in St. Paul on Sunday. Lux Aurumque, by Eric Whitacre, is our next challenge. The wind orchestra modeled it so well for us today. I have linked to a page that has a set of midi parts. Lux Aurumque midi parts. Hopefully students check their parts and come ready to learn.

A couple other things we have going on include the NDMEA All-State Choir on March 22-24 in Bismarck. Check the schedule out if you haven't seen one yet. Tickets are available for the concerts. They should be wonderful. Our Cathedral tri-school band is playing. The Dakota Chamber Chorale is singing for the teachers. I sing with them. Great adults that like to sing, conducted by Tom Porter.

Also, if you want to use edline, please go to the site and sign in.

Jazz Festival

Down St. Thomas Way, Two for the Road, and I Sing You Sing were our three charts for the Minnesota ACDA Star of the North vocal jazz festival. I am very proud of the SM Blues performance. The dedication and hard work that our students put in paid off. The adjudications were extremely educational and very worthwhile. I think we'll bring home a number of "games" that will help us swing the pendulum and get to where we need to be. We had 2 master classes and a performance by 2 college groups and the wonderful McNally Smith faculty. They were so enjoyable to see and hear. The facilities and faculty are top notch. Tonight we deserved a break and enjoyed the night off. It will be refreshing to get back with our new knowledge. It seems as though everyone has enjoyed the experience. We'll be home tomorrow evening - I get to take the students to St. Paul's Cathedral. We'll be attending 10 am mass. Hope you enjoy the photo.