Top Five Musical Experiences.

We just returned from Baltimore Sunday night.

This was my choir's annual Spring Trip. It was quite an experience.

My favorite part was on Friday night when we went to the Naval Academy's Men's Glee Club performance. Talk about hearing incredible music!!!!

I had goosebumps....I cried.....I sighed.....I laughed......I went through a gamut of emotions.

Two of my guys got to join them for a song that I had taught them ahead of time. This is one of them (the other one's picture didn't turn out very well) in the white shirt in the middle of the other guys.

My next few blogs will probably be about different aspects of the trip. But for now, here are my top five musical experiences (not in any particular order).

1. Singing with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra Brahm's Requiem and the Polovetsian Dances.

2. Performing my senior recital (Bach's Italian Concerto, a Mozart Sonata, Gottschalk's Souvenir de Puerto Rico, a Brahm's piece)

3. Seeing Les Miserables performed my sophomore year of high school

4. Seeing Harry Connick Jr. live for my 26th birthday

5. The USNA Men's Glee Club Performance

The one moment that still gives me chills was when they performed Biebl's "Ave Maria," (originally performed by Chanticleer; check it out on youtube athttp://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IJSFKidqmk, it's an incredible piece). They had about 8 of their guys who would be graduating this spring and going directly into the service stand in a balcony opposite the rest of the choir and sing the second choir part back. It was a call and answer that was hauntingly beautiful and made you feel the weight of the fact that these men would soon be placing their lives on the line for their country, for us. It was a heavy moment filled with incredible beauty.

Lesson: Music will never stop changing and affecting you.