Music Overload

I love music. I love being a part of musical groups. Which is why I am really enjoying my involvement with a church production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. We have been practicing every Saturday afternoon and some Friday evenings since August - needless to say a huge time commitment, but totally worth it. Our performances are the second week of November.

If that weren't enough, Matt and I are also members of our ward (church congregation) choir. Matt is actually the director of the choir. We have been asked to join with another ward choir to provide the music for the upcoming conference of wards in our area (it's called a stake conference). So every Sunday afternoon for 1.5 hours, we have been preparing for that. The conference is this coming Sunday.

Additionally, we have joined a special choir that will sing in the LDS Washington DC temple as part of the stake conference previously mentioned. This is for a meeting in the 7th floor Assembly Hall, which is very rare, so we are thrilled to be a part of that. Rehearsals for this choir are on Sundays at 6pm - 7pm and we've been doing preparing for the past three weeks - the performance is this coming Friday.

Finally, Matt, as director of the ward choir, is responsible for creating the Christmas program for our congregation. This involves choosing the music that the choir will sing as well as putting together small groups (both vocal and instrumental) to perform as well. Last Sunday, we spent the evening going through several Christmas songs deciding what songs to include in the program - while we made great progress, there is a lot left to do - not to mention actually practicing the songs.

Lots of music!!!!! So when we found out about a handbell choir that is being organized at church, we had mixed feelings. I have been a part of a bell choir before and it was a wonderful experience. I would love to do it again - particularly at Christmastime which is when the handbell choir will first perform.

At the same time, we are doing TONS of musical things right now and our free time is completely out the window. I have been getting babysitters upon babysitters for our Joseph rehearsals and poor Ellie has sat through many choir rehearsals. Adding one more thing to the list seems like just too much. So it was with sadness that I emailed the handbell choir director and explained that we could not be a part of the choir for their Christmas performance. Luckily, it is an ongoing choir, so hopefully we will be able to join once all of our other music commitments end.

Wow! I never thought I could ever hit a saturation point when it comes to music and being involved in musical groups. But I guess there's a first time for everything.