Christmas in Washington

Christmas in Washington

On December 9th, 2012 I was able to participate in Christmas in Washington- the nationally televised Christmas program for the President.  We started rehearsal the Monday after Thanksgiving and rehearsed almost every day until the day of the performance.  I was part of the American Family Choir and had the dubious honor of being the highest soprano in the choir.  I sang all the highest notes (solo) in the choir.  It made me a very happy soprano I.

The American Family Choir was joined by a youth choir, the glee club from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, and several stars.  The stars were Demi Levato (From Disney-who I did not like...the story will continue), Megan Hilty (from Smash), Chris Mann (from The Voice), Psy (of Gangnam Style fame), Diana Ross (of the Supremes), and Scotty McCreery (from American Idol). The event was hosted by Conan O'Brian and attended by the First Family.  

The choir was made up of 80 of DC's best and brightest.  We had younger people, older people, middle-aged people, black, white, brazillian, hispanic. We had moms, roommates, friends, colleagues, etc. Most of the members belong to either a church or other local choir group. We sang some difficult music and it was all "background" so we had a lot of "ooo"s and "ah"s that we had to keep straight. 

I had a blast going to all the rehearsals and finally the performance.  I got to wear choir robes and cute plaid scarfs, which I have affectionally renamed my "lumberjack" scarf. (It is warm though).

Here are some highlights of the experience:

• I was the highest soprano and was the only one to sing the highest notes in the choir. When I "auditioned" to sing that high the director gave me a little bit of a "well if you think you can go ahead and try" look and then I busted out a high b-flat with no thought to it and she said "great! You'll sing that note" and I was asked to sing those high notes with at first 4 people, then 2, then just me :)
• The director of the choir, Patrick Lundy, is my amazing voice teacher, Joyce Lundy's, husband. He was great to work with and had a ton of energy.  I loved singing with him.
• I got to be 10 feet from President and his family while singing back up for Diana Ross.  Awesome!
• I got to meet Megan Hilty- who is much prettier in real life than she is on Smash. She's so tiny too, very short, but has fantastic taste in shoes. 
• I got to walk upstairs with Conan O'Brian and see how nice he was to his fans.
• I got to annoy one of Demi Levato's people... Let me tell you the story- so Demi Levato comes in with all the other stars (except Diana Ross) to do a quick run through of our finale with the choir.  We had to go through her song (Silent Night) 4-5 times because she didn't know the tempo and clearly had never sung it before. (apparently she wasn't born or raised in any Christian country- or she grew up under the rock of Disney oppression...not really sure what happened there).  So while she was choking it up the teenagers were making fun of her.  It was fantastic. Anyway, when she originally came in all with her entourage, her "people" stood in everyone's way.  After much complaining they finally moved to the side, one of them stood near me. Added to this problem was the fact that our conductor was occasionally difficult to understand because of the way they had him amplified so after one of his directions, I turned to the girl next to me to ask where we were starting and dude from the entourage shushed me.  So not ok.  Fortunately for me, this particular starting point had some fantastic high notes.  So I just tilted a little toward rude dude and belted it out (let me point out again, I'm the only soprano singing this note, being heard over an orchestra and a large choir). Let it be said that that man moved along and stopped being rude to me.  Hooray
• I got to see Psy live, that was pretty cool. Hwaiting!
• I got to be on TV!!! Nationally!!!

Here follows some cool pictures of the event.  Enjoy!

 Here is the Naval Academy Glee Club rehearsing for their numbers.

 My badge to get to the backstage areas

 Megan Hilty singing

 Megan Hilty singing some more

 Me and Megan Hilty- she has about 7 inch heels on right not.

 Me! Our venue was the national building museum.

 POTUS- President of the United States sat next to FLOTUS- First Lady of the United States and the 2 CHOTUS- Children of the United States

 That's me...by POTUS

 That's the chair for Chief Justice Roberts.  Uh, that's pretty cool..

 Psy, from afar- I could never be downstairs when he was doing his stuff. Annoying.

 Here are the first people slowly going into the audience

 Backstage watching Conan O'Brian do his bit. Couldn't hear a dang thing, but one of the girls from the Glee Club and I had a great conversation.

 Conan O'Brien shaking hands at the end of the performance.

 Part of the choir in our sweet sweet robes

The cute little Glee Club guys behind me on stage.