Most of us think back to being 12 or 13 and that "difficult" age and cringe. Junior high years were sometimes best not remembered in the middle of the night...like now.
In 7th grade in the old Washington School on McKinley street, we had a music teacher who made it a big deal to be in band, orchestra and choir. Rehearsals were during lunch hours and we packed our brown bags as there was no cafeteria of any sort and ate quickly so as to get the maximum rehearsal time.
I had never sung in a choir before - well I did for a bit in 5th grade but hated it so faked not being able to do it so I could get out. This was, however, very different. The director, Doug Campbell was a University of Michigan product and he wanted to do great things. That first fall in a new town and school and feeling very awkward was a tough go and this place we think of as nerdy was were "everyone" was welcome and we admired those who could play or sing and thought it was ògreat that they could.
It was a foothold to get a soul through.
We rehearsed on the gym floor and with all the participants we were too big for the very small and very old stage. I wasn't much good at the time and there were kids in the group who were serious musicians. Think of it. A school with just a few 6, 7, and 8th grade rooms - half a dozen or so rooms total so less than 150 students and in that group 10 of us went on to be professional musicians, 3 in major orchestras and one in the Metropolitan Opera.
The holiday concert was at the Consistory on Center Ave. in Bay City and we sang the Prayer and Dream Sequences from Hansel and Gretel composed by Englebert Humperdink which to us was a very strange name indeed and when the pop singer took it over a few years later we all smiled knowingly.
I haven't heard the piece in a long time and it just played on the Internet radio. Amazingly right when it ended a conductor on the faculty of Michigan State who I knew from college, up in the middle of the night like me, and we texted about such days and all these thoughts ran through me like water through a funnel and here we are.
https://youtu.be/wEU0QzjA0wY
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