Tanglewood Festival Chorus

So about 10 years ago a woman I went to college with announced that she was going into Boston to audition for the Tanglewood Festival Chorus (TFC). So what is that you ask? TFC is the chorus in residence for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. There was not always a chorus for this purpose, it started a little over 30 years ago. Back 10 years ago you went to the open audition where you were handed a score of a major choral work and they told you what portion of the work you would be auditioning with. We all went in and practiced the section as a big group and then we got called in to sing in octets (2 people to a part). Your octet was then went in and sang the same thing you just sang with the big group. If John Oliver (the director) had some question about your voice or anything else, you and three others sang as a quartet.
Now, if you did well in this audition you got a call back to come sing a solo piece. I got a call back. I was scared to death. I didn't know what to do. I hadn't told my voice teacher I was doing this and that's rather a big deal since they get rather, well, pissy about that sort of thing because they want you to do well as much as you do.
I decided I would audition with a selection from Die Winterise by Schubert that I had learned the last semester. My teacher laughed politely and said no, don't bother, it's not a good piece for you (he had picked it the semester before btw). Instead he told me I should do a piece called The Trees They Grow So High by Britten. I saw two problems, 1. it was in English and 2. it wasn't very glamorous or showy. Dr. McGahan told me it didn't matter, that I have a gift of for interpreting Britten and this would be fine. Now, on the face of it this selection seems rather simple. It is a narrative told by a woman about how she was betrothed to a man, a boy really, who was younger than she and how she was going to have to wait or him to go to school and then come back before they can wed. I'm not sure but I'm reasonably certain what is happening is that father of the girl (who also appears in the work) knows the groom is wealthy and not in the best of health and so the bride will soon be quite rich.
I had to work my ass off to get the tempi right on this, I still wasn't sure I Had it down but I gave it my best shot in the audition. When I finished all John had to say was "Gee, I've never heard that one before." I have since come to know they (conductors) are all like that, they never react to anything. Well, I got in.
So I did about two and a half season with TFC, then I wanted out. It wasn't so much the hard work (it is hard work) but, well, I had a hard time fitting in. I was one of two people from UML who got in from the group of us that auditioned. THe other person seemed to fit in better. Fast forward about 8 years and I am telling my girl friend about my life and every once and a while we talk about TFC. After we had been married we would talk about it now and then and last Spring she asked me if I thought I could get in again, well, I wasn't sure. I looked up the audition dates and saw they weren't far away.
It was very different this time, no big group, just the solo audition. Now though there is a big purge every 3 years (even if you just auditioned to get in right before that!) We all have to go in and sing our hearts out to be able to stay in. Sometimes it's hell, but you are part of something so much bigger than yourself. I love beautiful music, it is something we can only do while we are able to.
Well, that was a mouth full.