From Tegucigalpa to Washington D.C.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Today I played a piano solo in Church. It was a Christmas medley including Away in a Manger, Silent Night, and Beautiful Savior arranged by Marshall McDonald. His arrangements flow so beautifully and it was fun to play. After the meetings, the choir director said that the stake president had asked me to play for the special Christmas program which was to be held in the afternoon. This was the same program that the choir had been practicing for.

Choir practice was held at 3:00 p.m. and lasted until 4:30. (The program was scheduled to start at 4:00 p.m.) It was held outdoors in the parking lot so the temple could be seen in the background. Members carried all the chairs from the church and arranged them in the parking lot for the audience and the choir.

A big truck pulled up and unloaded electronics which included microphones, giant speakers, a booming sound system, screens for video clips, and lighting, etc. It was so impressive and I know people could hear the sounds a mile away. A podium and staging area were set up in front with really nice chairs for the speaker and those presiding!

Finally, about 5:00 o’clock, they started. There was a big crowd. Some of the wards use buses to bring their members to church activities and there were some here tonight.

I had put scotch tape in my purse and was glad since I had to tape some of the music (photocopies that I had to re-line and notate) to the piano to keep the breeze from lifting it away. It doesn’t take much breeze to stir sheets of paper.

Darkness descended before the program was over and Glade held my phone-flashlight on the music with one hand and steadied the music in the breeze with the other to get me through and enhance the light from the spotlight behind me.

(Alexis did the same thing last year at the end of November when the power went off during sacrament meeting and I was supposed to do a musical number. I was on the stand and went to the piano wondering if I could see to play and caught her eye. She held up her phone with a questioning look and I nodded! She came up and sat beside me on the bench and held the light on my music so I could play. It was awesome—and we knew just what to do tonight!)

An electric piano from the YW room was brought out for the choir. I told them that doing a special number on that piano wasn’t going to be very effective. They said, “Oh, we’ll plug it into the PA system and it will be fine. Well, you know how much interpretation you can get from an electronic piano—almost none, and I was a wreck trying to decide what to do because I knew it would be a huge let down. We were looking around for the piano bench when I turned toward the chapel and saw nearly a dozen men carrying the piano from the chapel out to the parking lot where they placed it next to the choir. I don’t know who made the decision to get the “real” piano, but I didn’t even feel guilty—just so grateful!!! It made the whole experience so much better. The choir did about ten numbers plus some for prelude and postlude, so it helped the choir and it helped me!!

Just as the closing prayer was said, it started to rain. The choir did two of their four postlude numbers and then it was too wet—the keys were getting slippery and the breeze was blowing my music out of control. We all went for cover while the men rescued the piano, and suddenly there were people everywhere putting everything away and out of the rain. That is the fastest “clean-up” work we have seen in a long time. Then the rain stopped and it was all very peaceful.

It was a beautiful program and I know Heavenly Father was attending us and providing what we lacked to make it wonderful. The video clips were so touching and the choir did great!! It was really different to have it outside, but it worked!

Setting Up

The sun is still up!

Choir getting ready--on the left, the choir director and a "helper" are trying to get sound from the electric piano. In the top left corner is the Christmas tree that has been in the chapel foyer for about a month. They moved it outside for the program.

Getting some of the electronics set up--the best screen ended up being the side of the white equipment truck which was much bigger than this screen.

This was the electronic piano. It is very nice for the Young Women's room, but out here, it didn't quite make the grade. The choir director is on the left in the gray suit and ponytail.