So last night I'm sitting at this gig thinking, "All too easy!"

Let me back up a bit. Living for 9 years in New England, Christmas time was always a picturesque Normal Rockwell time of year. People from warmer climates threw destination weddings in our town in the dead of winter just so they could have beautiful wedding pictures in the falling snow. People expected certain things around the holidays as well, and this includes hiring "classical musicians" to perform "classical music" to give the holidays a "classic" feel. Yup, that's where I come in.

The month between Thanksgiving & Christmas is the busiest time of year for the musicians of New England. I've played Christmas Pageants at churches, every single Bach Oratorio & Cantata concerning the holiday, and countless other lesser known works all in the name of Christmas. Well...that and I expect to be well paid. Most of these things are stuffy traditional performances where the choir stands on risers at the front of the church, the orchestra seated below and the hired soloists stand up front where everyone can see where the money they paid for their tickets went.

Flash forward to the present day. My location: Fabulous Las Vegas.

Last weekend I was enjoying some well-deserved down time after that crazy day called Thanksgiving. My cell phone rang. It was a viola player I had worked with a couple weeks earlier hiring me to play a "Christmas Concert" at some church. Sure, what the heck, Santa needs all the cash he can get his grubby little hands on right now, he doesn't say no to anything after Thanksgiving! I asked what the music was and she said she wasn't sure, it would be waiting on our stands at the first rehearsal.

First rehearsal was last night, in fact. It took me about an hour to drive from my home in the north down the church in the south so I wasn't sure if I was seeing correctly when I walked into the "performance space" in the main sanctuary. There were not just chairs for the orchestra, but there was an electric piano and a drum kit! w00t?! Are you kidding? Nope. No joke, this is a Celene Dion type orchestra complete with rock band. Have I ever done anything like this before? Well, in theater yes, but for a church's Christmas concert? Never. This is all new to me.

I won't bore you with any details of the actual music or rehearsal, but I will say that the music is like rock-opera! It's fun to play with the other ringers, many of whom play in jazz combos around town. The strings, obviously are not jazz trained (neither is this oboist) so we lend a sort of "cheesy" sound to the group. Yes, this is intentional - this is why these things are orchestrated the way they are!

The rehearsal starts. The lights go down and.... BAM! A movie is being projected on a huge screen hanging over the orchestra (seriously, I didn't even know it was there until out of the corner of my eye I saw movement). There are spotlights on the actors operated by actual real live people who follow the action with great precision. On stage, the church choir has women bedecked in sequin dresses and men in matching sequin vests. Not a white hair to be seen in this church choir - not exactly sure how they managed that, but *I'm* not complaining! There are gel lights, snakes, extension cords, monitors, video monitors, amps, microphones (yes, I have my very own mic mounted in front of my oboe!) and the last finishing touch is the drum kit is actually behind a wall of plexiglass. Wow. This ain't no regular church pageant - THIS IS VEGAS BABY!!!

As the musical numbers tick past, it becomes apparent that the choir director is a skilled musician (not always the case at many churchs, btw), the choir is highly practiced and the actors clearly auditioned for their parts. There's a sound crew that ran an actual sound check before rehearsal, lighting team and stage crew. There are several "celebratory" songs that even have lights flashing all around the church sanctuary like midnight rock-'n-bowl. And of course, there's little me squeezed between a flute in one ear and a violin in the other just thinking about how much fun it will be to share this experience in at least one of my blogs!!

And just when I thought it couldn't get any more exciting.... they blew a fuse! Suddenly there are no more spotlights, movie goes out, house speakers are out, all the lights are out, except for our stand lights. Yup, you know what that means? The show must go on. The band played on while the crew worked on the power situation - they accomplished this feat during the time it took us to play one song (approximately 4 minutes). Pretty incredible.

I declare this is the Best Christmas Pageant Ever!


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-=update=-
After the first round of shows on Saturday, my mother called me on Sunday morning to ask how the gig was going. I recounted basically everything I wrote in this blog. All of a sudden she yells, "Hey! Do you want to go to her concert this afternoon!" to my father in the next room. Slight pause & I hear my dad yell back, "Sure! Why not!"

Yup, my parents were coming to the show on Sunday. The first concert of mine they'd been to since Feb. 2001 (but who's keeping track?). Let me just say... two things happened.

First: my parents LOVED the show. They had a great time & agreed that the "Vegas Value" of the show was not exaggerated!

Second: I learned that it doesn't matter how old you are, how "professional" a musician you are, your parents will always be your parents. What did my mom say to me after the show? "The oboe was the best part." Aww.... and then my head grew three sizes that day.....