Monday, December 11, 2006

Corn corn everywhere


When I think Omaha, I see fields of corn and wide open spaces. Flying in, it was easy to see that there was obviously more to Omaha than a large stalk of Corn, but I didnt think it would be as fun as it was! I was in town singing the baritone solos in Handel's MESSIAH with the Omaha Symphony. I stayed at the very nice Embassay Suites. I'm just going to throw this out there right now, I like suites. I like having more room. Oooh, and the beds were great! They had an OPEN BAR everyday at 5:30 and then a made-to-order FREE breakfast every morning. Needless to say, I partook (is that how you spell that?) of yummy spirits, ales, and eats.

The people at the Omaha Symphony were great. The cast of the soloists was also wonderful; Mary Wilson, Aidan Soder, Robert Breault, and myself. The conductor was Scott Yoo. This was a little frustrating, as this was his FIRST MESSIAH! How you get past conducting 101 w/o doing a Messiah is beyond me, but he had never conducted the thing, so needless to say, we were all a little more nervous than we would have liked to be. The performance went over well, and the audience enjoyed it, I'm not sure how many times Handel rolled around in his grave wanting a little legit performance practice, but what can you do!?

Tomorrow I'm off to NYC for 8 days for auditions, coachings, and some early rehearsals for my upcoming debut with OONY. It should prove to be a VERY fun trip!!