Cliché Central

With KMEA season starting to come around, I’m in a mood to reminisce about last year’s KMEA, when I made the All-District and All-State Choirs.

The auditions were much the same as they were this year. They were held on a Saturday morning at Andover Central High School, and I had an early morning time again. One goes into the audition room precisely at his assigned time. PRECISELY. I remember my time was 9:24 AM and if you were not there then, well, it’s just too bad for you. At the time I wasn’t too concerned about making it, but later I found out that I had made district and I was so excited! (Background info: one can only audition for KMEA sophomore through senior year, and it’s a big deal if you make it all 3 years). I have to give credit also to Liz, for making the Women’s Ensemble, and Stephanie for making Honors Band! =)

District went pretty well, although I don’t remember that much about it. It lasted maybe a total of 10 hours on an early December Saturday. I did make a vital connection though with Louis (Rose Hill), who would turn out to be my best choir friend.

After District, I (and every other singer) was left in the lurch. Each district can only pass off so many to All-State, and they did not reveal who had made it till weeks after. According to Louis, the judges rate you at auditions on a 1-10 scale, and if you score a 7 or higher, you make District. If you score a 9 or higher you also make State.

I spent many a fortnight awaiting to see if I made State. One day, I’m not really sure how I found out, but I had heard that the All-State roster was up on www.sckmea.org. I scrolled through the list and was utterly shocked to find that I had made State. I was so overjoyed; it was such a high honor!

Now All-State 2009 was a choir to remember. It was way different than District, which was pretty boring overall. It lasted 3 days, from February 26-28, at Century II. That meant I had to skip school Thursday and Friday =). I got out of school at noon on Thursday, so after I left my B lunch I left school (later realizing I had left all my belongings in my math class…) and headed for Century II. I can’t remember a whole lot of what happened that first Thursday. We rehearsed in the ballroom, which was really big and carpeted, and it looked similar to the ballroom from The Beauty and the Beast (not really but still it was big)! I was lucky because once again, I ended up sitting next to Louis and we were all chill.

Overall, though, Thursday was not my day for choir. I just was not socializing well, and after we got our dinner break (I took mine at Panera by Wesley), I thought, “Man this sucks,” and I didn’t even want to go back. I did, though, and persevered until we were dismissed, at about 8 or so. I went home that night with mixed feelings about the choir, knowing I had to be there ALL DAY Friday (8 a.m. - 10 p.m. or so).

Really the only people I met Thursday were Alex (Olathe East) and Jacob (Lawrence). Jacob had a claim to fame, though. For his dinner break, he (and apparently also our director) went to Sabor, in Old Town, and saw Harrison Ford eating there.

Let me skip to Friday, because that, my friend, was where the fun started, or if I was living in the 70s I would say that I got my groove on. I got there at 8, with my required nametag pinned on my person. I proceeded to climb up the carpeted stairs to the fancy ballroom and I took my seat as usual. First off, let me say, our director was CRAZY. In a good way! Dr. Allen Hightower was his name; KMEA had imported him from Sam Houston State University, in Texas. I have the highest respect for him now, because he was a great director.

We rehearsed all that morning, and I was in a much better socializing mood on Friday, meeting a BUNCH of people! At lunchtime, for some reason, we had a 2-hour recess from rehearsal. There was a big music convention in the Century II Convention Hall and I think it might have been for the seniors to sign up for scholarships. Anyway, Louis and I enjoyed our two-hour lunch.

It was provided for us (a first!) and we made our way over to the table. I remembered that it was a Friday in Lent, and that I wasn’t supposed to eat meat, but all they had was turkey and ham. I spotted one lone veggie sandwich, and decided to take it, though I would have rather had turkey. Louis and I searched for a table, but seeing that most of them were filled, we sat down at a table with one lone middle-school band guy sitting there. We tried to be friendly with him, and he was cool, but he had to leave, and then it was just me and Louis.

A little while later, though, 3 people came to sit down at our table. Little did I know at the time these were the Wichita public school singers (minus the Heights clan). They were actually pretty cool and were surprised that I was from Kapaun. We bonded right then and there because we were all City League singers. I met Megan (Northwest), Chantel (North), and Taylor (West). These characters were just that: characters. Chantel and I, after learning more about each other, discovered that we were actually distant cousins. It was pretty far out there, though, like maybe 4th cousins? But it was still fun to call each other “cuz.” Taylor and Louis hit it off, though I tried to kind of stay my distance from Taylor. All signs were pointing toward him being gay.

Besides the Heights guys, who basically stuck together the whole time, the only other City League singer there was Caitlin (Bishop Carroll). I never had that much to do with her, but I had on my KMC shirt and she had on some BC shirt. We passed each other and smiled but that was about the extent of it.

Anyway, back to lunch. The five of us were chatting it up, until BOOM two more people come to sit at our table: Chris (Wamego) and Erinn (Hutch Trinity). Chris was laugh-out-loud hilarious! It was so fun sitting next to him and Erinn; they were both really nice and sociable. Erinn and I shared a special connection that only few can properly understand: we were Catholic school kids. She was pretty pumped to meet another Catholic school kid. I was pumped too, basically as pumped..as a weight room bar. Our table is pretty full by this time, and we’re all having a blast. By the end of lunch I realized that everyone sitting at our table was the lone singer to make it from their respective school. I don’t know how we all found each other; it must have been fate.

After lunch, we all dispersed, and Louis and I took a quick peek through the music convention. I contented myself by playing a violin badly (and loudly). Louis, though, confided in me one of his deepest wishes. He had always wanted to take a walk by the Arkansas River, but he never got the chance to, living in Rose Hill. I was like, “Why not now?” and so we took our walk by the river. It was pretty cold outside, but I stuck it out, because I wasn’t going to be THAT GUY who would make us go back in when it’s his fondest wish. He got on the phone with his girlfriend and was telling her about how he was walking by the river and wished she was there. The majority of the river-side conversation stemmed from drama. He was a Thespian, and told me all about their recent convention and whatnot. We bonded like Elmer’s Glue down by that river and it’s one of those things you have a hard time forgetting.

When we got done with our walk, we went back inside Century II and found the Wichita public school singers again, and we chilled with them until it was time for rehearsal again. We rehearsed the rest of the day, and that was about all the excitement for that one day. They had planned a “Mixer” dance that night, but considering how none of my new friends were going, how the guys were planning to start a bump-n-grind train, and how my best friend Tom was having his birthday party that same night, it was pretty obvious that I wasn’t going to the Mixer.

I woke up Saturday morning, ready to get it on and execute my game plan. I went out there, realizing that it was gametime. I stepped it up a notch, finally found my rhythm, and took my game to the next level, focusing on my goals. At lunch break I went to La Galette and broke one of the golden rules of singing: never eat dairy products before you sing. I couldn’t help it. That melted ham and cheese wrap just looked too good. After lunch I went to the Hyatt parking lot, because the whole Century II lot was starting to fill up with people for the concert. I changed into my tux in the car (hopefully not too many people were looking), and walked in through the Hyatt. I discovered an elaborate above-ground tunnel system that I never knew existed before. Yes, you can indeed get from the Hyatt lobby to Century II without stepping a single foot outdoors.

Our concert went smashingly, though I never saw my music teacher there, who had promised he would come. Afterward, I was going to meet my parents in the Hyatt parking lot, where we had parked, and I was going to go out when I met Stephanie. I asked her how State band had gone, and she told me that it got cancelled because the director was not satisfied with their progress. My sympathies go out to you. You spent all that effort to get to State and you didn’t even get to have a concert…

I didn’t mean to take the tunnels, but I just followed the crowd of people out, and somehow I ended up in the lobby of the Hyatt. I was like, “What?” and I walked out through the revolving door. I left the Hyatt, tux on, swag on, feeling like I was on top of the world, because guess what? I was one of the top singers in the state that day. (Disclaimer: I did not intend that last sentence to sound so bragadocious, sorry!)

A grainy photo of the choir. Cell phone picture quality equals photos as grainy as a barrel of wheat and barley.