Carnegie Hall Concerts—Community Sing

This was my second Community Sing and boy, am I glad I went. This one was “The People Sing with the Broadway All-Star Voices,” and did we ever. There were some sing-alongs—we started with “Let the Sunshine In” (from Hair), which we learned part-by-part (soprano, alto, TENOR, bass). After instruction, we were expected to remember it all! Some did.

This was followed by “Do-Re-Mi.” Okay, who can’t sing along with that? It tells you what to do! Next there was “To Life,” from Fiddler on the Roof—sounds crazy, no? This was a little iffy, since we didn’t have lyrics in front of us. But, oh! the next one. “Sunrise, Sunset,” introduced by Sheldon Harnick.  What an unassuming genius. This would have been worth the price of admission alone—but it was free! I love seeing living legends, and this was one more great example. And yes, Sheldon, the song still moves people to tears.

But, hey! This was a community sing. We did Rodgers & Hammerstein, we heard Kander & Ebb, we heard Sondheim. We sang portions of Rent (“Seasons of Love”) and “The People’s Song” (Les Miz—though the fast lyrics left a lot of us in the dust).

Then, in a bold move, we tackled the “Tonight” quintet from West Side Story. Kudos have to be given here to Leslie Stifelman (music director of Chicago) and Thomas Cabaniss, our host for the afternoon.

They taught us (the audience) the basics of that quintet and then threw us into the fire—what a great experience! The last time I sang Tony was with the Alabama Symphony (mumble-mumble-years-ago). The pipes were rusty, but they still worked!

I skipped out on the “New York, New York” finale. ConcertMeister tries to maintain some sense of decorum.

ConcertMeister