Then The Choral Director Quit.
Dylan – whose most noticeable talent is his angelic singing voice – is dropping out of chorus.
Dylan auditioned for chorus with a man who was known for his love of music, kindness to students, and good nature. We’d known the choral director for years, since Dylan’s 5th grade chorus sang with the high school chorus once a year. He was a wealth of knowledge and talent, and worked wonders with the students.
When he auditioned Dylan, he put Dylan in Chamber Choir – the highest level of chorus, an utterly spectacular feat for a freshman.
Then the choral director quit.
We don’t know where he went, or why he quit. We begged and pleaded – but of course, he kindly declined to stay just for Dylan’s sake. The brilliant choral director went off into the wild blue yonder.
The new teacher is barely out of college. She teaches middle school chorus, too, and her abilities are very limited. Without any warning, one of the first things she did was to eliminate Chamber Choir.
So Dylan – with his angelic singing voice – went into what is, essentially, a taller version of middle school chorus.
After two quarters, he was having fun – but didn’t really care for it. There’s more to the schedule change (saved for another blog post) but the new teacher eliminating Chamber Choir sure didn’t help.
In fifth grade, Dylan was in honors chorus, which made “regular” chorus seem rather dull. In sixth grade, Dylan was in the Children’s Chorus of Washington (CCW), which kind of ruined him for “regular” chorus. CCW sang at the Kennedy Center and traveled around China singing in the finest opera houses. It’s hard to go back to middle school chorus after that.
Dylan is taking voice lessons now with a spectacular teacher who has 40 years of experience at the high school and college level. The new voice teacher is impressed by Dylan’s talents and offered him a position in his adult choir.
So, in two weeks, when the quarter is over, Dylan is done – at least for now – with high school chorus. A month later, he is scheduled to audition for The Voice. It may be a bit of a reach at 15. He’s barely old enough to audition. But he wants to do it, and it will be an interesting experience.
And I’m sure Dylan will continue to sing endlessly at home.