The Best Compliment I Have Ever Received

So, it's Lent.  My Chorale is on tour.  They sang for an Ash Wednesday service in Charlotte, NC and did a fantastic job.

Last night (Thursday), the singers performed at a church in Wilmington.  A Lutheran church, where I met congregants who were transplants from Wisconsin, where the pastor had sung under Weston Noble when he was 17, and where I met an alum of Luther College (my alma mater).

Chorale sang.  They really did a fantastic job.  They were focused.  They were intentional.  They were committed.  I was so proud of them.

But I want to share a comment- a huge compliment- that was given to me.  The pastor (the one who had sung under Weston Noble when he was 17) stopped me after the concert and told me he loved the concert and the choir.  But then he said, "I can tell you studied with Weston.  I thought what you said before some of the pieces was perfect, and led our hearts and attention in the perfect direction.  Also, your singers are so expressive.  They clearly have an understanding of the feeling of what they are singing about."

I don't know if I have ever received so high a compliment from anyone.  We work on commitment to the music.  I often teach musicality through text.  I believe in committing to the text.  There comes a point in which I stop talking about notes and rhythms (notice: I did not say I stop talking about intonation and subdivisional pulse).  There comes a point when we must dive deeper into the text and how it relates to the music.  That colors our sound, it helps us shape our phrases, it changes the intentionality of individual words... and I am so humbled by the pastor's kind words.