Happy Sunday (and Father’s Day), aca fans! I hope summer is treating all y’all well. It feels good to be back on the Web, blogging about my escapades. I’ve just been crazy busy with the responsibilities of my kick-ass internship to update, but I’m glad to be back with lots to talk about. And trust me, we’ve got some serious news in this update.
First, NSA news.
This week, NSA was confirmed as a performer at the University of Florida’s first-ever freshmen Convocation, where all the first-year students will gather along with the heads of all the departments of the university. This sounds like such a sweet gig; not only will we be performing for a ton of newbies (some of whom could become members *WINK*), but this event is basically free advertisement for us to the entire UF community. We’ll be singing the Alma Mater, so it’s a pretty low-stress event. I’m just excited that we were chosen to be a part of this. It means a lot for UF to recognize us as an important part of the university. It’s good stuff, man, good stuff! Big shout-out to our Prez Chris Rienas for getting us this gig. Nice one, Chris!
Riding the high of our Convocation announcement comes our BIGGEST announcement yet: Tickets for the UF Performing Arts 2009-2010 season have gone on sale, and we’ll be performing as part of the UFPA’s season! Tickets have already gone on sale for our March 25 show at the blackbox theater of the Phillips Center, and as of Thursday, 71 tickets had already been sold! This is super exciting for us. Being a part of the UFPA’s season is going to bring us a ridiculous amount of publicity, and performing at the Phillips Center is a huge honor. And apparently, if more than 100 tickets are sold for the show on March 25, we’ll get a second night (a concert on Sunday, March 28) at the theater! So, my lovely readers, please come to our show! I would love to see each and every one of you there, and tickets are way cheap. So invite your friends, bring the fam and make the road trip to Gainesville (or to the Phillips Center if you’re already at UF) and watch us LIVE! Check out our page through the UFPA and if you want to buy tickets, here’s a link to our Ticketmaster page. Can’t wait to see you at the show! (And a shout-out to Performance Director Mal who probably promoted us to no end to the UFPA! You’re the best, Mal!)
In collegiate a cappella news…
The dates for this year’s SOJAM have been set! SoJam 2009 will be on Nov. 6-9 in Durham, North Carolina, and I am already excited. We go to SoJam every year, and it is one of the best places to learn and bond with your aca friends. Learn how to improve arrangements, stage presence, live performances, recordings, vocal percussion and even how to bring out the inner diva in that meek soprano you’ve got in the group. If your group has never attended SoJam, IT’S TIME TO START! I can guarantee that you will have an amazing time, and that the lessons you learn there will be invaluable to future performances around campus and in competitions like ICCA. Make the trip to NC — it is worth it! I cannot wait. SoJam is one of the things I look forward to each year, not just because I love to learn about a cappella as a craft and art form, but it’s the first real bonding experience NSA has in the fall. Yeah, we rehearse and we party, but when we all go away and take in the wonders of other collegiate groups and professional groups like Naturally 7 and FORK…that’s when we become a family. Please insert the Jackson 5′s “I’ll Be There” here.
When it comes to arranging news, well, there’s not toooo much to say, other than the little arranging I had done of “Maps” was cleared from Sibelius on Thursday and replaced with something completely different and, in my opinion, way better.
On my way home from Shop Miami on Thursday night, inspiration struck as I drove on the dark highway parallel to the Everglades. I wasn’t listening to any music, or anything at all. I was thinking about my night and my day, and I was thinking about Iran. And I really don’t know what happened, but it just came to me. I got home and went straight to the computer and wrote it down, and I haven’t really looked back since. I haven’t done a tremendous amount of tangible work on this arrangement, but I finally have a realized vision, and I’m running with it.
This is my inspiration:
I hope you all think it’s as beautiful as I do. I also hope to expand this into a bigger theme, but I’m speaking too soon, and it seems like that idea will someday be a blog post in itself.
And in case you’re wondering what I’ve been up to at the Miami Herald for the past couple of weeks, here are some links to my first front-page article (with this as an added bonus) and my first review, both published online and in print. Lots more stories in the works and to be printed in the coming weeks, so thanks for reading!
Well, it’s time for this kid to get back to work. I will try to keep updating this regularly (maybe more regularly than before) to let you all know about things that are a-brewin’ for us. Keep checking back for news about NSA, the aca world and about me. (Quick note: Keep listening to Mouth Off! It gets better and better each week!)
‘Til next time, aca fans. Have a good week!
