MCO in Utah

When MCO announced their summer tour for this year, Adam really, really wanted to go. We went and did ACDA in Dallas in 2013, but the younger choirs weren't involved, so really it was just me doing orchestra stuff combined with a visit to the grandparents. We've skipped the last couple of big tour concerts - Washington DC last summer was just too far and too expensive - but Adam was determined that we were going to go on this one. And it was Utah, so with the help of lovely friends who housed us for a week we were able to make it work.

It was intense! I'm glad we did it once, but I'm not sure that we'll ever do it again! By the end of the week I was utterly exhausted. The first couple of days were recording sessions, so the kids were in and out of the recording at various times, which meant Nicholas and Jeff did a lot of hanging around the University of Utah campus while the rest of us were recording in the Libby Gardner concert hall (which had amazing acoustics and the album is going to sound phenomenal!).

When we got there I was a bit surprised to find that there were two first bassoons and they were alternating recording sessions and concerts. There were also two second bassoons but I was slated to do all the recording sessions (about sixteen hours worth) and all six concerts! It was a bit much. It was too much, actually, my reed barely lasted the week and I was really struggling by the last concert. After a six hour recording session on Wednesday which finished at 11pm, fortunately the other second bassoonist stepped in and covered the 7:30 am recording session on Thursday for me. There was no way I could have made it! She also decided that she would play all six concerts with me instead of the three she was on deck for - which was a huge help for me. She made my week actually. It was such a help to have good back up.

There were so many people in town that the choir was split into two casts. The kids sang the first concert in the Tabernacle on Thursday and then it was the turn of the other cast for the next three concerts, and then the kids were back on for the last two concerts on Saturday. Jeff and the kids got to hang out with various MCO friends while I was playing the other concerts. I'm kind of jealous actually! They actually had time to be tourists on Temple Square on Thursday and Friday, whereas it felt like I was busy every second of the day.

The concerts were wonderful. Totally worth making the trip. I'm not sure that Nicholas gets how totally cool it was for him to sing in the Tabernacle at the age of six... but it was. Just amazing.

Somebody took this picture of us on Temple Square on Thursday. Jeff said he shouldn't be in it as he was the only one not 'in' MCO - but after two days of drop kid a&b here; pick up kid c across town; drop kid c back across town half an hour after kids a&b have to be somewhere else; have kids ab&c ready at this time; entertain kid d for hours while Mum is off recording and kids abc are busy - I told him that he had absolutely earned his MCO stripes and deserved to be in the picture!