This is not really a story about attention. This is a story about this one girl in the front row. Let me explain.

One of my other classical singing groups shared a performing stage — well, actually a church sanctuary — with the Bel Canto Girl’s Choir of Appleton a couple of years ago. Bel Canto is a very good singing group of high school girls.

We had a chance to warm up and get to know the stage before the audience came in. Our group was all there first, so we took the stage, did our thing, and hung out in the pews to listen to Bel Canto.

The girls shuffled in, talking amongst themselves, kind of bouncing off the pews and walls, in general behaving like you might expect thirty or forty high school girls to do. There was this one girl in the front row that looked like my daughter, if my daughter was still fourteen and acted like a giddy airhead with punked up spiky pink and blue hair. Her eyes were kind of vacant and dull. I looked around at the other girls and saw a lot of deer looking into a lot of headlights. I wondered what kind of performance we were going to get from them.

But then their director stepped to the front and raised her hand.

It was amazing. Everyone stopped talking. Every eye in the choir was focused on her. Even the pink and blue haired girl in the front row looked to her director, and I swear she grew four inches in height as she stood up straight and strong and capable. She turned into a completely different person. A light came into her eyes, and all the other girls’ eyes as well. The deer were gone, and the girls were shining and focused as they launched into their first piece. And boy, were they good.

Ever since then I’ve tried to emulate them. No matter how I feel before we start, when it’s time to sing I think about the marvelous change that came over the Bel Canto singers and try to make that same change happen in myself. I’m not perfect at it, but it’s a good goal to reach for.

Sure, they all paid attention to the director, but it was more than attention. They reached into themselves and pulled out their best. They made themselves look and behave like the excellent singers and performers they were.

So, the next time we’re starting a song, search inside yourself. Reach around and find that great performer that’s hiding in there and grab him out. Turn on his lights like the girls turned on theirs. Put him on display and let him shine for a song or two. I bet you find it feels great to be him, even for just a few minutes. I bet you end up singing better too.

8/22/2007