About a month ago, Lark came to us with another cool sounding gig opportunity - PME had been invited to sing at the KDFC Holiday Party during the Embarcadero Center Building Lighting Ceremony at the Hyatt Regency. Despite having lived in the Bay Area for years, I had never gone to see the lighting of the Hyatt Christmas tree, along with the lights that adorn many of the buildings in the financial district. I wasn't the only first timer out of the 25 or so PMErs that had signed up to do this performance.
The first thing we saw when walking into the fully decked (and already teeming with people) hotel lobby, was an enormous house size Christmas ornament…or it may have been a piece of modern art and a permanent part of the lobby décor that just happens to look like a Christmas ornament, I wasn't really sure. Near it stood the 20 ft tree below a starry winter sky, created from hundreds of strings of silver lights hung from the high ceiling. Outside the lobby windows, people were already finding their holiday spirit on the ice skating rink. You could almost think you somewhere colder than San Francisco.
We were shown to our green room, where we had a chance to run some of the pieces on the evening's set list. I realized that despite having made sure I knew the melodies to the carols we were about to sing, I had forgotten about the fact that sight reading lyrics in English was not going to be quite as easy for me as it is for the native speakers. Shortly after an unusual sound check (audience was already there), it was time to perform.
Much of our material was pieces that we are working on for PME's holiday concerts. This was both helpful, and scary. Helpful in that it was pieces we knew and it gave us a great opportunity to gauge our progress and readiness, scary because this was the first time we were actually going to sing the music in front of an audience.
Before we even knew it, the first set was over. We couldn't really be sure that our voices were heard off stage; with the cavernous open lobby space all around us we felt we had to work hard at projecting. Apparently, we should not have worried. Our support crew (Thanks Penny, Jacquie and Corinne!) reported that the music was clearly audible in front of the stage.
The creatures that were getting on stage as we were exiting were a whimsical sight. The Velocity Circus, dressed like trees, unicorns, fairies, trolls and the like put on (what must have been) a wonderful show. Sadly, we were waiting in the wings and unless you were 6 ft tall, you could only see some of the acrobatics performed high above the stage. Judging by the audience reactions, they were great.
We were back on stage and before our second set, one of the children from the audience got the honors to turn on the giant light switch that lit the tree and the starry sky above. However much we may feel that Christmas comes too early every year, seeing the beautiful lights come on and caroling with a group of good friends, under a tree, somehow made me feel that we've now truly entered the holiday season. Without snow, I've had many a year when that Holiday feeling has somehow eluded me.
Naturally, in the true PME fashion, some of us gathered at the lobby bar afterwards for some snacks and festive beverages. We traded stories about our most meaningful PME moments and generally felt incredibly happy about being choir geeks…oh, and the holidays.
-Mari Marjamaa
P.S. Thank you Lark for getting us the gig, and for all your hard work organizing the troops! Thank you Lynne for fearlessly leading us through this pre-concert exercise.
P.P.S. For more and bigger pics of the event visit KDFC Christmas Party