Eleven years ago I posted george seurat and choral performance, describing pointillism as a metaphor for how we as choirs/performing arts interact with our audiences. On Monday we had our first of two choral concerts and things went well. Very well. But we do have our second one coming up this Monday too. The reason I do two concerts is the concert revision process I have woven into the program. As a part of that this week, I talked with my Chorus and reiterated to my Treble Choir the relationship between Seurat and our work as a choir. I described the “blue” and “red” that we strive for; what we are working on in class, and the subsequent purple that can then evolve if we do it right. To that end I showed them the following pictures, in this order:

George Seurat’s “dots”; one of his paintings:

Backing up, same painting:

Backing up some more:

And now the painting that you observe in the museum:

The first thing you notice by the time you back all the way up is that, while you do still notice the dots per se, you really aren’t looking at them, you’re looking at the picture they create. And that really is the alchemy, isn’t it?

I was talking with my students about this in class on Wednesday, and one of my kids said, “This is about life too.”

Wow.

And I woke up this morning thinking about that after our Chamber Singers Rotary Club runout yesterday morning. It was a real high, both for the kids and for myself, though for different reasons. For the kids, it was about putting out there all the work they had been doing, culminating in a performance for the most appreciative audience you’d ever want to see. There were real tears coming from the audience side, community members who were taking in what these wonderful teenagers had to offer them – it really was an amazing 20 minutes. For me? It was just watching it all occur. Kids who have worked their tails off on the blue and red dots for 3+ months… blue and red dots of phrasing, tone, intonation, articulation, pitch, balance… blue and red dots of breath support, raised soft palates, singing through their top teeth, high torsos, relaxed necks and jaws… blue and red dots of smiles, eyebrows, body inflections… blue and red dots of turning accompanied literature into a bona fide a cappella program literally the day before… blue and red dots of kids who have gone through personal trauma and are still here… blue and red dots of kids who were sitting on the floor of Village Elementary School as 1st graders watching the Chamber Singers walk by them on Caroling Day, December 2014 who were now singing in the ensemble… blue and red dots of kids – children – who have morphed and evolved into the wonderful young adults that they now are. Watching all of them sing to members of the community who helped build the program over the last 25 years… blue and red dots of supporting the school budget… blue and red dots of donating funds that helped students to perform in New York City… blue and red dots supporting bond initiatives that built a music wing and a new Auditorium… blue and red dots of word of mouth around town about the YHS music program.

Yesterday during that concert it stopped being about just the music. It really is about life too.

Any good educator in any discipline works in the weeds, in the belly of the details. And how precious it is when we get to poke our heads out from under it to see evidence of the larger picture that has been evolving all along. This week has been a joyful reminder for me that the same metaphor is all around me in so many other ways too. My hope for all my friends and colleagues this season is to take those moments in when you can, to just step back for a moment to look at the picture that been created around you. It is pretty powerful stuff. And it’s all around every one of us.

Make sure you set aside some time to look at it.