Fun With the Cleveland Orchestra

Tonight the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus sang the last in a series of eight Christmas concerts. As old and venerable as the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus is, you've got to expect that there are some traditions. I found fun and giggles in observing these traditions.

The challenge is to push the fun as far as you can without diluting the audience members' experience. This might be the eighth time an orchestra musician has played or a singer has sung this repertoire, but it's the first time many of those audience members have set foot inside Severance Hall. Your goal, as a performer, is to make the most memorable musical experience possible for those audience members. Ideally, you'll convert casual first-time attendees into patrons and/or donors.

The first clue that this was the final performance was that several female orchestra members added a little seasonal bling to their attire, sporting a sparkly headband or a tinsel-wrapped ponytail. I noted one woman with small discreet green Christmas ornaments as earrings.

I can imagine Maestro Porco's heightened awareness, knowing—with each lift of his baton—that he could be surprised, and that he must be prepared so that the surprise wouldn't cause him to lose his concentration, his place in the music.

The first half of the concert proceeded with no surprises beyond the normal occasional missed note or inadvertent solo. (That's the beauty of live music, dontcha know? A CD plays the music the same every time, but a live concert is never the same twice!)

The chorus had the first joke in the second half, with expert planning from our assistant conductor and the chair of the chorus operating committee. When Santa came out and did his shtick with the Maestro, they concluded their stand-up routine with a duet performance on "Jingle Bells". They sing the verse, and the audience joins in on the chorus. At the conclusion of "What fun it is to ride and sing a sleighing song tonight," the entire chorus shouted "Hey" and slung their right hands up into the air. Maestro Porco heard the ruckus in the chorus and turned to eye us, looking surprised and then laughing.

Our plan was for him to believe that would be the only joke played on him, so he could relax. But we weren't finished.

The next song was "The Twelve Days of Christmas", which historically is done with audience participation on the "five golden rings" phrase. The arrangement we do is a normal choral arrangement. The sopranos sing the first verse, more voices are added on the second, full harmony comes into play on the third, and so on. Maestro Porco led the sopranos on the opening, but at the phrase "a partridge in a pear tree", the basses suddenly boomed in. He turned to the sopranos for the second verse, and at "two turtle doves", he turned to the basses, but the tenors came in, followed by the basses on "a partridge in a pear tree". On the third verse, the Maestro had figured out our scheme, and looked straight at the altos for "three French hens". The sopranos sang "four calling birds", and we all went back to the arrangement, as written.

Ah, relaxation for the Maestro. The jokes were over. But, no! The orchestra had not been heard from.

The next piece was that fabulous arrangement of "Sleigh Ride" that gets jazzy on the second time through. The percussionist has a big clapper thing that consists of two flat pieces of wood he slaps together to make the sound of the whip in the air urging the team of horses on. When it came time for the clap of that clapper (I'm sure it has a better name, which my son, the percussionist, could tell me.), the Maestro turned to the percussionist, but the sound of the clap came from the other side of the stage. We looked, to find JoElla Jones, the orchestra's keyboard artist and our venerable accompanist, with a much smaller clapper, struggling to follow the percussion part and clap the clapper at the appropriate moment. It was a fun and memorable moment, and she continued to play that part through to the end. And when the audience applauded, Maestro Porco turned to JoElla and gave her a solo bow.

Holidays are hard for me. I always think they should include time with your beloved life partner, and I have none. But this year, I haven't missed that connection at all. I had many hours of making beautiful music with wonderful new friends in the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, and I'm heading into Christmas with a sense of deep gratitude for how full my life is.

May the music of the season bring you as much joy as it brings to me.