The same amateur chorus, with which I performed on the weekend of St. Patrick's Day with the Irish theme,
is performing in the next ten days.

This time it is "ein Deutsches Requiem" by Brahms, with soloists and a very full orchestra. So full, in fact, that the chorus director has a little anxiety about the chorus not being full enough to match. A bigger chorus would be more standard towards a performance of this piece. But we are going to attempt it anyway. The performance will be on a Sunday afternoon, the first Sunday in June, and although the performance is indoors, I am hoping that the weather will cooperate.

I'm having to pace myself carefully in rehearsing the Brahms and most probably in the performance to come.
For one thing, I don't have the high notes that I used to have, and I am singing second soprano.
There are places where I simply lip-sync and let the other second sopranos carry the line without me. It's a dirty trick, but it works.
The Brahms Requiem is seven movements long and lasts over one hour.
So I feel justified in doing whatever I have to in order to not burn out my singing voice.

This coming week, we will have a piano rehearsal on Memorial Day evening, and then there will be rehearsals every other day, two of them with the orchestra; the performance is two days after the last rehearsal.

I hope the experience is a happy one. There is good reason to be hopeful of this. It's still a big undertaking and if I am honest, I have a little fear about how all of us are going to get through it.