I Don't Always Play for Professional Orchestras. But When I Do, We Record Two Albums and Get Invited to Perform In an International Conference.

One night in August of 2009, I was talking with my mom when she came home from work. She was talking about her day and mentioned that one of her patients told her about a Mormon choir (EVMCO) holding auditions for their symphony. I thought it would be perfect for me to audition to be a cellist because it was my first semester out of high school and I was thirsting to be in some kind of symphonic family again. Not even 24 hours after I sent an interest form to them they emailed me back telling me that my audition would be that night! So, I spent the next 6 hours or so trying to put together some audition pieces. I wasn't too worried about it because as far as I knew, it was a community orchestra.

My audition went really well...I was just in a small church classroom with one of the directors and I played my little heart out. In fact, I remember thinking to myself as I was playing that I sounded like an angel..It really surprised me, I had NEVER heard that kind of playing come from ME before! I knew that I had some extra help in that audition. I didn't even get to finish my audition when he told me that they would love to have me participate in the orchestra. 

Rehearsals were that same night, I had been playing with MCC's orchestra on week nights so I thought it would be similar to that. But I was so wrong. When we were playing for the first time as choir and symphony I knew that this is what I was looking for and what I needed. 

I was so humbled to be in such an amazing organization among professionals and musicians who have been playing or singing much longer than I have been. After my first year playing with EVMCO and seeing the magnitude of this organization, I began to doubt myself and wonder why on earth was I so blessed to be a part of something so beautiful and amazing. I was expressing my frustrations with my dad and he put it so simply I was embarrassed that I didn't think of it sooner. He told me that he knew it wasn't a fluke accident that I made it into this wonderful organization and it was so important that I play in it that Heavenly Father gave me a extra little help during that audition. After taking what my dad said to heart and thinking about it, I knew that this is what I am supposed to be doing for now and that I shouldn't ever doubt myself again. 

One year after that in June 2011, EVMCO and its sister organization in Orange County (OCMCO), joined together in Salt Lake City, Utah as Mormon Choral Organization of America (MCO) to record our first album, Messiah in America, at Abravanel Hall and play a concert in both Abravanel and the Tabernacle in Temple Square. I will never forget the wonderful experience that I had there in Utah. I will never forget the hours and hours of recording we did that week. It was such a humbling experience to see that each of our shows sold out in a state that we weren't even native to and to see thousands of people there supporting us and all of the hard work everyone put into it to make it happen. Our album ended up debuting at #1 on the billboard Traditional Classical charts! Even today when I listen to our CD Messiah in America (1) I am brought back to that time and I get to relive the emotions and excitement that I was feeling at that time when we were recording and (2) I STILL can't believe that I did something like that!!

Later, in February 2012 we recored our very first Christmas Album at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in downtown Phoenix. We worked with OCMCO and we recorded the album separately, EVMCO would record half of the album while OCMCO recorded the other half. So we only spent one (very long) day in the church recording. It was such a special experience for me to be able to record in such a beautiful church! The Christmas Album will be released this Fall (2012) and I am looking forward to its release! 

Almost one week ago, I received very big news about MCO! Here's an excerpt of the email:

"We are excited to announce that the mormon Choral Organizations combined choirs and orchestras have been invited to perform as one of the premier groups at the upcoming ACDA National Conference in Dallas, Texas in March of 2013! ... ACDA stands for American Choral Directors Association. To be invited to perform at a national ACDA conference is an incredible honor. To put it into perspective, the ACDA national conference is like the Oscars of choral music. There are about two dozen ensembles selected to perform out of literally thousands of groups from around the globe."

It's extremely rare for a group as young as ours to be invited to perform at an ACDA National Conference, and we are the largest group to perform there! This is the largest and most important choral stage in the world, and recently they have hosted groups like the Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Mormon Tabernacle Choir & Orchestra at Temple Square, Toronto Children's Chorus and other prestigious professional and academic groups!

I am so excited for the new opportunities that I have been blessed with and those that I will be getting in the future. Without the loving support that I get from my family, I know that I would not have been possible for me to do the things that I have done or have the experiences that I've had all before I am even 21 years old! 

Here's to the future!!