OCMCO Rocks!

(last night I was here, but with people)

Last night I went to the OCMCO Christmas Concert at Segerstrom Hall--it was PHENOMENAL! I went with my former co-workers (from when we all worked for Graham at CitizenHawk) because Graham was playing his arrangement of a medley of Christmas songs as part of the organ pre-concert, as well as accompanying the choir on four or five pieces.

I LOVED Graham's piece. Yes, I've heard it probably a dozen times by now in that hall, but last night's was the first time people were there, you know, besides me. I hope folks enjoyed his piece as much as I did; he wanted to show off the textures and nuances of the $3 million organ, and I think he did a fantastic job of that.

The kids. Oh, the kids! They are precious. And I'm so glad they got a chance to wave to the audience, but you know some of them had to sneak in waves even before their time--too cute!

In my mind, "I Believe In Christ" was the most wonderful song of the night. Powerful, beautiful, and touching. One of my co-workers was especially touched by it, and it was great seeing them open to the song; I heard it with different ears last night being there with folks not of our faith. I loved it even more. Brett Stewart's wife said afterwards, "It's not just the music," as to why that song was so powerful. So true.

"Carol of the Bells" was the perfect show-ending song, and brought a song that I love to a whole new level. "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" was given an intro that made me appreciate the song that much more, especially since I'd never paid attention to the words before. Beautiful song, and the ending those Stewart brothers arranged was incredible. I think my new favorite song of the moment was the "O Magnum Mysterium" or something like that--BEAUTIFUL choral piece in Latin, which reminded me of Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus, K.618" which is one of my favorite classical choral songs of all time.

I really can't say enough about the concert--everything was so top-notch! I've been thinking about of talking about it for so long now, and it still hasn't worn off. I was lucky and got to spend a lot of time at the Hall during the rehearsal, too, helping out Graham with sound and balance with the organ--man, was that a treat or what? Can't wait for the next concert! (I just wish I'd had my camera, but I didn't have the chance to go home in between rehearsal and the concert--so I was there for almost ten hours yesterday!)