CMEA is an annual conference for music teachers in Colorado. I have attended CMEA several times; but I’ve only performed twice. I went to see my middle schools performance for my 8th grade year and I’ve watched my little brother perform a couple times too. My sophomore year of high school, I performed at CMEA with my school’s symphony. I played violin along with my older brother. This past year, I performed at CMEA with my school’s top choir.
That was just 2 weeks ago and I had a fantastic time. We went to dinner the night before we performed and got matching shirts. We even got to stay at the 5 star hotel that hosts CMEA every year.
But of course it all couldn’t be easy. When we got to the crazy fancy hotel, my room was already occupied. By someone who said they were me. They were obviously NOT me. I didn’t know about this interesting twist until we got to the hotel. My choir director started calling people off the bus by room. My room was last, but instead of telling us what room we were in; she said she needed to talk to us. My roommates and I immediately assumed we did something wrong. On the bright side, the high school students were not to blame. Unfortunately, the first 30 minutes of staying at the five star hotel were spent sitting in the lobby.
This bizarre change in plans- and rooms- was not all bad. The room that had been claimed by a wannabe-trent wasn’t wheelchair accessible. Which was important since one of my roommates was in a wheelchair.
After finally checking into the room, I went exploring with two of my roommates while the third went to the pool for some reason. It was the end of January, and while it wasn’t snowing, the lake next to the hotel had a thick layer of ice on it. On my adventure with my two sensible roommates, we found a playground. Accompanying the playground was a sign that said, “only for the intended ages.” I reasoned that teenagers were definitely in the intended age range.
Then the entire choir had another rehearsal. It actually went pretty well. Unsurprising as we had been rehearsing the same music for five months. And then we got pizza for dinner. I was extremely tired that night, but fortunately the bed was very nice- as it should b in a 5 star hotel- and I slept quite well. And that was good, because we had a busy day ahead.
That next day we performed. It went extremely well and I didn’t even trip off the stage or anythin. My parents came to see the performance along with my brothers, some of my cousins, grandparents, and other family in the area. The performance at CMEA went better than any of the other concerts we had previously that year. And then we were done. It was quite shocking to realize we weren’t preparing for CMEA anymore.
Choir feels almost awkward now that CMEA is over. It’s still my favorite class and we still make great music; but the entire first semester and the first 4 weeks of the second semester were all in preparation for CMEA. Now that we’re not trying to prepare for the conference, it seems like the choir doesn’t know what to do. Or maybe its that we don’t know how to take a break after the intense work we put into our music for CMEA.
Either way, CMEA was an amazing experience and I’m very glad I got to participate in it. I also want to mention how amazing my choir is. My mom tells me quite frequently that I don’t know how lucky I am to have such a strong choir to participate in. Especially at a high school level. I probably don’t
fully understand it, but I kind of get it. I am so glad I got to be a part of A Cappella.
Blind Music 