Homecoming: Fantasy of Stars Recap

I love a good return story. The kind that people look forward to experiencing. I'm not sure if my return to the Bear River stage is a good one, but I will hold it dear to my heart, and hopefully, it won't be the last time. Here is the story of the Sierra College Jazz Singers getting the gig for the 27th Annual Fantasy of Stars Show & Jazz Choir Invitational
Fantasy of Stars at Bear River High School was created as an opportunity for Starlite Express to perform. Since then, it has featured groups from all corners of California. At the time of this post, I have been in the show on 7 occasions with 4 different performing groups.

I was so glad to play a part in making this happen for the Sierra College Jazz Singers to perform at my alma mater to debut our acapella set for this spring. About a month before the show, the music booster president at BR gave me a phone call, saying that the UoP Jazz Ensemble, who was on the card to perform at Fantasy this year, dropped out to perform at a festival. He wanted to see if the Jazz Singers had the weekend available to take their place. At the time, we were also scheduled to perform at a festival, so I declined the initial invitation. A couple weeks later, I found out that our festival gig fell through, and that our director would be looking for options to replace it. When I told her about Fantasy, she seemed very enthused by the idea, so I got her in contact with the BR director. Everything went very smoothly, and we got practiced up and ready to go for Fantasy.

Due to scheduling issues, we were only able to perform for the Friday evening show, but I still looked forward to it with great anticipation. Come Friday night, and we all arrived at BRHS, with a taco salad performer dinner in full swing. I also took the opportunity to meet up with some old friends and acquaint myself with some new ones. Also, taco salad.

We had the opportunity to watch the first half of the show since we were in the second. It was like old time, but at the same time, it wasn't, since I was watching it, even though I was performing later. Regardless, I had fun watching the Starmakers from Magnolia Intermediate School, Jazz Unlimited for BRHS, and Starship from Enterprise High School.

During intermission, we warmed up and ran through our set, and after a stellar performance from Enterprise's TBA (yes, that's the group's name), We set the stage for our set. I felt anxious and light, but at the same time, I felt a sense of comfort in the fact that I was in a familiar performance setting. It was like coming back home, especially when that curtain finally opened and I saw my hometown crowd.

Our acapella set this semester opens with a classic Schoolhouse Rock song called Five, Ten, Fifteen... arranged by Greg Murai. It's a fun, high energy opener that draws people in. The next chart is our acapella ballad from last semester, Neil Hefti's Lil' Darlin' as performed by The Real Group. For this performance, I took the scat solo, which I've been stressing over leading up to the show. I've been trying to make my scatting more musical and realistic, and I feel a lot better now that I did it, and was well received in the process. Closing out our acapella set is Kerry Marsh's arrangement of Bobby McFerrin's My Better Half. This funky song has soul, groove, and just the right amount of oomph. It's a fun way to end the set.

After the show, we received high praise from all so many, some being active musical entities in the area. I'm very blessed to have had the opportunity to come back to BR and show everyone what my new friends and I have been working on. It was also a great way to get us in gear for the rest of our set, which, in my humble opinion, is going to be absolutely amazing.

If you'd like to see the Sierra College Jazz Singers in action, we have Jazz Night, 7pm at Sierra College on May 12, with the Sierra College Choir Concert the next day at 3:30pm. We are hopefully going to acquire more gigs until then, with the option of recording an album still very likely! More details as they come!

For more info on musical events at BRHS, click HERE

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