The Pollitos perform

The week after the Lord of Miracles procession, my fourth grade chorus at Fe y Alegría performed twice. Friday was the concert at the school itself: The art teacher had organized an afternoon of theater with the secondary-school kids, where they performed skits they had written and directed themselves, and I coordinated with him to have the chorus perform on the same program. They had a red curtain strung up from the rafters of the auditorium and rows of chairs set up for the parents and students and teachers in the audience. My singers presented three songs: the Spanish version of Frére Jaque in a two-part round, a Christmas song I sang in middle school and translated into Spanish, and an upbeat church song in two parts. Unfortunately my two strongest singers were absent that day, so the tuning was not good. But they were trying really hard and did pretty good getting their entrances in the two-part sections. Everybody duly applauded and the kids were really proud of themselves. I congratulated them a lot because they really have worked amazingly hard this year, all those twice-a-week rehearsals when I'm yanking them out of their class or their break and they whine and say, Nooo, Señorita! and I say, You have to come or you can't sing any more!! and then they come and we sing do-mi-sol and practice listening and breathing and vowels and watching me for entrances... It's been a big committment for them and I am so proud of what they've accomplished. They couldn't sing at all when I started with them in March. At all! And even though the concert didn't represent their best, I have heard them do incredibly well in rehearsals, so I know what they're really capable of.

The day before that, however, was the real triumph for me and four of the kids. On Thursday we went to the Museum of Art in the center of Lima to participate in a city-wide school arts competition! I had to run around like a crazy person getting all the details worked out beforehand. There were forms to fill out and send in by email along with a picture of each kid, the school's and the principal's contact info, etc; there was musical accompaniment to work out with some older students; there were permission slips to make and print and get them to bring back signed; there were details to communicate to all the kids and their parents, which I wrote up in nice little information slips that nobody read--they all looked unimpressed at my little slips, glanced at them once if that, and then proceeded to ask me a zillion questions until I'd explained it orally to each and every one of them, one random question at a time. The vice-principal told me to make sure we had transportation, with the helpful advice that in the past they'd contacted a combi driver to take an instrumental group to perform; I called two taxi drivers and got it all arranged, only to have the other vice-principal have a heart attack at the cost and tell me to just walk them down to the park and take a couple of taxis like normal.

Then there was much angst and drama because the competition set a maximum of FIVE participating students, and there are eleven of them in the chorus, so I had to choose the five that would make the best small group and be able to sing in two parts at the competition. There were six girls that I thought might be the best ones but wasn't sure. I made the mistake of first telling five of them they would be going, but then going back to listen to the six of them in different combinations just to be sure. Finally I chose one that I hadn't chosen at first and had to tell one of the original five she couldn't go. It was pretty terrible of me but I felt like I had to do what was best for the sound of the group (and it did make a substantial difference). The poor thing who'd gotten her hopes up was crushed and said she wasn't going to sing in the chorus any more. It broke my heart, but all I could do was tell her, You have a wonderful voice, you're one of the best singers, it's just that your voice isn't as similar to all the rest, and we have to have similar voices in the group, that's all... (The truth, that the other girl sings more in tune, was not a wise thing to admit in this situation.) For about three weeks she didn't come to rehearsal despite my repeated, gentle invitations to come back whenever she wanted and that it would really be a shame for the group to lose her because she sings so well. Then one day, when we were getting ready for the concert--she came back, and after one rehearsal, she was back for good with a big smile! Little Leslie had the bravery to get over it and keep singing anyway. I am prouder of her than of any of the rest of them because she's had to something much more difficult than perform in front of a crowd.

Anyway the competition went very well. I went with Catherine, two older boys who accompanied us on the guitar and zampoña, the four little girls (because one of them didn't show up at the last minute, despite the fact that her mom promised me on the phone that she would be there!), and a few moms to the Museum of Art. They have a big amphitheater and each little girl got her own microphone and there were microphones for the instruments and everything.

The kids were nervous, especially waiting backstage, but they did really well! It wasn't perfectly tuned and when they split into two parts they messed up a few times but we were all so happy with ourselves that it didn't matter.

In the picture above, from left to right: Rafael on the zampoña, Pedro (a blind kid with a great ear for music) on the guitar, Jacki, me, Claudia, Natali, and Keyssy. Alison didn't show up at the last minute but she and Leslie were there in spirit.