Faster at reading music then a speeding bullet? More powerful dynamics than a locomotive? Able to leap tall phrases with a single breath? Yes! It’s……. AN ALTO! I’m a mom of two and teacher of 1st graders by day, a dedicated Greeley Chorale singer by (Wednesday) night.
It truly is the super double-life I, Rose Aden, lead.
But where did my musical journey begin? How did I go from serenading my shower head or crooning my babies to sleep, to making beautiful, rich music with an amazing choir? Should I start at the very beginning?
From what my mother tells me, I wasn’t singing as I was born, and, growing up, I didn’t have any weird bird friends or woodland creatures who loved me just because I enchanted them with my angelic singing. What I do know about my childhood voice was that it was deep and loud. Truly, I told everyone I wanted to be the first female to sing male opera, and I proudly reached the depths of my register to sing with Pavarotti and Bocelli. (A girl can dream…).
After seven long years learning to play the piano and going through a bit of a voice change (Eeek!), I finally joined my first official choir as a freshman in high school. It opened up a world to me I had never known: singing was a challenge, but the payoff was heady and exhilarating. To this day, I know nothing like it. But alas, I graduated first from high school and then from college, got married, started a family, became licensed as a teacher, and didn’t think I was missing anything in my full life.
One day, I saw a flyer for the Greeley Chorale on Facebook, and it called to me. After many years of being bereft of a singing group, I knew it was time to get back into the lineup. I am now in my second season singing with the chorale and am loving every minute of it. I was welcomed so warmly, and I can already tell my diaphragm is super buff now.
I love that I can get away one night a week and be a part of something that is extraordinary and much bigger than myself. The chorale is a family that is made up of unique voices that together are a force to be reckoned with. When voices are raised together in beautiful harmonies and melodies, that is when ordinary people like me can be a part of the extraordinary. We might not be Superman, but we are the Greeley Chorale. And that is pretty super in and of itself.