Every year, there is an inter-seminary choir competition in order to raise money for a charity organization called Kedma. Kedma has many different branches but the money raised for this competition goes towards helping underprivileged women. Every seminary that wishes to enter is required to raise 1500 shekel and a prize is given to the seminary who goes above and beyond that and raises the most money.
The Kedma choir competition is an event that many seminaries look forward to every year. A little over a month ago we started practicing and we've been practicing ever since. It took a lot of hard work, a lot of dedicated people, and a lot of talent to make the choir happen. Things were a bit shaky in the beginning and many changes were made until we found exactly what was right. We had to sing some parts over and over and over again. I think we probably sung the introduction about a hundred times and still at the end we sometimes had trouble finding the right starting note. This past week was the craziest of them all. Every lunch time and right after classes finished we would have practice. Each time, we got better and better and better.
When we got to the competition tonight, there was hundreds of seminary girls sitting/ standing in an auditorium screaming for their seminary to win. The energy in that room was insane (not to mention that it smelled pretty bad too.) The night started off with a couple of speeches- one from the dean of Stern, and one from a volunteer choir group that would sing in old age homes. Then the judges were introduced and then the competition started. There were eleven seminaries that competed and everyone did very well.
Right before it was our turn to go on stage, everyone was lined up by the side of the stage. Everyone was excited and you could feel the adrenaline rush in the air. It was very hot in the auditorium so we passed around my water bottle so everyone could get a little bit of water before we went on. When we got on stage, everyone in the choir was smiling, our fans in the audience were cheering, and we were ready to go. My friend Sharona made a little speech about our theme and then it was time for the choir to sing. Once we hit our first note, we knew that this was what we've been working towards and we gave it everything we had.
The theme of the competition was Jerusalem and our specific Harova theme was fire. We also had a really cute dance, which I didn't really get to see because I was too busy singing, but it was basically Israel through the ages. First came the time of our forefathers, than the first people to come back to Israel after 2000 years of exile, and lastly modern day Jerusalem. The choir was set up in four groups: low, mid-low, mid-high, and high. I was in the low group, which was also the largest and loudest group and we were really the heartbeat of the whole song.
I would like to thank all of the heads of our choir for doing such an amazing job. We really wouldn't have been able to do it without them. Firstly, Shira, who was in charge of the whole choir and who put together the song including the order of the parts and all the harmonies. Next, I'd like to thank the choir heads. Sarah, who was head of the lows, also taught everybody in the choir their parts. She is an amazing teacher and was so patient with us. Jane, head of the mid-lows, Annie and Nirelle, head of the mid-highs, and Aliza, head of the highs, were also really, really good. Thanks guys- you're awesome!
I had a really crazy but fun night and after a long week of late night practices it's time to chill out and get some sleep. Shalom V'lehitraot!
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