Overall, the rehearsal went great and I got a lot of feedback from the instrumentalists, but I do admit it was nerve wracking at first, hearing little laughs in the middle of my explanations. After all, it's been a while since I held a rehearsal like this, talking about my compositions and conducting.
Picking a narrator was an even more arduous task as I had no idea who to invite. I knew I wanted the person to have a deep, male voice, but that was all. After getting rejections from all of my friends who matched that criteria, I posted the announcement on my Instagram. It turned out one of my colleagues had a friend who used to take public speaking classes and was excited about my idea.
I planned on doing three rehearsals for three days in a row, but everyone asked to do two instead and then go over the final touches on the day of the event. Considering it a reasonable remark, we scheduled practice for June 15. The day before, I met up with the narrator, Abay, to hand over the book and inform him about the details and practice.
On June 15, everyone arrived late, and Abay didn't show up at all. No matter how many texts I sent, he wasn't responding. Right before the rehearsal, I was also informed that we can't have a synthesizer at the event if we're doing it outside like we planned. That made everything even more complicated since all compositions included a piano part (I'm a pianist) or had it be the only instrument in the piece. I began stressing out.
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