O Pioneers! and NATS

November 4, 2012

What a busy weekend! After working a 47 hour week with my boys Matt's family Jonathan, Julie, Natalie, Nathan, and Rebecca, came in to town! It was so nice to have family in our home away from home here in Lincoln! They made the long 14 hour drive from Midway in order to support Matt in the Opera, "O Pioneers!" which took place on Friday night and Sunday afternoon, as well as support him in his NATS competition that took place on Saturday. NATS stand for National Association of Teachers of Singing. It is a vocal competition that includes several states worth of students. You pay a small fee to compete and then on the day of the competition hundreds of students are divided in to classes by year in school. you compete against those in your level and everyone who makes it to the final round gets a ranking prize of a check, amounts vary depending on which place you make. Matt sang a beautiful German Aria and blew everyone away! he even had professors from other universities trying to recruit him! When it came time to award the winners he won first place in his class and was given a $70.00 check! We were so excited to him, and plan to take him out to eat at his favorite restaurant - Red Robin - with his spoils! 

Friday evening and then again Sunday afternoon were the opening and closing showings for the Opera "O Pioneers!" Matt was cast as Lou the antagonistic brother. He did such a fabulous job! During his scenes her really brought the house down! As funny as this sounds, his antagonistic character doubled as the slight comic relief throughout the opera as well. Above is a picture of Matt in costume as Lou. I must say for it being my first experience with Opera I was impressed and really quite enjoyed myself, even when sitting alone during the Sunday performance.

Speaking of sitting alone, I remember years ago deciding to go see a movie at the theater by myself because i couldn't find someone to go with me. It was a very liberating feeling going alone and sitting by myself. And now looking back i think that experience has prepared me to be sitting alone often during productions and things that people usually attend with others. Matt will always be performing thus i will be sitting alone, and for right now it is a new and fun adventure! 

Matt has such talent and has worked so hard to get to where he is right now, and i am so proud of him and am so grateful that he is passionate about and loves the field that he has chosen to use to support our family. I used to have doubts about it while we were dating, however, i know now that he has a voice that everyone wants and he is willing to work extra hard to make it even better! I thank Heavenly Father every day for his gift!