Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Eight Days of Chanukah, with the US Navy Band

In my last post, I mentioned that during elementary school I sang in the Hebrew Academy (of Greater Washington) choir, under the capable leadership of Mrs. Leah Lipman. Choir was serious. There were try-outs, bi-weekly practice during lunch, and a zillion performances, often not during school. We performed in shuls, at government functions, old-age homes, you name it, we were there.
When I was in second grade (the first grade they'd let you be in the choir) we performed with the United States Navy Band in Constitution Hall. It was a really big deal. The Navy bussed us out to practice with the band as well as the Sea Chanters (they were really unbelievable) several times, and then we performed twice before a couple of thousand people. I had a really big solo for the song, "Eight Days of Chanukah", and my name even made it into the program. I still have very fond memories of those shows: watching the Sea Chanters play poker before the show, singing with the band. It's probably a good thing that we didn't appreciate how large the performance was. If we had, we really would have been nervous.
I'm sharing a clip of Eight Days of Chanukah that I've converted from the tape we got of the performance. If you're an Academy alum and want the rest of the show, email me and I'll try and upload more.

Click here for the audio link, or listen in the handy audio player supplied below.

I also found another clip from the performance here.

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