Mamma Mia

Our annual winter musical season came back with Mamma Mia

I signed up for the pit orchestra of the musical “Mamma Mia.” The pit orchestra conductor, Ms. Stevenson, listened to my performance in the solo concert and recommended that I play the keyboard in the pit orchestra.

To end the concert in February successfully, we began to practice the Mamma Mia musical pieces even before December. Back then, I didn’t know any of the songs; I had to look at the sheet music for such a long time since the rhythm patterns are very different with classical music. Though in January, when we started to practice two hours every day, I listened to the songs and became familiar with the challenging parts of the whole playlist. However, I have also gone through the awkwardness when everyone else was playing so happily and I missed my crucial part. The practices with our pit orchestra crew were often very tiring but also worthwhile for preparing for the musical.

Then we moved on to Cressey Hall, the biggest theater in our school, which will be used as a musical theater. We rehearsed three hours a day, five days a week, with the cast. That is when I realized that our school has such good singers and dancers. I enjoyed the rehearsal so much though I was extremely tired of practicing 3 hours straight. I really started to know the plot lines of Mamma Mia and began to understand all the jokes in the musical. Most importantly, all the songs from Mamma Mia, also by ABBA was so joyful and exciting when the casts sang it.

There were quite a lot of people in the opening night of the show. It was our first time to actually perform in front of a lot of people. We kind of felt nervous and excited at the same time, but as the show continued, I released my stress and enjoyed the same. After all the bows and the final chorus finished, people were clapping really hard that they seemed very joyful. I was proud of my self and also proud of all musical crews for ending the show successfully. The second night, the third night had some drawbacks but still had round of applauses. The final night had the most audiences, with the most great atmosphere of a show. We were eager to finish the whole musical successful.

All the audiences were cheering and clapping as we performed the final song, Waterloo, and the cast surrounded the audience with grand music. The silver-bright confetti was coming out, and I kept playing the keyboard, taking part in the harmony of the song, as a Pit Orchestra member. As the 3-month musical journey was about to finish, I was moved by what we’d done over the past 3 months and the joy of performing music in front of a lot of people. I felt the emotion of great accomplishment and a bit of vanity that this has finally ended. We all went up to the stage and we enjoyed this situation that we have done something great. I would have regretted it if I hadn’t joined the pit orchestra after Ms. Stevenson’s suggestion.

I thought again about my piano-playing career and even my choice of going to America to study instead of studying in Korea with low-risk. I had questioned myself multiple times about my decision, also thinking very skeptically with myself. However, since this day, The infinite opportunity to take part in a great thing I love told me that I am not wrong. I will always catch these opportunities, in other words, the advantage of studying abroad especially in the U.S.