I took Joey and Grandma to Milwaukee to see Max perform in the UW Milwaukee choir. This was our first college level choir concert, and it was amazing.

The program was divided between a Symphony section and a Choir portion backed by the Symphony.

The Symphony portion was really good. I am not a big classical music fan, but there is no denying that being there to hear and see the instruments and feel the music wash over you is a feeling that touches you deeply. My eyes were darting between all the different instruments and mapping the sounds of each to the melody and the smooth almost effortless movements creating such sound. Not one awkward toot, or false start on the wrong key… it sounded crisp.

Max watched from the balcony in the row behind where we were sitting at the balcony rail, perfectly placed for pictures (had I brought batteries for my big camera – grrrrrr) during the symphony.

Once the Symphony section concluded, Max made his way onstage. That’s him almost center, top row, three over from the dude with the impressive orange-ish afro. The guy on his immediate right and left are looking at him.

The conductor came out, did the handshaking and reading the symphony, then raised the baton and… BOOM. “Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi” blasted out of the choir. It was in latin and was powerful and reminded me of music from “TheExorcist” in a way. The tone was dark. It was fantastic. Max told me afterwards that the Fortuna portion was used in the “Star Wars” movie. Maybe that was why it was eerily familiar.

The rest of the show was amazing too. I could see Max’s mouth moving, but there were too many voices to pick him out like I could do in High School concerts. I could see him giving it his all though.

All the voices melded into an amazing sound. I was blown away. There were combined parts and sections done by men on the right and then responded to by the ladies on the left. Even though the vocals were just vocal sounds since I’m not down with Latin, it sounded great. Powerful and solid and mixed wonderfully with the symphony. The whole choir rocked it. There were “Bravo’s” from the balcony when it was over and my hands hurt from clapping.

Bravo Max.

Nice Tux dude.

Well done.

Glad we could make it to see that!