Black Violet Act I at DePaul University

Drew, Breana, Adam, Herine, and Clark rehearsing before the concert.

On Tuesday, October 24, 2011, Fifth House Ensemble had the serious pleasure of performing Black Violet Act I: The Leagues of Despair at the DePaul University Commons.  Not only were the musicians' performances truly inspiring, but the Commons at DePaul was a lovely place in which to perform.

Matt watches pre-show rehearsal.

That Tuesday was a majorly exciting day for me.  While the Rush Hour performance at the end of August was my first official concert as the Operations & Marketing Director of Fifth House Ensemble, I only needed to witness the concert & do some mingling before and after.  For the Black Violet concert at DePaul, I played a much more active role in the actual performance.

Breana, Clark, Matt, and Herine rehearse before the concert.

A couple of weeks before the concert, Adam passed me the scores with slide placement marked in them.  Then I was able to download the tracks from our recording of BVI (more on that later).  With scores & audio in hand, I spent a lot of time listening to the music & familiarizing myself with the scores & the placement of the slides.  That way, on performance day, I was able to run the slides for the show!  Running the slides brought me back to my stage management roots.  Basically I was in Heaven: running cues & listening to some seriously beautiful music!

My view: scores w/ cues, musicians, computer w/ slide show.

I arrived early on concert day to help with any and all set up needs during pre-show rehearsal & sound check.  While jumping from talking with interns, testing the projections, and practicing some of the slides with the musicians, I was able to take a lot of pictures!  I've included many of them in this post!  You can also find all of the pictures from Black Violet Act I: The Leagues of Despair at DePaul University on our Facebook page.

Black Violet merchandise for sale!  Tshirts, flowers, and CDs, OH MY!

That Tuesday was also a huge day for the ensemble!  After months of work & waiting, Fifth House Ensemble released a self produced CD recording of Black Violet Act I: The Leagues of Despair.  While it's not currently available on our website (remember how our website had some major technical difficulties on 10/4?  It's because something in the "BUY THE CD" widget I added caused some major problems...), you can find it on cdbaby.com (both digital download and CD ordering), iTunes, and Amazon.com.  It will also be available again on our website very soon.  The recording is truly, TRULY an amazing listen!  You can also pick the CD up in person at any of our upcoming concerts.

Melissa and Karl rehearsing.