Thank you for asking about the NATS (btw, that stands for "National Association of Teachers of Singing") competition! Here's what happened on Saturday.
The Short Version (stats only):
I had a great experience, and I won 3rd Place in my Division! Hooray for me!
The Long Version (including play-by-plays, commentary, and analysis):
Saturday was a wonderful day. I felt like a diva. "Yes, you may make breakfast for me... just no dairy, please" "Well, I suppose I'll let you drive me there so I can finish my makeup" "Can you help me put on all this bling? It's just so heavy" "I can't scold the kids - I need to protect my voice..." etc. etc. etc. =)
I was totally ready and not even nervous when I arrived. It was held at a local community college, and each division had its own set of 3 judges in our own room. I was in division 9W, meaning that I have had more than 4 years of voice lessons since high school, but do not have a degree in Voice. It's the Wild Card division; you never know who could be in it, and there's also no age limit like there are for the college divisions.
So, I sang the Bach, and they really liked it and asked me to sing the "Steal Me" aria, which went really well. That's the song that Amanda (my accompanist) and I worked on the most in her studio classes, and it went really really well. The only glitch was that for some reason unbeknownst to me I sang "kill me" instead of "steal me" in one of the phrases. It wasn't the really big moment, thank goodness, so hopefully they didn't quite notice. Because I know I didn't want to be killed. I just wanted to be stolen away by the attractive thief. There's a big difference.
Then they asked for the German song, and it was good. We still had time for the French, and I came
this (I'm pinching my fingers together really closely) close to missing my entrance. It was weird, but by the first line I had totally recovered and it was a great, fast, flamboyant song.
We just had a couple minutes left, and I had one more piece, the Bellini, which is 5 1/2 minutes long. I told them the best part was at the end, and they said, well, sing fast. Anyway, I only got halfway through before I had to stop, which was a real shame.
So that was the audition. It was really nice that Adam was there to watch it. He's great at supporting me in my interests!
In the afternoon, they offered a master class from a professor from NAU (Flagstaff), which I went to and it was very interesting.
Then they did the awards ceremony right afterwards. They went by division, and announced finalists, honorable mentions, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place winners, and the 1st place winners went backstage immediately to pick a song to sing for the recital. So, they would do a group of awards and then have a recital with all the winners from the various divisions. As I was listening, I was feeling pretty good, like, yes, I could totally be on that stage and fit right in. It was a good feeling. My accompanist thought so too; right before our division went, she said, okay, what are we singing? =)
So, my group came up, and they announced my name for 3rd place! I was very excited. I was sad that I didn't get to sing in front of everyone, but when I came back to my seat, my voice teacher, Anne Kopta, was saying, "Oh! I'm so proud of you! And 2 of my students won." - so it another of her students that took first place. She said, "Don't feel bad, - you'll understand when you hear her sing." So, she sang "I Want Magic" from
A Streetcar Named Desire and it was
spellbinding. She was
incredible. I was so honored to get 3rd place with her as the winner. I might have felt angry if a shoddy singer would have won. But I didn't. I felt honored. And also glad that we have the same teacher! She really was the best female voice of the day, including all the graduate and doctoral students.
So, it was a wonderful time. And I think I might take Tara's advice and make a cd while I'm in great vocal shape right now. That would be cool to have in several years.
I think this was something that I felt I needed to do. And I didn't figure this out until afterwards, but I think the reason is because I needed to know where I stood as a singer. Having never studied in school for this, I've only had my sister to compare to (not a healthy thing), or my fellow choir members, which really is a group that's after a different goal. So this was a chance for me to see how much "street cred" I've gained through my years in private study, against singers in my same situation and with the same goals. And it was nice to be judged and to have been found acceptable. I mean, for heaven's sake. The last time I was ranked and judged as a singer was at the end of my freshman semester as a voice major, and they cut me from the program. After one semester. So, I feel like (with the help of
many others), that I've carved my own path and come a really long way. And that makes me feel good.
My Diva Day is over and it's back to diapers, laundry, driving kids places and teaching music lessons, but it was fun to be queen for a day! :)
So, we decided to make it happen here in Chandler. The strange thing is that we had to throw out everything we learned about gardening from the other 5 states we lived in. It's a completely different ballgame out here. 
If you know Eli, you know he is my most affectionate child. He'd hug anybody - even a stranger he's never met (yes, it's happened before). Since he can't give each of you one of his huge bear hugs, here is a video of him singing a Valentine's song with his Preschool Class at Happy Apple.
