When I sat in on my first chorus rehearsal I wasn't sure what to expect. I mean, I knew they would come in and sing and sing and sing some more, but other than that, I was clueless.

As people walked in I started to realize that I had a certain pre-conceived image of what an opera singer looked like, or rather what they didn't look like.

They didn't look like people that I went to school with or people I ran into at the grocery store. Maybe the best way to put it is that I thought that if you were an opera singer you didn't look pedestrian. In my mind, that wasn't allowed.

So you can imagine my surprise when the chorus singers began walking into their music rehearsal and they DID look like people I went to school with, in fact I think I remember seeing some of them around campus. And they DID look like people I ran into the grocery store, and perhaps I had in the past. And I felt myself getting surprised, and then I wondered what exactly I had expected them to look like.

Maybe I thought they would all be wearing formal eveningwear? I'm not really sure

Anyway, Chorus Master Stephen Dubberley had everyone introduce themselves: name, where they're from, and a general fact about themselves. That's when I learned that some people grew up here in Fort Worth while others had relocated from other parts of the US (and beyond), and some were traveling in from Dallas and Denton. And this season's chorus singers cover a large spectrum of lifestyles. There are students, moms, a barista, church choir directors, marketing representatives, teachers, and the list goes on.

But you'll be glad to know that all of them can SING!