So...I'm driving home from Michigan, after a Thanksgiving dinner......

My daughter is talking to me about stage fright, during the drive home....She has no problem singing in a choral group in front of many people, and her study repertoire has been primarily classical/opera. She does suffer from some major stage fright, however, when it comes to more contemporary music, performing in front of small groups of people, or soloing. I've been hoping that time and confidence will help her overcome that a bit.  She really does have an amazing voice.  I never had that....a fear of performing. As an instrumentalist, and "somewhat" of a singer (nothing like her abilities, granted), I've never been bothered by actually caring much what folks thought...I just enjoyed what I was doing, and hoped others did, too. I do respect where she's coming from, though. Everyone is different, and I know that being 12 is a hard age, acceptance means a lot, and criticism isn't easy for a young teen.

So, anyway, we're driving along, and she starts singing this song.  Kristin Chenoweth did a CD of mostly tunes from Broadway shows, called "Let yourself go", back in 2001. I knew that Sarah had taken my copy of the CD....she's had it in her iPod for a long time.  So she starts singing "The girl in 14G", a cappella. That's a difficult song to sing, and she nailed it....with no accompaniment.  I was impressed.  Surprised, is more like it.  So she tells me that she's going to be performing it in an upcoming show. She found an accompanist, and the sheet music for vocal and piano. Wow.  Pretty cool, I'm thinking she is going to do pretty well.  I guess she's taking that step to overcome the fear of performing solo.  That's a nice enough holiday gift for me. :)

Here's a video of Kristin performing it: (definitely not a easy song to sing...but very fun....)