Making Lemonade, MCO in NYC

Some months ago, my baby girl, Rebecca, and her eldest son, Caleb, signed up with a wonderful group for an amazing opportunity. In becoming part of the Millennial Choirs and Orchestra (MCO), they looked forward to several important concerts, their summer season culminating in a highlight performance in Carnegie Hall.

Titled "Nearer, my God, to Thee," the concert began with an astonishing and deeply moving arrangement of "A Mighty Fortress" and consisted mostly of sacred music. Since the performance was scheduled for mid-July, they also offered a patriotic segment.


Five groups of choirs and orchestras from around the southwest studied the same music, preparing to divide into three casts, each of which would have one big night on the stage in the renowned Stern Concert Hall. Becca and Caleb were in the "blue" cast, scheduled for Saturday, July 13.

With a once-in-a-lifetime experience ahead of them, and a sold-out concert hall awaiting, Becca and Caleb endured an intense rehearsal schedule, costume fittings, and all the expected preparation. That wasn't all. The rest of the family wanted to see them in concert, and since they were going to be in Manhattan, they certainly wanted to take a few bites of all the Big Apple had to offer. Months of work, planning, and saving led up to the big day.

There they were, rehearsing on the concert stage, when the lights went out. At first, they didn't let it bother them. Accustomed to having the lighting technicians at work while they were, they continued on, using only the battery-operated lights on the orchestra's music stands to continue. When the blackout did not ease, the group became restless. This wasn't just normal light-testing, was it?

Soon the Hall officials came in to report that something had happened, blacking out all of central Manhattan. Yes, their scheduled performance was on that night, the night the lights went out throughout the central city on the exact anniversary of the 1977 Manhattan blackout. July 13 also came during Manhattanhenge, the one time annually when the setting sun lines up with the downtown streets.

For a short time, the musicians continued to rehearse, hoping and praying that the power would come back in time for their concert as scheduled. The Hall's staff knew when their fail-safe point occurred, the hour when it would be too late to load in an audience even if the power did return. When that time arrived, they came in to deliver the bad news: For the first time in its history, Carnegie Hall canceled a performance due to technical problems.

Imagine the heartbreak. This concert had been the focus of months of work, not just for hundreds of musicians, but for thousands of people among their family and friends, many of whom had traveled to NYC to enjoy the experience with loved ones. The disappointment was tangible for them all.

As they exited the hall, one woman announced, "I came here to sing. Let's sing." Most of the orchestra members could not participate, given the difficulty of setting up instruments on 57th Street, but the singers quickly organized and an impromptu concert began. Soon their director came up with a makeshift podium and began leading the group.

As the sun set between the skyscrapers of Manhattan, the Millennial Choirs sang. Though they missed their opportunity to perform to the 2,800+ people who would have heard them inside the hall, they ended up singing to hundreds on the streets of Manhattan. Several million have now heard their performances recorded on YouTube. (See #MCOINNYC I Stand All Amazed Carnegie Hall - NYC Power Outage, I Believe in Christ -

The Millennial Choirs and Orchestra went to New York to sing praises in a famous hall, but ended up singing to the world. It's a story I will always remember when stuck with lemons and making lemonade.