In Memory
Of my longest-lasting friendship, the dearly departed, the one, the only Charity Tilleman-Dick.
When I signed on to the show, I knew I would dedicate it my performance to Charity, so imagine my glee and delight when I saw the photo that the Chorale picked to accompany my bio features Charity by my side.
The picture was taken on tour in Japan, shortly after Charity and I somehow volunteered (What? Why?!?) to both sing and dance the Macarena for all of the Japanese students. That fearlessness and absolute ridiculousness was just an every day sort of occurrence with the two of us. We used to love riding in elevators while doing British or southern accents in the hopes that someone would ask us where we were from—so we could prove how authentic our dialect work really was. After we’d graduated, we once used our Chorale alumni IDs to sneak backstage at Boettcher Concert Hall... to see an opera. Other kids had fast cars and drugs; we had Pagliacci. It is because of the Chorale that I got to meet Charity and her amazing family, and for that I am forever grateful.
Chari, I miss you and I love you. The only thing that would make this upcoming concert better is to hear you singing in it, too.
