Today we had our final run-through—I’d call it a dress rehearsal but we didn’t actually get all dolled up for it. I just asked everyone to wear the shoes they would have on tomorrow, since the transition from rubber soles to concert footwear has occasionally been known to result in some unwanted slips and slides.

The day began with that long-awaited practice hour—60 precious minutes to repair all the potholes that have cropped up in my songs during the week. With the clock ticking, I had to exercise surgical precision. The spot in “A Child Is Born” where I always play a wrong harmony (solved in one minute with a fabulous chord progression I dreamed up, unfortunately not retained during the run) (I’ll get it tomorrow); the third page of the Busoni song, which is not exactly difficult but needs to be massaged into place every day, not just once a week (it was going fine later during the run until Reed came in two beats early during a tricky measure, and in my rush to find him Humpty-Dumpty fell off the wall); the brilliant but very unpianstic song from Jason Robert Brown’s “The Last Five Years” with the off-kilter bass line I always screw up (nailed it during the rehearsal); the spot I always fake in the newly-transposed Grieg song (did it correctly in two out of the three verses).

It’s easy for me to worry about little mistakes for two reasons. First, because I sit very far upstage and don’t have a visceral sense of my own sound blending with the singing or getting into the hall. I am confident that it is, in fact, wrapping itself gorgeously around the vocal line, and Bénédicte told me that the balances were excellent. But I feel a bit alone, nestled in the corner of the Caramoor stage, so I can get a little introverted, obsessed with the minutiae while losing contact with the bigger picture. And secondly, I am onstage with two sensational pianists, each of us with our individual approach to the keyboard. My mantra for tomorrow: “you do you.”

Caramoor’s Terrance W. Schwab Vocal Rising Stars program is made possible by generous support from the Terrance W. Schwab Endowment Fund for Young Vocal Artists.

The Merkin Hall performance has been underwritten by Eileen Caulfield Schwab.