Two weeks ago I was recording my CD in the beautiful Rieth Recital Hall. It is a brilliant space. People would advise me “Put feeling into a take,” and I hope when you buy the CD you will hear my feeling of joy at being in the Music Center on the Goshen College Campus. I hope you will hear many aspects of my location, the open space, the extended reverb, the warm light. But there was one thing I hope you won’t hear: Batman interrupting.
When I was a child wanting to play the harp, the first live harp concert I heard was the opening senior recital in the brand new Rieth Recital Hall. Ten years later, when I wanted to make a CD, I was thrilled to be able to hire that same space. We booked two days. My sound man, Nathan Butler of Nimble Wit Productions, and I arrived with trunk loads of gear. I had a harp, he had microphones and cables and stands and computers and speakers . . . all of which he positioned to capture the best of the hall. Rieth is a long and narrow room, 
about three stories high with light from the tall windows that dropping in to sit in the seats. At one end is an organ on a grey stone balcony. I sat at the other end in the warm embrace of the wooden stage. It is like a cross between a castle and a white oak cabin. And the acoustics. . . . After one particularly good take I jumped up from the harp and ran to the front of the stage, shouting as loud as I could “I love this space!”
It was perfect. Until Batman interrupted.
The second day of recording, we began to hear strange pings and rumbling sounds. Mom went outside only to find a ladder against the side of the building and a truck bearing the bright yellow warnings of the Humane Pest Control Company. She went to the secretary to ask about the noise level on the roof. He was horrified. He found the building manager who set off a domino of phone calls. After actually climbing up on the roof the manager returned to explain. It turns out that the beautiful Rieth Recital Hall had an issue with bats. Since it is illegal to kill a bat in the state of Indiana, they had the humane pest control up on the roof, sealing off the openings with one way doors so that the bats could leave but not return. I grinned at the manager, “You mean that’s Batman up there?”
That was the only day available to remove the bats. However it was also our only available day to record my CD. So Goshen College extended my time slot with many apologies and we continued recording. Every once in a while there would be a rumble of thunder but both parties came away happy. And they will have no more bat issues.
That day in that beautiful room, I learned about acoustics and about how to safely remove bats. But what I really learned is achieving a good performance depends less on the perfect space, and more on the choice to rejoice.
In fact, we’re still laughing about Batman . . .
