Hah! We must be in the same voice range! There were many years when I'd have to sing with the tenors in rehearsal, because the guys who we knew would make it to Midnight Mass, couldn't make it to rehearsal, and the ones who were there needed a little support. That was tough, cause I had to learn two different parts.
I found out this morning that six of the 8 altos in our choir won't be at Midnight Mass. I'm not sure about the 7th one, yet. So I contacted a couple of gals who have sung with us at past Midnight Masses. Also, our daughter will be coming home from college the weekend before Christmas, and she's an alto, too. But we all have strong voices, so we'll be able to hold our own with the other voices.;o)
We're hurting for altos because our staff alto went back to school. I'm the most experienced alto at the moment (I'm an amateur but I've sung in good choirs since the age of 6), some of our altos are almost inaudible and some of them are very audible but inaccurate, so it's a bit dicey right now. I'm glad to have the support of a good accurate male alto. And the sound is really "English" - it sort of made our deacon go "Huh?" when we sang the Byrd "Ave Verum" because the altos really pop out at a couple of points and he recognized that Something Was Up. Glad he noticed!
You know the parody of "Immortal, Invisible"? "Immoral, impossible, God only knows/ How tenors, sopranos, basses, and altos/ Who show up on Sunday are never the same/ As those who on Thursday to choir practice came."
Learn it. Love it. Live it. < g >