Topping off the tank.
Ahhhh, if you can't have an actual vacation, you can at least have a gig where you get your batteries recharged.
I just (ok, a couple of hours ago) drove in from Austin, where I spent the week making music with the incredible artists known as "Conspirare: Craig Hella Johnson and Company of Voices." For the two of you who don't know, it's an Austin-based chamber choir with members from all over the country. Essentially all practicing professional musicians. We get together in various configurations 2-3 times per year for a 4 concert series. Rehearse for a few days, do a few shows, change a few lives.
Conspirare's big gig (our version of the Nutcracker, essentially) is Christmas at the Carillon. It's a collage concert where Craig comes up with a theme and finds ingenious ways to bring sacred and secular, classical and non-classical music together to give it life. Since it's at the start of HBU's winter quarter I've never actually sung one. I did however, get to attend one when they took it on the road to Galveston. It was really amazing.
I digress. This rep's title was International Masterpiece. Only three works on the program; Stanford's war-horse (but oh-so-beautiful) "Beati Quorum Via (Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord)," Daniel-Lesur's Le Cantique des Cantiques, a 12-part choral wonder juxtaposing the text of the Song of Solomon with various Latin chant texts, and Gretchaninov's All Night Vigil, a 40-minute marathon for mixed/double choir and soloists requiring the basses to sing F two octaves below middle-C.
Yes, we have the Basso Profundo Assoluto in our group. His name is Glenn Miller (really!) and he's an Organist/Choirmaster at a presby church up in Michigan. He is amazing. I want to see what his chords look like! He took those low notes and made the seats in the back of these churches vibrate. You don't so much hear as feel him sing sometimes.
Anyhoo-- Craig is right up there with Richard Bado in my book. Getting to spend a week away, really making a connection with the music and with the audiences reminds me of why I do what I do. And why it's so important.
And no, it's not always perfect. Six hours a day of rehearsal and standing through a fairly difficult 40-minute piece in Russian (excuse me, in Church Slavonic) is a workout. And since it's me, there were several misadventures along the way (including tossing my credit card in a garbage can at a Shell station on I-35 between San Marcos and New Braunfels-- ack!). But all in all, I think I'm ready to face the rest of the year.
I better be...
I just (ok, a couple of hours ago) drove in from Austin, where I spent the week making music with the incredible artists known as "Conspirare: Craig Hella Johnson and Company of Voices." For the two of you who don't know, it's an Austin-based chamber choir with members from all over the country. Essentially all practicing professional musicians. We get together in various configurations 2-3 times per year for a 4 concert series. Rehearse for a few days, do a few shows, change a few lives.
Conspirare's big gig (our version of the Nutcracker, essentially) is Christmas at the Carillon. It's a collage concert where Craig comes up with a theme and finds ingenious ways to bring sacred and secular, classical and non-classical music together to give it life. Since it's at the start of HBU's winter quarter I've never actually sung one. I did however, get to attend one when they took it on the road to Galveston. It was really amazing.
I digress. This rep's title was International Masterpiece. Only three works on the program; Stanford's war-horse (but oh-so-beautiful) "Beati Quorum Via (Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord)," Daniel-Lesur's Le Cantique des Cantiques, a 12-part choral wonder juxtaposing the text of the Song of Solomon with various Latin chant texts, and Gretchaninov's All Night Vigil, a 40-minute marathon for mixed/double choir and soloists requiring the basses to sing F two octaves below middle-C.
Yes, we have the Basso Profundo Assoluto in our group. His name is Glenn Miller (really!) and he's an Organist/Choirmaster at a presby church up in Michigan. He is amazing. I want to see what his chords look like! He took those low notes and made the seats in the back of these churches vibrate. You don't so much hear as feel him sing sometimes.
Anyhoo-- Craig is right up there with Richard Bado in my book. Getting to spend a week away, really making a connection with the music and with the audiences reminds me of why I do what I do. And why it's so important.
And no, it's not always perfect. Six hours a day of rehearsal and standing through a fairly difficult 40-minute piece in Russian (excuse me, in Church Slavonic) is a workout. And since it's me, there were several misadventures along the way (including tossing my credit card in a garbage can at a Shell station on I-35 between San Marcos and New Braunfels-- ack!). But all in all, I think I'm ready to face the rest of the year.
I better be...
posted by YankeeHobbit | 1:24 AM
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