You may touch me now...
*Ahem!* Ladies and Gentlemen, I am thrilled to announce that Requiem: We Are So Lightly Here, the freakishly stunning CD from Conspirare: Craig Hella Johnson and Company of Voices, has been nominated for a Grammy Award in Category 99, Best Choral Performance. Get it while you can, folks!
Yours truly has a solo on said album (Stephen Paulus's "The Road Home." Great piece. Disc 2, Track 6, FYI). One might say, ergo, that yours truly is a Grammy-nominated artist. Hmmm. Gotta find a way to leverage that, right? Super congratulations to Craig and the rest of my fabulous, amazing, gifted, wonderful co-Grammy-nominated colleagues.
In other way cool news: My wonderful friend and colleague, pianist Melissa Marse and I had a rare chance to sit and chill the other day at the Baptist place (how many music schools can boast two Melissas on the faculty?). One of the framed pieces on her wall was a musical genealogy. Her dad had looked into who her teachers were and who their teachers were and so on to see how far back he could get. He has traced her musical lineage all the way back to Giacomo Carissimi, a 17th century composer. In her "family tree" are some of my favorite composers: Alessandro Scarlatti, Ludwig van Beethoven, etc. Mind blowing.
It started me to thinking. I have absolutely no idea who my musical forebears are. For that matter, I don't know who my biological forebears are either, for much the same reasons. That information pretty much died with the people who had it. Kind of makes me feel rootless-ish. I could count from my current teachers– one of them thinks he can go all the way back to Garcia, whose name I came across in researching that paper I had to do last week. That'd be pretty cool.
As for the "real" ancestors? My uncle gave that a shot once. Didn't get very far. Maybe when I retire I'll have time and better resources to hunt some of that stuff down. I'll bet my kiddos (that would be the nieces and nephews) would like to know some of that stuff.
In case we don't chat before then, Merry Christmas and Happy 2007!
Yours truly has a solo on said album (Stephen Paulus's "The Road Home." Great piece. Disc 2, Track 6, FYI). One might say, ergo, that yours truly is a Grammy-nominated artist. Hmmm. Gotta find a way to leverage that, right? Super congratulations to Craig and the rest of my fabulous, amazing, gifted, wonderful co-Grammy-nominated colleagues.
In other way cool news: My wonderful friend and colleague, pianist Melissa Marse and I had a rare chance to sit and chill the other day at the Baptist place (how many music schools can boast two Melissas on the faculty?). One of the framed pieces on her wall was a musical genealogy. Her dad had looked into who her teachers were and who their teachers were and so on to see how far back he could get. He has traced her musical lineage all the way back to Giacomo Carissimi, a 17th century composer. In her "family tree" are some of my favorite composers: Alessandro Scarlatti, Ludwig van Beethoven, etc. Mind blowing.
It started me to thinking. I have absolutely no idea who my musical forebears are. For that matter, I don't know who my biological forebears are either, for much the same reasons. That information pretty much died with the people who had it. Kind of makes me feel rootless-ish. I could count from my current teachers– one of them thinks he can go all the way back to Garcia, whose name I came across in researching that paper I had to do last week. That'd be pretty cool.
As for the "real" ancestors? My uncle gave that a shot once. Didn't get very far. Maybe when I retire I'll have time and better resources to hunt some of that stuff down. I'll bet my kiddos (that would be the nieces and nephews) would like to know some of that stuff.
In case we don't chat before then, Merry Christmas and Happy 2007!
posted by YankeeHobbit | 11:15 PM
2 Comments:
Hey Melissa. Nice to find your blog out here in cyberspace!
My friends and I have talked for years about "musical grandfathers" etc. I have Beethoven in my lineage.....
What a great idea; maybe that will be one of my New Year projects.
And coincidentally I am listening to "Requiem" on my work computer as I type this. The Christmas CDs finally had to go away (although I have a new Charpentier CD that I can't quite shelve yet).
And you can thank Dan for giving me the heads-up about your blog. Looks great!
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