Obit.

A little over a week ago, Sharon Lee Kelley passed away. I sang with her in Cappella Clausura, and she has also sung with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Handel & Haydn, the New World Chorale and Chorus pro Musica at various times, just to name a few. She was a total delight as a colleague - sarcastic, witty, funny, and also kind and twinkly, and also incredibly knowledgeable and a great musician. It has been tough to really come to terms with, not only because this season is so demanding but also because a beloved member of my church choir suffered a bad fall, and is in the hospital in "critical but stable" condiction, and I am incredibly anxious about her. But I know that at the next Cappella Clausura rehearsal I go to, it will probably hit me quite hard. RIP to a great Boston musician.

Caroling mob

Just a quick note to say that the fifth annual Boston Merry Christmas Caroling Mob is Sunday (probably today, depending on when you are reading this) from 4-6 pm starting at the Stony Brook stop on the Orange line. The group's director, Joel Sindelar, is interviewed in this article from the Globe about Christmas caroling. So if you are not coming to Cappella Clausura's Cohasset concert (which you should, if just for the alliteration) then you might want to check it out!

Calling all singer-martial-artists!

Below is a portion of an e-mail I got recently from Juventas, a new music group in Boston. The crazy-awesome portion is highlighted.

Juventas New Music Ensemble seeks singers in all voice parts for a double-bill of world premiere chamber operas by young composers Matthew Vest and Erin Huelskamp. Performances will be May 7-10 in Boston, MA. Scheduled auditions will be held on January 10 and 11 from 1-6pm at the Boston Conservatory. Callbacks will be held Monday, January 12 from 6-10pm.

The Hourglass by Matthew Vest: The Holocaust as relayed through one man’s fateful letter. Score includes aleotoric and spatial elements, and overlays both sung and spoken text. Production to include multi-media elements.

A new Kung Fu Opera by Erin Huelskamp: Based on a traditional Chinese folk story and inspired by classic Kung movies. Roles will include fight scenes! (Callbacks will have a movement portion.)

I have never really seriously considered trying to be an opera singer - there are other kinds of singing that I think my voice is better suited to - but man, if anything was going to tempt me to go for it, this sure would! Who knew that ten years of taekwondo could ever intersect with my musical career?

No, no, I mustn't! Repeating to self: You are already over-committed. You are already over-committed. You are already over-committed.

Update to Weekend Concert Calendar

It is a fairly safe bet that any concert tonight is cancelled.

Not that you need someone to tell you this, I know. You, Gentle Reader, are absolutely possessed of enough common sense to call and check with the group's manager or what-have-you before you would dream of tramping out to a concert tonight. This PSA is for all those other readers. You know, those people. Not you. Absolutely not.

Stay snug, everyone!

Weekend Concert Calendar, 12/18/08

[Note: So, I started this entry in the afternoon, and then I went to choir practice off in Cohasset, and I just got home and it's bloody-o'clock, so I'm not going to finish. That means this is a sadly incomplete list of what's going on this weekend; I apologize! Around Christmas time these Thursday entries take hours.]

Aaand...the Christmas choral season continues!

Spotlight this weekend is on Cappella Clausura, which will be performing near you no matter where you live. There is a great article about them today in the Boston Globe. They will be presenting "Gloria: A Christmas Pagaent" complete with dancers from Creationdance, costumes, and giant puppets, in Newton on Friday; in Bedford on Saturday afternoon; in Marblehead on Saturday evening; and in Cohasset on Sunday afternoon. The Sunday afternoon performance in Cohasset is at my church, so of course I am especially invested in gathering a big crowd for them. Details are below under the respective dates, and can also be found here.

Friday:

At 7:30 pm, the Wakefield First Parish Congregational Church presents their annual Messiah sing. This will be at 1 Church St, Wakefield, MA. More information is here.

At 8:00 pm, Cappella Clausura will present "Gloria: A Christmas Pagaent" at the First Unitarian Society in Newton. This will be at 1326 Washington St, West Newton. More information is here.

At 8:00 pm, Chorus pro Musica, under the direction of guest conductor Betsy Burleigh, will present Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols together with Conrad Susa’s Carols and Lullabies: Christmas in the Southwest. This will be at Old South Church, 645 Boylston St, Copley Sq., Boston.

At 8:00 pm, Masterworks Chorale presents their annual Messiah Sings under the direction of Steven Karidoyanes. This will be at Cary Hall, 1605 Mass. Avenue, Lexington, MA. More information is here. This will be repeated on Saturday.

At 8:00 pm, Musicians of the Old Post Road present "Christmas in Baroque Europe." This will be at Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Boston. This concert will be repeated on Saturday in Worcester.

At 8:00 pm, the Boston Gay Men's Chorus will present "Stars: A Holiday Celebration." At NEC's Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston. This concert will be repeated on Saturday and Sunday.

At 8:00 pm, the Boston Boy Choir will present Britten's Ceremony of Carols, along with music by Biery, Marier, Rutter, and Victoria. This will be at St. Paul Church, Bow and Arrow Streets, Cambridge. This concert will be repeated on Sunday at 3:00 pm.

Saturday:

At 2:00 pm, Cappella Clausura will present "Gloria: A Christmas Pagaent" at First Parish in Bedford. This will be at 75 The Great Road, Bedford, On the Common. More information is here.

At 8:00 pm, Cappella Clausura will present "Gloria: A Christmas Pagaent" at St. Andrew's Church in Marblehead. This will be at 135 Lafayette St, Marblehead, MA. More information is here.

At 8:00 pm, Blue Heron will present "A French and Franco-Flemish Christmas, 1200/1500." This will be at First Church in Cambridge, 11 Garden Street, Cambridge.

At 8:00 pm, the Back Bay Chorale, under the direction of Scott Allen Jarrett, will present "An 18th-Century Christmas." This will be at Faneuil Hall, 1 Faneuil Hall Market Pl., Boston.

At 8:00 pm, Masterworks Chorale presents their annual Messiah Sings under the direction of Steven Karidoyanes. This will be at Cary Hall, 1605 Mass. Avenue, Lexington, MA. More information is here.

At 8:00 pm, Musicians of the Old Post Road present "Christmas in Baroque Europe." This will be at Trinity Lutheran Church, 73 Lancaster Street, Worcester.

At 8:00 pm, the Boston Gay Men's Chorus will present "Stars: A Holiday Celebration." At NEC's Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston. This concert will be repeated on Sunday.

Sunday:

At 1:30 pm, the Friends of the Performing Arts in Concord (FOPAC) present a Messiah sing under the direction of Alan Yost. This will be at 51 Walden, Concord, MA. More information is here.

At 3:00 pm, the Handel and Haydn Society, under the direction of John Finney, present a festive program of Bach's Christmas music. The concert will include Cantata 191, "Gloria in excelsis Deo"; Cantata 151, "Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt"; and the Magnificat. This will be at NEC's Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston.

At 3:00 pm, the Back Bay Chorale, under the direction of Scott Allen Jarrett, will present "An 18th-Century Christmas." This will be at Marsh Chapel, 733 Commonwealth Ave., Boston.

At 3:00 pm, the Boston Boy Choir will present Britten's Ceremony of Carols, along with music by Biery, Marier, Rutter, and Victoria. This will be at St. Paul Church, Bow and Arrow Streets, Cambridge.

At 3:00 pm, the Nashoba Valley Chorale presents its first annual Messiah Sing under the direction of Anne Watson Born. This will be at the Congregational Church of Littleton, MA, 330 King St, Littleton, MA. More information is here.

At 4:00 pm, Cappella Clausura will present "Gloria: A Christmas Pagaent" at First Parish Cohasset. This will be at 23 North Main St, Cohasset. More information is here.

At 5:00 pm, the Harvard Unitarian Church (that's Harvard, MA the town, not the university) will host its 43rd annual Messiah sing under the direction of Ted Johnson. This will be at the Harvard Unitarian Universalist Church, on the common of Harvard, MA. More information and directions are here.

At 7:30 pm, there will be a Belmont Open Sings read-through of Messiah (parts 1, 2, and bits of 3) under the direction of Mary Beekman. This will be at the Payson Park Church, 365 Belmont Street, Belmont, MA. More information is here.

At 8:00 pm, the Boston Gay Men's Chorus will present "Stars: A Holiday Celebration." At NEC's Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston.

Monday links

It's funny video week! Have a funny video!

The Weather Report, set to Anglican Chant. Hat tip to Osbert.

Have another funny video! I really wish I could see more clearly what the nun on the end is doing.

Nuns Hallelujah Chorus. Hat tip to MH, one of my two church accompanists.

Weekend Concert Calendar, 12/11/08

So, I apologize for falling down on the job for the past few weeks; sadly, I missed telling you about some good concerts last week. But never fear, it's December, so there are always more!

First off, Anthology is presenting our second (and final) Christmas concert Friday! That's probably today, depending on when you are reading this. We will be concentrating on Christmas music of America, although there will also be the occasional side trip to England, France and Spain for some familiar beloved carols, and some new gems. With Christmas music ranging from early American shape-note tunes to George Gershwin, from medieval chant to jazz standards, we will have all the variety you could wish for. 8:00 pm, Dec. 12, 2008 at Third Life Studios, 33 Union Square, Somerville, MA (in the heart of Union Square.) Really. That's the address. I promise. Admission will be $15 for adults and $5 for children.

Aaaand...here's what the rest of our fair choral city will be up to! EVERYONE is singing this weekend. It's quite a list, so the entries will be a bit more brisk than usual - click on any group's name to learn more about their program.

Friday:

At 8:00 pm, Anthology will present a FANTASTIC Christmas concert! 8:00 pm, Dec. 12, 2008 at Third Life Studios, 33 Union Square, Somerville, MA (in the heart of Union Square.) Please come!

At 8:00 pm, the Boston Cecilia and Exsultemus will present a joint Christmas concert called "Christmas in England: Ancient & Modern." This will be at the Church of the Advent, 30
Brimmer St., Boston (in the heart of Beacon Hill.) They will be repeating this concert on Sunday.

At 7:30 pm, Boston Baroque will perform Handel's Messiah. At NEC's Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston, MA. They will be repeating this performance on Saturday.

At 7:30 pm, the Quincy Choral Society will present "Music for a Festive Season." At Sacred Heart Church, Hancock Street, N. Quincy, MA. They will be repeating this concert on Sunday.

At 7:30 pm, the Reading Community Singers will present their holiday concert. At Old South Methodist Church, 6 Salem St., Reading, MA. They will be repeating this concert Saturday afternoon.

At 8:00 pm, the Boston Conservatory will present an evening of new chamber music. Featured works will be by faculty member Rudolf Rojahn and Igor Iwanek. Among the works will be a world premiere of a piece for women's vocal ensemble. At Seully Hall, The Boston Conservatory, 8 The Fenway, Boston.

At 8:00 pm, Chorus North Shore will present a Christmas concert, including Bach's Magnificat. At St Richard’s Church, 90 Forest St., Danvers, MA. They will be repeating this concert on Saturday.

At 8:00 pm, the Boston Camerata will present "The Brotherhood of the Star: A Hispanic Christmas 1300-1700." At Follen Church, 755 Massachusetts Ave, Lexington. They will be repeating this concert on Saturday and Sunday.

At 8:00 pm, Stämbandet will be performing the music of Christmas and the Winter Solstice in Scandinavia. At The Westford Museum, 2-4 Boston Road, Westford, MA. They will be repeating this concert on Sunday.

Saturday:

At 10:30 am and also at 2:00 pm, the Boston Children's Chorus will join the Back Bay Ringers for a free holiday concert in Faneuil Hall, Boston. Fanueil Hall is at...well, come on people. You know where Fanueil Hall is. Just get off the T at Government Center.

At 2:00 pm, the Reading Community Singers will present their holiday concert. At Old South Methodist Church, 6 Salem St., Reading, MA.

At 3:00 pm, the Cambridge Community Chorus will present their holiday concert. At Kresge Auditorium, MIT, 84 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA.

At 4:00 pm and also at 8:00 pm, the Concord Chorus will present a holiday concert titled "Et incarnatus est." This will be at the Middlesex School Memorial Chapel, 1400 Lowell Rd, Concord, MA.

At 7:30 pm, Boston Baroque will perform Handel's Messiah. At NEC's Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston, MA.

At 8:00 pm, the Cambridge Chamber Singers will present "A Time for Peace: Music and Poetry of the Season." This will be at Lindsey Chapel in Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury St., Boston. They will be repeating this concert on Sunday.

At 8:00 pm, the Halalisa Singers will present "Raisins and Honey: Sweet Songs of Celebration." This will be at First Parish Lexington, 7 Harrington Rd, Lexington (right on the town green.) They will be repeating this concert on Sunday.

At 8:00 pm, Musica Sacra will present "A Boy is Born! The Christmas Story told in the Choral Music of Europe." Among other pieces, you will hear Schönberg's "Friede auf Erden" and Arvo Pärt's "Magnificat." This will be at First Church Congregational, 11 Garden St., Cambridge. And if you go, I will see you there!

At 8:00 pm, the Unicorn Singers and the Broad Cove Chorale will present "O Wondrous Night: The Nativity in Word and Song." This will be at the House of Prayer in Hingham, which I think is at 916 Main St, Hingham, MA. This concert will be repeated on Sunday at my church in Cohasset! These concerts benefit the Wellspring Multiservice Center in Hull.

At 8:00 pm, the Newburyport Choral Society & Orchestra will present selections from Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle, along with music of the season. At the Belleville Congregational Church, 300 High St, Newburyport, MA.

At 8:00 pm, the Boston Camerata will present "The Brotherhood of the Star: A Hispanic Christmas 1300-1700." At First Church in Boston, 66 Marlborough St, Boston. They will be repeating this concert on Sunday.

At 8:00 pm, the Oriana Consort will present “Miracles of Winter: Choral music for Advent, Christmas, and Hanukkah.” Youth Pro Musica will also be featured on this concert. At First Lutheran Church, 299 Berkeley Street, Boston.

At 8:00 pm, Chorus North Shore will present a Christmas concert, including Bach's Magnificat. At Our Lady of Hope Church, Linebrook Rd., Ipswich, MA.

At 8:00 pm, In Choro Novo will present "Celestial Celebration." At Marsh Chapel at Boston University, 735 Commonwealth Ave., Boston.

Sunday:

At 3:00 pm, the Boston Cecilia and Exsultemus will present a joint Christmas concert called "Christmas in England: Ancient & Modern." This will be at All Saints Parish, 1773 Beacon St., Brookline. Two fantastic groups on one concert!

At 1:00 pm, the Arlington Street Church will host its second annual Carol Sing! At the Hunnewell Chapel, 351 Boyleston St, Boston.

At 2:00 pm, the Boston Gay Men's Chorus will present "Stars: A Holiday Celebration." At NEC's Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston, MA.

At 2:30 pm, the Midcoast Symphony of Maine presents a Messiah sing-along. This will be at Orion Performing Arts Center, 66 Republic Ave., Topsham, ME. More information is here.

At 2:30 pm, the Newburyport Choral Society & Orchestra will present selections from Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle, along with music of the season. At the Belleville Congregational Church, 300 High St, Newburyport, MA.

At 3:00 pm, the Halalisa Singers will present "Raisins and Honey: Sweet Songs of Celebration." This will be at First Parish Sudbury, 327 Concord Rd, Sudbury, MA.

At 3:00 pm, the Boston Boy Choir and St. Paul Men's Schola will present Britten's Ceremony of Carols. At 29 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge, MA.

At 3:00 pm, the Trinity Church Choirs will present Handel's Messiah. At Trinity Church in Copley Square, 206 Clarendon St., Boston, MA.

At 3:00 pm, the Highland Glee Club will present a winter concert featuring various seasonal music. At the War Memorial Auditorium, Newton City Hall, 1000 Commonwealth Avenue, Newton.

At 3:00 pm, the Boston Camerata will present "The Brotherhood of the Star: A Hispanic Christmas 1300-1700." At First Church in Boston, 66 Marlborough St, Boston.

At 3:00 pm, the Paul Madore Chorale will present a holiday concert, joined by the choirs of Regis College and St. Anne Church. At St. Anne Church, 290 Jefferson Ave., Salem, MA.

At 3:00 pm, the Memorial Congregational Church of Sudbury presents its 35th annual Messiah Sing under the direction of Dr. Marjorie Ness. This will be at the Memorial Congregational Church, 26 Concord Rd, Sudbury, MA. More information is here.

At 3:00 pm, the Arlington-Belmont Chorale and Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra will present Handel's Messiah. At First Parish Arlington, 630 Mass Ave., Arlington, MA.

At 3:30 pm, the Assabet Valley Mastersingers present their annual Messiah sing under the direction of Dr. Robert Eaton. This will be at the Evangelical Congregational Church of Westborough, 8 Church St, Westborough, MA. More information is here.

At 4:00 pm, the student choirs at Solomon Schechter Day School will be “Celebrating Miracles” when they perform at a special concert with the Zamir Chorale of Boston. At the Solomon Schechter Day School, 125 Wells Ave, Newton, MA.

At 4:00 pm, Stämbandet will be performing the music of Christmas and the Winter Solstice in Scandinavia. At Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 24 Berwick Street, Norwood, MA.

At 4:00 pm, the Unicorn Singers and the Broad Cove Chorale will present "O Wondrous Night: The Nativity in Word and Song." This will be at First Parish Cohasset, 23 North Main St., Cohasset, MA. This concert, as well as their concert the night before, will benefit the Wellspring Multiservice Center in Hull.

At 4:00 pm, the Master Singers of Lexington will present a Mozart concert to celebrate the chorus's 40th anniversary season. This will be at First Parish Lexington, 7 Harrington Rd, Lexington (right on the town green.)

At 4:00 pm, the Braintree Choral Society will present their holiday concert, featuring selections from Mendelssohn's Saint Paul. At the Thayer Academy Performing Arts Center, 745 Washington St., Braintree, MA.

At 5:00 pm, the choirs of Old North Church will present Part I of Handel's Messiah. At Old North Church, 193 Salem St., Boston, MA.

At 7:00 pm, the Cambridge Chamber Singers will present "A Time for Peace: Music and Poetry of the Season." At St. John's Episcopal Church,74 Pleasant St., Arlington, MA.

At 7:00 pm, the Congregational Church of West Medford presents a Messiah sing-along. This will be at the Congregational Church of West Medford, UCC, 400 High St. (Rte. 60), Medford, MA. More information is here; the church's website is here.

At 7:30 pm, the Quincy Choral Society will present "Music for a Festive Season." At Sacred Heart Church, Hancock Street, N. Quincy, MA.

And finally (phew! is anybody still reading this?) on Monday, the Arlington-Belmont Chamber Chorus will present "A Not-Quite-Winter Concert" at 8:00 pm. At Payson Park Congregational, 365 Belmont St., Belmont, MA.

Messiah sings!

Here it is, the annual list of Messiah sings in the Boston area! Please leave information about any others in the comments, and as I find out about others, I will add them to the post.

Thursday, December 11 at 8:00 pm (that's either tomorrow or today, depending on when you read this), Harvard's Dunster House presents their 37th annual Messiah sing-along featuring the Mozart Society Orchestra. This will be at Dunster House Dining Hall, 8 Cowperthwaite Street, Cambridge, MA. Admission is free, and scores are provided! For more information, email dmusic@hcs.harvard.edu.

Sunday, December 14 at 2:30 pm, the Midcoast Symphony of Maine presents a Messiah sing-along. This will be at Orion Performing Arts Center, 66 Republic Ave., Topsham, ME. More information is here.

Sunday, December 14 at 3:00 pm, the Memorial Congregational Church of Sudbury presents its 35th annual Messiah Sing under the direction of Dr. Marjorie Ness. This will be at the Memorial Congregational Church, 26 Concord Rd, Sudbury, MA. More information is here.

Sunday, December 14 at 3:30 pm, the Assabet Valley Mastersingers present their annual Messiah sing under the direction of Dr. Robert Eaton. This will be at the Evangelical Congregational Church of Westborough, 8 Church St, Westborough, MA. More information is here.

Sunday, December 14 at 7:00 pm, the Congregational Church of West Medford presents a Messiah sing-along. This will be at the Congregational Church of West Medford, UCC, 400 High St. (Rte. 60), Medford, MA. More information is here; the church's website is here.

Wednesday, December 17 from 12:15 pm to 1:15 pm, the Cathedral Church of St. Paul will hold its annual Messiah Sing-Along at the Cathedral under the direction of Edward Broms. This will be at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, 138 Tremont Street, Boston, MA. More information is here.

Friday, December 19 at 7:30 pm, the Wakefield First Parish Congregational Church presents their annual Messiah sing. This will be at 1 Church St, Wakefield, MA. More information is here.

Friday, December 19 and Saturday, December 20 at 8:00 pm, Masterworks Chorale presents their annual Messiah Sings under the direction of Steven Karidoyanes. This will be at Cary Hall, 1605 Mass. Avenue, Lexington, MA. More information is here.

Sunday, December 21 at 1:30 pm, the Friends of the Performing Arts in Concord (FOPAC) present a Messiah sing under the direction of Alan Yost. This will be at 51 Walden, Concord, MA. More information is here.

Sunday, December 21 at 3:00 pm, the Nashoba Valley Chorale presents its first annual Messiah Sing under the direction of Anne Watson Born. This will be at the Congregational Church of Littleton, MA, 330 King St, Littleton, MA. More information is here.

Sunday, December 21 at 5:00 pm, the Harvard Unitarian Church (that's Harvard, MA the town, not the university) will host its 43rd annual Messiah sing under the direction of Ted Johnson. This will be at the Harvard Unitarian Universalist Church, on the common of Harvard, MA. More information and directions are here.

Sunday, December 21 at 7:30 pm, there will be a Belmont Open Sings read-through of Messiah (parts 1, 2, and bits of 3) under the direction of Mary Beekman. This will be at the Payson Park Church, 365 Belmont Street, Belmont, MA. More information is here.

And if you just want to hear the Messiah, many groups will oblige you, the most respected of which include Boston Baroque and the Handel & Haydn Society.

Monday links

Jeremy Eichler of the Boston Globe has some thoughts on "the missing maestro" of the BSO (which I mentioned previously.) He is more charitable than myself.

Also, have two funny videos!

The Muppets do Carmen.

Prop 8, The Musical! This is priceless. You must watch. And it has tons of awesome super-famous actors in it! Margaret Cho! Alison Janney! Jack Black! And my favorite, Neil Patrick Harris as "A Very Smart Fellow"!

Weekend Concert Calendar, 12/4/08

There is so much good music going on this weekend, but I am suffering from a nasty cold, and am unfortunately feeling a bit too wan to tell you about all of it. Instead, you can click here.

However, there is one EXTREMELY important concert coming up tomorrow, Friday, that you definitely must go see...and that is my quartet Anthology! Here are the details:

This Friday Anthology is presenting our first ever Christmas concert! We will be concentrating on Christmas music of America, although there will also be the occasional side trip to England, France and Spain for some familiar beloved carols, and some new gems. With Christmas music ranging from early American shape-note tunes to George Gershwin, from medieval chant to jazz standards, you won't want to miss this concert! This concert will be at 8:00 pm on Friday, Dec. 5, 2008 at First Church in Cambridge, 11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA (in the heart of Harvard Square). Admission will be $15 for adults and $5 for children.

Monday links

First of all, Anthology is performing TONIGHT at the Arlington Street Church as part of a benefit for World AIDS Day. There's a small note about it in the Boston Globe here.

We will be singing the world premiere of Heaven's Birds: Lament and Song, a new cantata by Steven Serpa written for our group and for this concert. Award-winning poet Jeffery Beam has collaborated with Serpa on the text for this cantata, expressing both words of loss and words of comfort. Also on the program is the Boston premiere of Translucence, a mesmerizing song cycle by British composer Donna McKevitt. This song cycle was hailed by The Times of London as "a new work of unpretentious honesty that captures the mood of the moment." Tickets are $20, and can be purchased at the door. All proceeds from this performance will benefit the AIDS Action Committee. The Arlington Street Church is located at 351 Boylston St, Boston, MA.

In other news, This American Life had a great show a week ago about Music Lessons! I only heard the David Sedaris segment, but it was pretty funny.

No weekend concert calendar

My apologies, but I will be taking a vacation this week from the weekend concert calendar.

If you are looking for things to do, I commend to you the following sites:

Greater Boston Choral Consortium
Boston Singer's Resource
Boston Globe Calendar
New England Early Music Calendar

Have fun digesting!

post-audition

I had an Anthology rehearsal this afternoon, during which I attached a binder clip to the bottom of my trouser leg (probably because we were talking about something and I was fiddling.) I just discovered that it was still there. Which means that it was also there during the entire more-than-an-hour audition I had down in Rhode Island for an early music choir.

I feel like every time I have made an effort, and am feeling that I am looking really sharp, I suddenly look down and discover something like this. Oh, well. The audition went really well anyway.

Monday links

Lots of composer news this week!

The world-famous conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky (what, you haven't heard of him?) backs out of four concerts he was scheduled to perform with the BSO, because he didn't like the BSO's "disrespectful" marketing. You would think that at 77 someone would have grown up already. Luckily, he created a great opportunity for assistant conductor Julian Kuerti to step in.

Seiji is back with the BSO! The Boston Globe interviews him, and some of his answers are pretty cute!

And sadly, Richard Hickox passed away.

Day in the life - Saturday and Sunday

Yesterday, Saturday, I didn't have much scheduled, which meant I said to myself, "I have to get everything done today!" Needless to say that didn't happen, but I did some laundry, cooked a batch of soup for the week, finished transcribing and posted my interview with Donald Teeters, sent some press material out for Anthology's upcoming concert, wrote a rough draft of an Anthology press release, sent some much-overdue e-mails, went to taekwondo, and worked on the Otello score. Then in the evening I went to a friend's birthday party, and once again wished that Rockband actually transcribed its vocal parts out onto a real staff. (Note to Harmonix employees: yes, yes, I understand why this is not actually tenable.)

Today I left the house at 7:30 am, rehearsed the choir and bells from 8:30 am - 10:00 am, had a worship service at my church at 10 (my bell choir performed for the second time!), drove to Boston, where I was the "CD technician" for Donald Teeters' pre-concert lecture, heard the Boston Cecilia sing Bach's Mass in B Minor at Jordan Hall, and then led a 3-hour Otello rehearsal from 7-10 pm. It was a long day!

In other news, I just found out that the Tanglewood conducting fellowship deadline was five days ago. Argh!

Interview with Donald Teeters

The Boston Cecilia is presenting Bach's B Minor Mass tomorrow, Sunday, at 3 pm at NEC's Jordan Hall. This past Tuesday, I interviewed director Donald Teeters about The Boston Cecilia, Bach's B Minor Mass, and many other things as well.

Interview conducted at All Saints Parish, 1773 Beacon St., Brookline, MA on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008 at 4:00 pm. You can download the mp3 of the interview here.

A: So where were you actually born?
D: I was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma.
A: Chickasha...?
D: Chickasha, Oklahoma. My family, my parents had moved there when they were first married, about 1920 or so, and I was the last of five children. Three boys, two girls. My father worked for the railroad. And we were a church family, everybody except my father. And I became – I guess my first exposure to music, real exposure to music, was at church.
A: What does that mean, that you all went to church, or that you were more active in some other way?
D: We all went to church except my father. We went to church, Methodist church. A lot.
A: More than once a week?
D: Oh, yes. Sometimes three times.
A: Oh, OK. All right.
D: Sometimes Sunday morning, sometimes Sunday night. Sometimes, if there was a revival meeting going on in town we would go on Wednesday nights, too. And I became fascinated with the sound – I wasn't so much taken with the religion, I was taken by the sound of the organ, the pipe organ. And when I was a little kid I joined the junior choir, and we had this wonderful woman organist, just a great lady, Ethelynn Anderson. The only person I've ever known by that name. And she just had a wonderful attitude towards kids, and I just loved singing in the choir, and I was broken-hearted when my voice broke. [laughs] And that was in the 40's, early 40's. And we had some tragedies in the family – my oldest brother was killed in the war. Early on in the war, '41, I think. He was going to be a lawyer. And then in 1948 my other brother died of polio. There was a great epidemic sweeping the country in the late 40's. We lived on a farm at the time, and my brother Bill was working in the field with a good friend who was my age, Glenn. And they were drinking out of the same canteen during the day. And a few days later Glenn came down with polio, and died within a few days, and the day of his funeral my brother got sick, and a few days after – a week or so in an iron lung, he died. So, it was a great, great, great tragedy for our family and my parents and for all of us.
A: That's so fast.
D: So, partly as a result of that, my father had an opportunity to move up in a position in the union, the railroad union, to move to Kansas City. So we went there.
A: How old were you then?
D: Oh, eleven or twelve? And I started piano lessons. But piano was always a means to get to the organ. I just had a great fascination with the sound of the organ. It was just overwhelming. Indescribably exciting, you know. And I had a good piano teacher, a really good teacher, and so I made good progress, and at about age 15 I started taking organ lessons. I got a church job, my first church job was when I was still in high school. I had a wonderful organ teacher named Edna Scott Billings, who was the organist at the Episcopal cathedral in Kansas City. And there was a conservatory, an independent conservatory in Kansas City, the Kansas City Conservatory, and I started my college work there. It's now part of the University of Missouri system, I think it's still called maybe the Kansas City Conservatory, but part of the University of Missouri system. But anyway, it was independent then, and after a couple of years, my organ teacher said, “You know, you really should go somewhere else.” And I don't think she was throwing me out of her studio, I think she was encouraging me to go someplace else.
A: Was this the same organ teacher that you had before you went to the Conservatory?
D: Yes, yes. Edna. So I looked around, and I thought about going to Eastman, and I decided on Boston because I really wanted to be in a city. And there was something mystical about the idea of Boston, I can't describe it, but just, you know, old Yankee New England, I had read about that sort of thing, and the more I read about it, the more I decided I really wanted to come here. So I applied for the New England Conservatory, and got on a train and came here. And I tell you, as though it happened yesterday, I got off the train at Copley Square, I can't remember what the name of the station was, it wasn't called Back Bay Station, where I got off, and I walked upstairs, this was late in August, with my luggage, and I looked around, and I said (to myself, not out loud) “I'm home!” You know, I just love this place right now. And it was confirmed that day when I was riding on the trolley, later the same day, and two people behind me were having a vigorous argument about the Boston Symphony. On the trolley. And I said to myself, “That doesn't happen in Kansas City.” So I really am home. And this is fifty years later, and I still feel the same thing.
A: That's great. How old were you then, when you walked off the train?
D: Oh, probably nineteen. I came in as a junior, they accepted my credits. And I came here to study with a teacher, George Faxon, who's a famous organist. The organist for Trinity Church in Boston, and had been organist in various places. Wonderful recitalist, wonderful teacher and musician. And the day I arrived at the conservatory, I went in to sign up and register for my classes, and they announced that Mr. Faxon had left the conservatory to go to BU.
A: The same day.
D: Well, it happened a few days before that, but --
A: But that was the announcement.
D: The announcement, yes, made that day. And I was really crestfallen. But there were a couple of other choices. They were bringing in another teacher from Texas, a man named Donald Willing, and there was an older man on the faculty who had been there for many years named Carl McKinley, and I decided I would rather go with him. And I finished my undergraduate work with him, he was the organist at Old South Church. And had an interesting history, he had done all of his study, or a lot of his study, in Germany, and early in his career had been in New York, and had been the pit organist in the Capital Theater when Eugene Ormandy was the conductor of the pit orchestra in the Capital Theater. Eugene Ormandy eventually became the conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. And Carl then came to Boston, and was actually primarily a conservatory history teacher, and was good – he was a good teacher. So I finished my undergraduate work with him, and then scouted around what kind of – well, I should tell you what happened. At the end of my first year here, I was sitting across the street from the conservatory having coffee in a cafeteria with one of my organ colleagues, a woman who was a graduate student. And the dean of the conservatory came over, sat down at the table, and turned to my colleague and said, “Do you have a job?” And she said, “Yes, I've just started a wonderful new job.” And so he got up from the table. And then he turned around and he said, “Well, Don, what about you? Do you have a job?” And I said, “Well, no!”
A: You had just finished your junior year?
D: I was in the end of my junior year, yes. And he said, “Well, there's a job in Wellesley. Episcopal Church,” he says, “It's my church.” His own church. And that very afternoon I went out and interviewed. I was scared to death. But also with a kind of confidence that young people have. And I interviewed the rector, and he just seemed like a father figure to me, and he hired me on the spot. This was the second-largest Episcopal church in the diocese of Massachusetts. I went in – and this was in the spring, I didn't actually start until the fall. A junior choir that had eighty or ninety kids in it. Some of whom were only four or five years younger – some of the girls were only four or five years younger than I. And a big adult choir, two big services on Sunday mornings, big, big, big job. And I was totally unqualified for it. But I just jumped in with both feet, and somehow or other – I was hired on a temporary, interim basis, and after three or four months, the rector called me into his office, and he said, “If you'd like to have this job, we'd like to have you.” So, you know, it was just a wonderful launching of that kind of career, a career in the church. So you know, since then, that was fifty years ago, and I've had two church jobs, that one and the one I'm in now.
A: How long were you in Wellesley?
D: Ten years. And it was good, because we built a new organ there, and it was – I learned quickly how to deal with kids. I could remember Ethelynn Anderson, I remember her attitude toward working with kids, and somehow or other I would just apply that, try to apply it, the same attitude towards the kids, kind of a trust that we're in this together kind of attitude, and it seemed to work. Because I was not experienced in any educational way, I didn't have any real experience in dealing with youngsters or with adults, for that matter. But it just worked out, and I don't know why, or how it worked out. Well, I know how it worked out, but I don't know why. [laugh] Anyway, it was a great ten years, and during that time --
A: So you got out of NEC and then what?
D: I investigated the possibility of going to another school to do maybe a research degree. I did some interviews, one at Harvard, one at BU. And I just – it didn't seem right, I couldn't find anything that seemed just right for me. So I started a graduate program at the conservatory in research, but I was not happy in that, either. But at that time I was studying with the organ teacher whom I had – who came to the Conservatory at the same time I did, Don Willing from Texas. And I studied with him and he was a wonderful teacher. And part of the revolutionary organ school of that late mid-twentieth century school of people who rediscovered tracker organs, and Baroque practices, and instruments that were a little more faithful to the repertoire that was played. And I studied with him for a couple of years. I met Dan Pinkham, and studied harpsichord with Dan Pinkham, and established a friendship that lasted until his death two years ago. So it was a happy experience in graduate school except for my major. So I just dropped out, I never finished the Masters degree. Along the way I got a teacher job in a school, a private girls' school, and through introductions was introduced to Alfred Nash Patterson, who conducted the Chorus Pro Musica in Boston. Which at that time was really the premiere chorus of the city.
A: What was its competition at the time?
D: Well, they sang – of course, Pro Musica sang lots of performances --
A: This was when? Fifties? Sixties?
D: This was actually 1964. But he had founded the group in 1948, I think it was. And they were --
A: Cecilia was still around?
D: Oh, Cecilia had been around for a century or so.
A: Right, but I mean, Cecilia was --?
D: But Cecilia was in dark times then. I can tell you a little bit about that history a little later on. But Patterson's chorus, the Chorus Pro Musica, was one of the main choruses that performed with the Boston Symphony. At that time also some of the school choruses performed – New England Conservatory chorus performed with the BSO, Harvard-Radcliffe chorus performed with the BSO. But I think one can say that the principal chorus that the BSO liked to use, because it was made of adults, and it was very stable in membership and quality, was the CPM. So I met Bud Patterson, he and I hit it off, and he said, “Come and be my assistant.” And later associate. So I worked with him for several years, and I had lots of chances to do conducting, and mostly played for rehearsals, played keyboard in concerts in various places.
A: When he initially asked you to come in, did he ask you just to be a keyboardist, or did he ask you to come on and be his assistant in all ways?
D: The initial invitation was to come in and be keyboardist, and then right away he gave me some conducting chores, and then I finally got the title. And I think I ended with the Associate Conductor title. My third year with him, it was announced that Thomas Dunn was going to come to Boston to really revolutionize the Handel & Haydn Society, to really turn it around and bring it into the twentieth century. Handel & Haydn Society had a rich, long history, but it had been a little indolent. Or, no, no – yes, I guess that's the word, for a number of years. Let's say it had fallen into...
A: Ruts?
D: Had gone into a rough patch. And so Tom came in, and the very day that the announcement was made, that Tom Dunn was going to be the conductor, there was going to be a press conference. I was down at the public library in Copley Square. Michael Steinberg, who was the reviewer for the Boston Globe at that time, saw me in the library, and he said, “Don, what are you doing these days?” And I said, “Well, I'm working with CPM, and I had a fellowship last summer at Tanglewood.” And he said, “Well, let me tell you,” and he told me that Tom Dunn – the announcement was going to be made shortly, and he said, “I want you to meet him.” So we went to wherever Tom was in the library, and Tom said, “Are you interested in the job with me?” And I said, “Well, of course I'd be very interested in that!” And he said, “Well, come and audition for me, we'll set it up, and see how that turns out.” So sometime later I was called in to audition for him, and he and I hit it off, and he hired me. So right away – it was just an enormous leap upward, because Tom was maybe the most formidable musician I've ever known. I think about him a lot right now, because he just died a few weeks ago. And he was a really major mentor in my life. And what he taught me was that your job as a performer is to try to reveal what the composer wrote. And to the extent that you vary from that, to the extent that you have a different ideal from that, a different concept of your role, you're wrong. And it was a very important lesson. I suppose I maybe understood it in some kind of instinctive way, perhaps, but I'd never had it quite articulated and put into practice to the extent that Tom did.
A: Did he have you conducting as well?
D: Yes.
A: Playing, or --? Same thing as CPM?
D: No, I did not do concerts – I don't think I conducted any concerts with H&H. Because it was structured differently. All their concerts were Symphony Hall concerts, or Jordan Hall concerts, and there was not a place for me. I did a lot of playing – continuo playing. Lots of rehearsal conducting, because Tom was still living in New York when he first came here. So I would take lots of – I often would take rehearsals. And I had to learn what every good assistant learns, I had to learn, in a sense, what – I had to imagine what Tom would do in every particular musical situation. Because if you're preparing a chorus for someone else, you really – it's not Don Teeters preparing for a performance, it's Don Teeters preparing for a performance by Tom Dunn. Which is also a good teaching experience, too. And that went on – the second year I worked with him, I was approached by the people – a very young group of people – from the Boston Cecilia Society. It then was called the Cecilia Society. Who somehow or other had heard of me, and approached me to see if I might be interested in taking over Cecilia. And I was at first very negative about it, because the Cecilia reputation was not good in those days. And I told them, “You know, I'm not interested in taking over a chorus that performs in church basements and suburbs all the time. If you folks are committed to wanting to get back into the center of the city, doing serious concerts with high standards, we can talk.” And they were all young people, and they were full of idealism, and full of enthusiasm about the potential. This whole group, young group in Cecilia had been brought in by my immediate predecessor, who himself was a young conductor, who was a music man at BU. And so he had kind of turned the place upside down, and auditioned out a lot of the deadwood, and had brought in these young people who were friends of his. So we had good conversations, and --
A: So he shook it up so that you could come in and --
D: Yes.
A: -- he started the transition for you.
D: He shook it up, and then I didn't have to do any of the cleaning up. So they hired me. And there we go.
A: Were any of that initial group – are any still chorus members?
D: Ah...there is one member who came in, I think, the second year I was conductor. But I still see – some of the other people who were part of that group I still see. Are still around, but not in Cecilia anymore. And so we – it was an adventure. We started off together. About that time I was invited to come and teach at the conservatory in the organ department.
A: And that was what year that Cecilia started?
D: I started with Cecilia in 1968.
A: Right, of course. Because last year...[note: was Don's 40th anniversary with Cecilia.]
D: Yes. And I started teaching at the conservatory in 1970, in the organ department. Teaching support courses. Conducting courses for students, for organists. And continuo courses, and church music courses, that sort of thing. A job that I held until they closed the department down in 2002, which I think was a terrible mistake.
A: Well, you're not alone.
D: But I'm back there now, teaching again, in the history department. And so, more and more, conducting became central to my life, and less and less a focus on organ performance.
A: How do you feel about that?
D: I'm very happy about it, because I was – truth be told, I was never a great virtuoso organist. Maybe I just didn't practice enough. But no, I love conducting, I really love conducting. It's a chance to make music without having to do any work!
A: Right, of course.
D: Which is not true, of course.
A: Right, I know.
D: I don't think I've ever worked harder than trying to conduct a great Handel oratorio, or one of the Bach Passions, or, as is happening just this week, the B Minor Mass. You might be interested in how we got interested in performing Handel, major works of Handel.
A: I was actually going to ask about that.
D: OK. When I was working with Tom Gunn, Tom had established quite a reputation in New York as a Handel specialist, particularly his performances of the Messiah. But also other works, I remember a wonderful performance of Alexander's Feast that I heard him do in New York with a professional chorus and orchestra. And so when I took over Cecilia, I began to do some Handel, to put some Handel into our programs, even in the very earliest seasons. And about 1980, the musical world was changing, the performing world was changing, particularly as it has to do with performing style of works, let's say pre-nineteenth-century performing style. There had been an early music movement afoot for quite a long time, but in the late seventies and by 1980 in Boston, at least, there were enough players around who were specializing in playing Baroque instruments, obviously copies of Baroque instruments, that one could actually put together a really first-class orchestra. And that was what I was waiting for. In the mid-seventies I was ready to go in that direction, but I didn't want to do it if it meant a sacrifice of standards and quality in performance. So around 1981, '82, we made the decision collectively in Cecilia that our pre-nineteenth-century works would be done with period instruments, if at all possible, and that has been consistently practiced, really, since then. We gave – [laughs] – we lucked in, in a sense, to what became, I'm almost certain, what was the first American performance of the St. John Passion of Bach with period instruments. And we got the first performance title, I guess you'd call it, because nobody had oboe da caccias. It's one of those weird instruments that just nobody had access to in America in those days. We found out, after we programmed the piece, that some guy in, I think, Michigan had made two of them, and a wonderful, very good old friend of mine, who's an early music instrument maker, Friedrich von Huene, a great, great master of recorder building – I went to Friedrich, I've known him for a long time, he's a member of my church, his family brought up in the church, I said to Friedrich, “What in the world does an oboe da caccia sound like?” And he says, “Well, rather like a saxophone, but out of tune.” [laughs] So we hired --
A: And that made you want to use them?
D: That made me want to use them even more! So we got these two oboe da caccias from Michigan, flew them in, and --
A: Well, that doesn't really go with the whole maintaining the standard of performance thing! How did that work out?
D: Well, Friedrich was joking.
A: OK. But how did they – I mean, it seems a little risky that the only two instruments in the entire continent would actually be decent.
D: They actually worked out, it worked out, they sounded fine, they had the proper nasal quality that I'm sure that Bach wanted. And we had good double-reed players in Boston, so they were well-played.
A: What about the brass?
D: The first pieces we did did not have any stratospheric brass parts, so no horn parts way up there, no trumpet parts up there. But there were players around even then, a few people who could handle these parts, some of the parts. And so we did the St. John Passion, and started doing Handel. You know, it's hard to put together these big Handel oratorios, because the scale is enormous. And I have established an absolutely inflexible policy about performing these pieces. I trust composers. So none of this picking and choosing movements here and movements there. Our policy about Handel, just as it is with Bach, is that you do the piece from beginning to end the way the composer intended it to be done, so far as we can figure out what the composer intended to be done.
A: But Handel changed his mind all the time.
D: Handel changed his mind all the time, but as you study Handel, you discover that Handel's first versions of most pieces, almost all of them, represent the best version. When he revived pieces, he would change things around to accommodate a different singer, or different circumstances, or who knows what other pressures, he sometimes did what seemed like pretty silly changes when he revived pieces. But his first versions are generally pretty reliable, and he was a brilliant dramatist. So if you just follow his lead, you know, he worked with good librettists for the most part. Sometimes his librettists get a bad rap. Generally, if a librettist gives him images to work with, trees, streamlets, romance, you know, all kinds of – clouds, storms, battles, love, if you give him those kind of images he writes music that's incredibly memorable and very beautiful, and perfectly apt for the context in which it's set. I discovered that very early, and so I'm just trying to be faithful to that. And I think it's paid off.
A: Would you put Messiah in that category of sticking to the original version?
D: No. There's so many different – I've only done Messiah once.
A: Do you have a preferred --?
D: Well, you know, a lot of people do the 1745 version, or the 1749 version, or, you know, this particular version that Handel did. But when Handel did any of those versions, what he was doing was adapting to the forces at hand. And so when we did it in the millenium year – first time I ever conducted it, and the first time that Cecilia in its 125 or 130 years had ever performed it, in the year 2000 – I decided, here are the singers I want to use, let's put together a version that has all the relevant continuity of Messiah, but that uses the versions that exploit these singers, to the best of their ability. And it worked wonderfully, I felt very good about it. I have no desire to perform Messiah over and over and over again, I think I would find that onerous. Maybe that's a weakness of character on my part, but I just think it would be very hard to bring any piece alive on a calendar basis, year after year after year after year. So, we've completed almost the complete cycle of the English language works. And I've had the great pleasure of teaching them. I'm now in the history department at the conservatory, alternate years teaching a Handel course, Handel's great English-language works, and in the alternate year the great choral works of Bach. Last year I taught Bach, and we only did the two Passions and the B Minor Mass, and that's a good way to fill up the whole semester. So teaching those courses has been a wonderful way helping me focus my ideas about Handel. Winton Dean, who was the great Handel scholar of the 20th century, wrote great, great analyses of Handel's works. He wrote a comparison between Bach and Handel. He said that of the two composers -- and there are great differences between them, but they're both great, great, great composers. Handel often sits in the shadow, because Bach is such a talented figure, but they were both great, but just in different ways. He said of the two composers, Bach will suffer less from a merely adequate performance, because Bach composes so fully that if you just perform the notes, everything that's there, certainly the important elements of what's there, will reveal themselves. Handel expects more of the performer. He leaves gaps, he leaves open places and his scores often just look more open. And so a bad singer singing Handel will do a lot more damage than a bad singer singing Bach.
A: Yes. Although some of the Bach arias are so hard that --
D: I said if you can sing it! An adequate performances, yes.
A: If you can sing it, yes.
D: But if you can't perform it, then, you know. But with Handel, a modestly gifted singer will not necessarily do justice to the piece, whereas a modestly gifted singer singing Bach, or a keyboardist or a violinist able to play the notes or sing the notes in tune will reveal the essential character of the work.
A: What are your favorite performances in general, of Cecilia or Handel specifically that if you – that if I ask that question, immediately spring to mind?
D: Oh, there's no question about it. Winton Dean says that of all Handel's oratorios, there are two that are totally worthless failures. He didn't say worthless – complete failures. Joseph and his Brethren and Deborah. And I read that twenty-five years ago, and I had a score of Joseph and his Brethren for twenty-some years, and every year I'd take it out and I'd look through the score, and I'd see this wonderful music, and then I'd go back and read Dean, who was so critical, and I love Dean, I'm very respectful of his evaluations, for the most part, but sometimes he was dead wrong. So in 1997, I decided, we've just got to do this. We've got to do Joseph. And it was one of the great triumphs. I was so thrilled with the result. The problem, and I think the problem with the piece in Dean's terms, was the continuity of the libretto. It's the story of Joseph and his brothers' abandonment and his rising to power in Egypt, and the story's very discontinuous in the oratorio. But Handel's audience were biblically very literate. So they could fill in those blanks. So when we perform it, we just – within the libretto we filled in the gaps in the story, so that the audience – these days, alas, audiences are not so Biblically literate --
A: Readings?
D: With just a narrative, telling what went on between this scene and that scene and the next scene. And for the audience, then, it was very user-friendly, finding the real continuity of the story. But the point of Joseph is that it's brilliant music. Just brilliant music. Wonderful music. Every note from beginning to end, and I had a wonderful cast, some of the best Handel singers in the world. Two particularly, Sharon Baker, great Handel singer, and Jeffrey Gall, a counter-tenor who was, you know, a great heroic counter-tenor for the last thirty years, who is no longer singing counter-tenor, but he's singing bass, and he has a brilliant bass voice. All of us are quite amazed and surprised at that. So he's singing in the B Minor Mass this coming weekend with us. It's amazing. He's making his Boston debut as a bass.
A: Wow, that's very exciting. And Deborah? Similar story?
D: I did Deborah...Dean was more or less right about Deborah. [laughs] But he was just dead wrong about Joseph, and that's a shame, because that oratorio has just lain fallow for a long, long time. It has been performed – a wonderful performance in England a couple of years before we did it, and then my recording of that is one that I play all the time, I just love the piece. I always use that in my Handel course to demonstrate some of the Handelian ideals. For instance, one aria...There's a big question about embellishment and cadenzas in music of that whole period. And people have written a lot, contemporaries wrote a lot about what a cadenza should consist of, mostly on one breath. Well, at the beginning of one of these arias for the soprano, there's a great introduction, an orchestral ritornello, and then the singer sings a phrase, and then launches into a cadenza that goes on for – that no one could possibly sing in one breath. It goes on for a minute or so. First of all, at the very beginning of the aria, that's not where cadenzas normally belong. Brahms did the same thing in the Second Piano Concerto. And it's written out, you know, it's written out in a style that's very elaborate, and really exploits everything that the singer can do. So it just sort of shoots down that whole argument that's been proposed so resolutely by so many people, that cadenzas should be confined and clearly contained within a rational, single-breath kind of concept. Wrong. Just wrong in that sense. And the reason he wrote it out, I think, is because English singers were not really gifted at doing cadenzas. They were not so gifted, certainly, as his Italian opera singers, who were trained to do that sort of thing from the very beginning. So it's been Handel and Bach, mainly, for my career, and I love contemporary music, we've done lots of Benjamin Britten, I adore Britten.
A: I was going to ask about that. When did that start to be a part of what Cecilia does? I mean, now it's sort of very...
D: My very first concert with Cecilia, we did the Hymn to St. Cecilia of Britten. And we did the Stravinsky mass. And we did another piece that I've tried to forget, but I won't even mention that. [laughs] Another contemporary piece. And Britten has been a consistent factor in our programming ever since. I'm so envious of Cantata Singers this year doing a whole season of Britten in every concert. I'd love to do that sort of thing myself. And there's hardly any piece of Britten that I wouldn't want to perform. I've seen the operas, and I've seen them in various places in the world. I saw Peter Grimes in Budapest sung in Hungarian, and Turn of the Screw in...where was it? I think in Prague. And you know, no matter where people are singing or what language they're singing in, his operas, if you know them, reveal wonderful qualities.
A: So when did you start doing other contemporary music besides Britten? Because now it's become – I mean, the two years I was here, there were contemporary concerts both years.
D: Yes, well, Britten is not even contemporary anymore. He's a standard composer. I've just always been interested in – I think it's part of a performer's responsibility to perform music of their own time. We've done important performances of a lot of pieces. We've had a very good relationship with Scott Wheeler, who is, I just think, one of the most brilliant of the young generation of composers. We recorded his one-act opera The Construction of Boston a year or so ago, and I just heard yesterday that it's got through the first cut of the Grammys. So it's now – I just spilled wine all over myself. It's all right.
A: I'll get a towel. It was just that exciting!
D: It's just made the first cut, and now it just needs a nomination, that's all. But it wasn't eliminated in that first cut. So that's good news. We've done other pieces, we've commissioned pieces from Scott. We've done lots of music of Dan Pinkham. Dan Pinkham was a good friend of mine, as I've told you, he was my first harpsichord teacher. And he was a very, very good supporter of me throughout my career, and of Cecilia, he's written several pieces for Cecilia. James Woodman is also a good friend, we've premiered pieces of his. And others.
A: I'm going to slide back to the conducting. How did you – did you study conducting at any point, or did you purely learn by doing, and if you learned by doing, how did you then develop a method of teaching other people how to conduct?
D: Well, I wish I could answer that. [laughs] I did study one year, I did study orchestral conducting at the conservatory with Frederik Prausnitz, who was at that point the conservatory orchestra conductor. I've never studied choral conducting. And I count that a blessing. My experience is that choral conductors learn lots of tricks, lots of devices, let's call them, for affecting certain – creating certain effects with a chorus. But often the techniques that they use are not transferable to other contexts, to an instrumental context. And I believe that conducting should be a unified art. In fact, I believe schools should not offer separate choral conducting/orchestral conducting majors, I think that if you're going to be a conductor, you should be equally equipped in both.
A: Do you think rehearsing should be a unified art?
D: Sure, why not? Why not? Because if you learn how to deal with instruments, and you at the same time learn how to deal with voices, then you learn how to apply vocal qualities to instrumental playing, and you learn how to apply instrumental techinque and discipline to singing. Because the two are very much interrelated, it seems to me. Instrumentalists do not use words, and vocalists have to perform according to what the breath can accommodate, and what they can do in terms of articulating words, and both of those qualities can be transferred, it seems to me, should be transferred from one to the other. Instrumentalists should learn how to phrase as singers phrase, should learn how to give the sense of breath to their music. Singers should learn how to observe the proprieties of precision, which sometimes do get sacrificed. Not always, of course, and there are always exceptions, and there are wonderful choral conductors, and there are wonderful instrumental conductors who don't know a thing about choral conducting. But I think that's a shame. I think if you have the skill to lead people in musical pursuits, it should be a skill that allows you to work with both with equal facility. Conductors who are lucky are the ones who come up through the opera house, because they do learn how to work with solo singers and with choruses at the same time they're learning how to work with orchestras. I don't know, it's not a hard and fast rule, but I just think that I would like to see choral conductors beating four in a definable pattern, and then teaching their singers how to respond to four rather than giving all kinds of finger gestures and lifts of the elbow, and --
A: Although it is very arguable that there are many orchestral conductors who --
D: Who do exactly the same thing.
A: -- you can't identify a pattern to save your life, so...
D: Well, that's true, too. Touché.
A: So when you teach, what do you – what's one of the first things you do in a first semester course, what are the basics that you want somebody to come away with? Pattern?
D: When I've taught choral conducting, I've spent one semester on stand-up conducting, according to traditional conducting techniques. Patterns, using patterns in ways that anybody could interpret, any musician who can follow a conductor can follow. I think that beats should generally draw back to the center of the body, that the point of most beats should be at the center of the body. And so even though you go way far afield in gesture, that you come back to give the ictus or tactus, you know, close to the center of the body.
A: And where on the up-and-down line?
D: Well, it can be various places, but close to the body. Because it depends somewhat on visual aspects, you know, because somebody's way off in the distance you're trying to give a cue to. And then the second semester – well, I was primarily teaching conducting from the keyboard. So I spent one semester teaching stand-up conducting techniques, thinking in terms of singing, and then second semester I took people at the keyboard, and tried to translate that concept to the keyboard. And I don't think anybody else was teaching that course anywhere in the world. But I was doing it for twenty or so years at the conservatory. But you know, you learn how to use the head in that case. Which is a perfectly – you can do – as a stand-up conductor you can use the head in a way to show pulse without using a whole lot of energy. I try to keep most conducting close to the body, I try to tell students if you conduct a Matthew Passion with the arm-waving you're doing, your arm is going to fall off by the time you get halfway through the second part. You have to learn how to conduct so that you use the gestures you need, but don't have to carry the weight of the arm all the time, extended from the body. I'm probably not explaining that very well, but it's a technique that one has to practice and practice and practice to learn, so that you use gesture, and the gestures you need, but you use it in ways that don't keep your arms always high and always extended. Unless you're incredibly strong.
A: Are there conductors that you like?
D: Tons of them.
A: Reel off a few names.
D: Well...
A: Start with orchestral conductors.
D: I'm absolutely infatuated with James Levine. I just – what he can do with – talk about minimal gestures. He just sits there, and you can hardly see what his hand is doing, but it communicates vast amounts of information. And I think that's what I'm talking about, the economy of conducting.
A: Kleiber, then?
D: Hm?
A: Kleiber? Carlos?
D: I don't know, I've never seen him conduct. I've heard recordings, but I've never seen him conduct. So I'm trying to make it both visual and aural. I thought Ozawa was a wonderful communicator of what he wanted. My favorite BSO conductor – well, not my favorite – when I was young, Charles Munch was the conductor of the BSO, and I loved the exhuberance and the passion he brought to music. I was still very young then, and I went to the symphony every Saturday night for 24 concerts for $48. That was a long time ago. And sometimes those concerts would be so exciting you would just want to leap off the balcony, because he just sort of could unleash himself, and in the process of doing that unleash the orchestra to do really extraordinary things. The trade-off for that is that sometimes if he was a little bored, that boredom could translate to the players and to the audience. But the exciting times were as exciting as any music-making I'd ever heard. So, I'm trying to think...I was not a great enthusiast for Bernstein.
A: I was going to ask about him, and I thought you might not be.
D: Yes. His gestures seemed so over-the-top, so --
A: He also doesn't seem to adhere to the do-what-the-composer-wants-all-the-time rule.
D: Well, yes, that's true, too. But I always felt that he was doing more than was necessary to get the effect that he was seeking, simply wanting to get. Who am I to criticize anybody, though? People who justified themselves by making a great career as conductors.
A: I only have a little bit of time and I want to make sure we talk about B Minor, so tell me what's going to happen on Sunday, and who's singing.
D: Well, we call it the B flat minor Mass.
A: And have you done it before?
D: I've done it at least three times, 1983, 1990, and now.
A: And only with Cecilia?
D: I've only done it with Cecilia. It's a wonderful chance to revisit in my maturity a piece that I, of course, have loved all my life. And I'm beginning to think I understand what it's all about. And I'm blessed to have a wonderful cast of soloists involved, the chorus is singing splendidly, we have great players who, you know – some of the best instrumentalists in the world live right here in Boston.
A: Period orchestra for this?
D: Yes. In a wonderful hall for it, Jordan Hall is a great place to perform the piece. And I've been experimenting with tempi a lot, and having just taught the piece last year, I've got some new ideas about tempi and about pacing, about how to tie movements together. I think a lot of conductors don't – the B Minor Mass was never intended, as far as I can tell, ever to have been part of an official church liturgy. It's kind of an idealized mass. It was the last piece Bach wrote, it was in the last year of his life. And it's put together from materials from his whole life, adapted to new purposes, adapted to new text, slightly recomposed, in some cases substantially recomposed, to be put together, to form all the movements of a classic Roman mass. It's a Latin mass written by a German Lutheran, and it is indescribable in terms of its power and its effect on everybody who listens to it seriously, and everyone who performs it. If I have time, I'll tell you one little thing I did in my class last year. We had been demonstrating elements of the mass using very modern performances. There's a wonderful Japanese recording by a man named Suzuki who's made just a great specialty of Bach works, and he does wonderful performances of Bach, and a wonderful recording of the B Minor Mass. And Andrew Parrott has a recording, and other people have had recent recordings – we used those to demonstrate. Late in the course, I decided that I had been kind of prejudicing these kids towards the kind of style that's in fashion right now, when in fact Bach has been performed consistently since the early nineteenth century, early to mid-nineteenth century. And that the style has radically changed. So one day in class I brought forth a recording by Eugen Jockhum, the great European conductor, a recording, I think, from the 1960's, early 1960's or late 50's. And I said, “Now, I'm not playing this recording for you, this movement for you to giggle about, because it's so old-fashioned. I'm playing it for you so you understand how beautiful and how impressive, how magnificent, Bach can seem, can be, even in a style that's different from the direction that we go, mostly go in these days.” I can't remember what movement I played, but it was ravishing in its beauty and its power. And the point being that every generation has to rediscover Bach on their own terms. Who knows what the style will be 25 years from now, I don't have a clue. But I know what it was 50 years ago, and I know that the best performances then will always be wonderful performances, as are the best performances now. Built, constructed, and performed according to an entirely different concept of how the piece is – we think we've got all wisdom, but nobody does. Nobody was there. And in fact, Bach never performed the piece, so.
A: Well, I want to wrap up by – have you ever seen the TV show on Bravo “Inside the Actor's Studio?”
D: Yes, I have.
A: So are you familiar with the questionnaire that comes at the end?
D: Oh, I've forgotten.
A: OK, well, unfortunately I forgot to bring it with me. But I'm going to ask you from those ten questions as I remember. And I'm going to throw in a few of my own.
D: OK.
A: What is your favorite word?
D: Peace.
A: What is your least favorite word?
D: War.
A: What is your favorite sound? Non-musical sound.
D: Breeze, a gentle breeze. In the trees.
A: What's your least favorite, in quotes, not musical sound?
D: Fingernail on a blackboard.
A: What's your favorite word? Oh, no, wait, I already said that.
D: No you didn't.
A: No, I said word, and you said peace.
D: Oh, OK. I've got another favorite word, though.
A: Oh, what's your other favorite word?
D: Cucumber.
A: Oh, that's a good one.
D: There was a movie years ago, a Disney movie, and I can't remember the name of the actress – Estelle Winwood. She said the word – when asked the question – she said, in an English accent, “Cyoo-cum-bah.” And I've always thought, that really is a beautiful word.
A: What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
D: Oh, I'd like to drive trains.
A: What profession other than your own would you not like to attempt?
D: I think anything involving physical labor, outdoor labor.
A: Name a favorite composer.
D: Handel.
A: Name a not-so-favorite composer.
D: Oh, that's not fair.
A: I know. But that's what makes drama. Is dirt.
D: I know, I know. Oh, oh, oh.
A: They can be dead, it's OK!
D: I was thinking of someone who's alive, but I don't want to say that name. I think Gounod.
A: Interesting.
D: And I don't actually really mean that, because there's some Gounod I really like.
A: But as a body of work.
D: As a body of work.
A: What's your favorite curse word?
D: Curse word? Can I say it?
A: Yes!
D: OK, fuck.
A: Great. I know there's two other questions in the questionnaire, but I'm not remembering what they are. So the last one is, if heaven exists, what do you want to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
D: Welcome home. Or, what music would you like to hear when you get here?
A: Or who would you like to meet?
D: Or even better, what music would you like to conduct when you get here?

[End of interview]

Day in the life - Friday

Fridays tend to be pretty light. I slept in (after discovering I had no clean TKD uniforms and therefore couldn't go to TKD) and then watched the movie Juno. Then I practiced for Anthology for a bit, before heading off to a vocal coaching session for Anthology. I had never worked with a vocal coach before, so it was very interesting. And the evening was entirely taken up with transcribing the interview with Donald Teeters that I did last Tuesday, and which I still haven't quite finished, but which will go up tomorrow!

Day in the life - Thursday

8:30 am - left house
9:30 am - arrived at Mission Hill School - taught K-5 until 3:00 pm
sometime between 4 and 5 pm - arrived at Cohasset - took a nap*, spent one hour doing Weekend Concert Calendar, spent rest of time filing music and preparing for rehearsal
8:00 pm - 9:30 pm - Cohasset Church Choir rehearsal

I let them go 10 min. early today, so I got home at 10:30 pm, which is earlier than usual for a Thursday night - usually it's closer to 11 pm.

*Although I am fond of naps, this particular week might lead one to believe I take more of them than I actually do. I'm getting over a cold, and also it just became majorly cold here in NE, both of which lead me to sleep more than normal.

Weekend Concert Calendar, 11/20/08

Here it is, your moment of Zen Weekend Concert Calendar!

A preliminary note that the BIG ONE this weekend, in my opinion, is the Boston Cecilia's performance of Bach's Mass in B minor. I will be posting an interview with the conductor, Donald Teeters, sometime in the early part of the weekend, so keep your eyes peeled!

Friday:

At 7:30 pm, Sine Nomine will present "A Pilgrim's Solace" - music from the 16th and early 17th centuries including music by Dowland, Bennet, Bartlet, Gibbons, and King Henry VIII. At St. Mary's Cathedral, 327 Second Street, Fall River, MA.

At 8:00 pm, vocal ensemble Tapestry will present "Faces of a Woman" - music by, about and for women. At the Congregational Church of Weston, 130 Newton St., Weston, MA.

At 8:00 pm, the Tufts Third Day Gospel Choir will present traditional and contemporary Gospel music. At the Cohen Auditorium at Tufts University, 40 Talbot Ave., Medford, MA.

Saturday:

At 7:30 pm, Sine Nomine will again present "A Pilgrim's Solace" - music from the 16th and early 17th centuries including music by Dowland, Bennet, Bartlet, Gibbons, and King Henry VIII. This time it will be at the Music Mansion, 88 Meeting Street, Providence RI.

At 8:00 pm, Tuvan group Huun Huur Tu will be at the Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville, MA. If you've heard people joke about someone singing two notes at one time, this is the concert to go to if you want to hear musicians actually do it! I have been to see them and they are great - they put on a really interesting show. Presented by World Music/CRASHarts.

At 8:00 pm, the Boston Conservatory Chorale and Women's Chorus will present Mozart's Mass in C minor, K. 427, as well as Faure's Messe des pecheurs de Villerville and Poulenc's Litanies a la Vierge Noir. At MIT's Kresge Auditorium, Cambridge, MA. This one is free!

At 8:00 pm, the Brookline Chorus will present works by Charpentier and Schütz. This will be at All Saints Parish, 1773 Beacon St., Brookline, MA.

At 8:00 pm, the Spectrum Singers will present "A Christmas Prelude," which will include works by Britten, Dello Joio, Pinkham, Howells, and Finzi, as well as seasonal carols. At First Church Congregational, 11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA.

At 8:00 pm, the Newton Choral Society will present an all-Bach concert. At Our Lady Help of Christians Church, 573 Washington St., Newton, MA.

At 8:00 pm, vocal ensemble Tapestry will present "Faces of a Woman" - music by, about and for women. This time they will be at the Salem Athenaeum, 337 Essex. St., Salem, MA.

Sunday:

At 3:00 pm, the Boston Cecilia will present Bach's Mass in B minor with period orchestra. Don't miss this one, folks! At NEC's Jordan Hall, 290 Gainsborough St, Boston, MA. Soloists are Jessica Cooper, Krista River, Martin Near, and Jeffrey Gall. There will be a pre-concert lecture by conductor Donald Teeters at 1:30 pm.

At 3:00 pm, the Soweto Gospel Choir will be at Symphony Hall with a program called "African Spirit." At Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA. Presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston.

At 3:00 pm, the Cantata Singers will present "Songs and vocal chamber music by Britten." At the Longy School of Music, 7 Garden St., Cambridge, MA.

At 3:00 pm, the Sounds of Stow Festival Orchestra and Chorus will present Romantic British composer Ethel Smyth's Mass in D. At Hale Middle School, Hartley Road @ JCT of Rt. 117/62 (behind the firehouse), in Stow Center.

At 3:00 pm, the Paul Madore Chorale will present Gounod's Mess Solennelle St. Cecilia and Part I of Handel's Messiah. At the St.Thomas Aquinas Church, Nahant, MA.

At 4:00 pm, the Heritage Chorale, under the direction of John Finney, will present "American Choral Song From Coast To Coast," which will include works by Lauridsen and Thompson. At the Performing Arts Center at St. Mark's School, 25 Marlborough Road, Southborough.

Also at 4:00 pm, the Fine Arts Chorale will present "We the people," which will include works by Barber, Bernstein, Copland, Hanson and Thompson. At the Old South Congregational Church, South Weymouth.


And a final note that on Monday, Tapestry will be repeating their "Faces of a Woman" program, so if you missed it on Friday in Weston or Saturday in Salem, you can see it on Monday evening at 7:30 pm at Christ Church Cambridge, 0 Garden St., Cambridge, MA.

Day in the life - Wednesday

8:15 am - left house
9 am - dropped off car for check-up at mechanic
10 am - TKD
12 pm - doctor's appt
2 pm - picked up car
3 pm - got home again
3-6 pm - checked e-mail, practiced piano, prepared lesson plans, took short nap, ate dinner
6 pm - left house
7-10 pm - accompanied a Pirates of Penzance rehearsal at MIT (go see the show!)
10:30 pm - got home, did dishes, going to bed now!

Day in the life - Tuesday

10-11 am - taught an elderly women's singing class (not sure how to say it elegantly, but that's what it is!) at the East Boston YMCA
Afternoon - got home later than usual owing to experimenting with finding a way out of East Boston that didn't involve a toll. Pyrrhic victory accomplished - got home at 1 pm (left Y at 11:30.) Ate lunch, took a half-hour nap, did some (not enough) e-mail work, practiced piano, prepared (not enough) for rehearsal, left house at 3:15.
4-5:30 pm - interviewed Donald Teeters for my "Interviews with Boston Conductors" series (look for the interview on Friday or Saturday)
6-9 pm - rehearsed with Anthology at Longy
10 pm - got home, ate the half of dinner that I hadn't eaten in Anthology rehearsal, did dishes, checked e-mail, blogged, and will now to bed (after first reading some Sherlock Holmes.)

Day in the life - Monday

I had the idea of taking a week and posting every day about what I do, as a way of explaining what all the various things are that I am doing. And then I kept waiting for the perfect week that would show off how excellent and busy I am. But, heck with it - that week will probably never come, so I'm going to do it this week!

Monday:

morning: taekwondo
afternoon: mostly free - tackle e-mail, practice piano, work on Otello score, run errands, do a bit of bumming around (watched Obamas on "60 Minutes"), worked on pile of employee paperwork for YMCA
evening: conduct Boston Accueil French Chorale rehearsal

I am subbing as the conductor of this chorale this fall. The regular conductor had a baby, so I have been filling in. Tonight's rehearsal is actually the last one I will cover, and I will be teaching it in tandem with the regular conductor, as a way of "passing the baton." (Ha!) Most of the members are from France, and regularly chatter away to each other in French - unfortunately my French hasn't quite improved as much as I hoped it would!

Concert Report - Boston Secession

A quick entry to say that I saw the Boston Secession perform last Saturday. They sang Bach's Lobet den Herrn, Brahms' O Heiland, reiss die Himmel auf, and Schnittke's Requiem. The Bach was good and the Brahms was great, but the Schnittke was out of this world. If you are not familiar with that piece, I highly recommend getting a recording (and preferably listening to it lying on your bed in the dark, which is how I first listened to it, and which is well worth doing.) Anyways, it was my first Boston Secession concert (I know, I know, but they kept scheduling concerts when I had other concerts) and it was great.

My one quibble shall take the form of a public service announcement. Dear conductors, please don't read your program notes for 15 min. at the beginning of the concert unless you have specifically advertised the concert as a concert plus lecture. Your audience's eyes will unfocus, and we will all assume the only reason you are doing this is that you didn't get your program notes in by the deadline and the program went to the printer without them. (Regardless of whether or not this is true.) We don't mind that the first half is short when it features such an exquisite choir as yours. And after we have been subjected to 10 min. of talk already from your staff about fund-raising, it's too much. We want the singing!