Whoops, I forgot to post the concert calendar yesterday! Here it is, a day late. Let's see...
Oh, wait, I can't find any choral concerts in the Boston area.
Nor any summer sings, which are now all over.
All I got is that if you go up to the Great Waters festival in Wolfboro, NH, you can hear the Blind Boys of Alabama tonight.
But next week we will be in September! And at last, the summer drought of choral concerts will end. Don't forget to audition for a chorus yourself - time is running out!
Friday, August 29, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Auditions!
It's that time of year again! All the choruses in Boston are starting their seasons, and that means they're all auditioning! If you want to sing in a chorus, now is the time to take action.
There is one central go-to location for choral audition information in Boston. Go to the Greater Boston Choral Consortium website - their audition page has an enormous list of choruses that are auditioning in the next few weeks. They also have a list of choruses that are non-auditioned, and looking for new members. It is standard practice that for a non-auditioned chorus, you can go and sit in on one of the first rehearsals to try out the chorus and see if you like it, so if you are interested in one of the non-auditioned choruses, contact them and ask if you can do this.
I'm going to highlight just two upcoming auditions:
The Boston Cecilia - auditions for all parts held on August 28, September 6, 7, and 14. Auditions are by appointment only, meaning you have to sign up ahead of time. To do so, contact Erin Huelskamp at erin@bostoncecilia.org or 617.232.4540. Keep in mind that the Boston Cecilia is pretty good, so if you haven't sung for 10 years and/or never learned to sight-read, this is not the chorus for you. But they are doing the Bach Mass in B Minor this year, so it's a fantastic year to join!
The Back Bay Chorale for some reason isn't listed on the Boston Choral Consortium website, but they are having auditions. Auditions for all parts held on Sept. 3 and Sept. 10. These auditions are open - you don't have to sign up ahead of time. If you can't make either date, you can e-mail info@bbcboston.org to set up an appointment.
If you want me to advertise your choral auditions here, just write and let me know, and I will make a blog post just for you.
There is one central go-to location for choral audition information in Boston. Go to the Greater Boston Choral Consortium website - their audition page has an enormous list of choruses that are auditioning in the next few weeks. They also have a list of choruses that are non-auditioned, and looking for new members. It is standard practice that for a non-auditioned chorus, you can go and sit in on one of the first rehearsals to try out the chorus and see if you like it, so if you are interested in one of the non-auditioned choruses, contact them and ask if you can do this.
I'm going to highlight just two upcoming auditions:
The Boston Cecilia - auditions for all parts held on August 28, September 6, 7, and 14. Auditions are by appointment only, meaning you have to sign up ahead of time. To do so, contact Erin Huelskamp at erin@bostoncecilia.org or 617.232.4540. Keep in mind that the Boston Cecilia is pretty good, so if you haven't sung for 10 years and/or never learned to sight-read, this is not the chorus for you. But they are doing the Bach Mass in B Minor this year, so it's a fantastic year to join!
The Back Bay Chorale for some reason isn't listed on the Boston Choral Consortium website, but they are having auditions. Auditions for all parts held on Sept. 3 and Sept. 10. These auditions are open - you don't have to sign up ahead of time. If you can't make either date, you can e-mail info@bbcboston.org to set up an appointment.
If you want me to advertise your choral auditions here, just write and let me know, and I will make a blog post just for you.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Need a brass player?
I completely forgot the most important thing I was supposed to mention in the last entry!
My father plays trumpet, french horn, cornet, and a few other brass instruments I'm forgetting. If you are in Austin, TX and need a really good horn player, he is looking for people to play with! He's interested in both ensemble and solo work. He is extremely good, and in great demand around Christmas and Easter. So if any orchestras or wind ensembles or bands in Austin read this, and are looking for a great brass player, let me know and I will put you in touch with him!
My father plays trumpet, french horn, cornet, and a few other brass instruments I'm forgetting. If you are in Austin, TX and need a really good horn player, he is looking for people to play with! He's interested in both ensemble and solo work. He is extremely good, and in great demand around Christmas and Easter. So if any orchestras or wind ensembles or bands in Austin read this, and are looking for a great brass player, let me know and I will put you in touch with him!
Life Update and Monday Link
So, I've gotten a few comments lately about my slack-happy posting habits over the summer. Fear not! As of now, you will be returned to your usual Monday link posts, Thursday concert posts, and various and sundry other posts -- I am hoping to write some more actual essays soon.
It's been somewhat of a crazy summer. My father retired as director of the Harvard Law School library this spring. No sooner did he announce his retirement than the University of Texas at Austin called up - their long-time director of the law library at UT Austin passed away suddenly, and they needed an interim director. So my parents decided to move to Austin for a year, and asked me to house-sit for them. Much of the summer was spent packing and moving, and the process of unpacking has really barely begun - most of my belongings are still in my parents' garage. (Did you know that one month is more than enough time for enterprising spiders to lay eggs on the shelves of any bookcases you might keep stored in a basement? Yeah.)
In addition, my part-time job turned into a full-time job. I told Harvard (where I also have been working for the past six months) that I couldn't try to build a music career and direct a church music program while also holding down a full-time non-musical job, so my last day of work was last Friday. So in addition to moving, I am also in the middle of a job-hunt.
Because I have a year of rent-free living, and thus am slightly less economically stressed, I've decided that I want to make my living solely as a musician this year.
Which brings us to today's link! Namely, my resume!
I am interested in the following:
It's been somewhat of a crazy summer. My father retired as director of the Harvard Law School library this spring. No sooner did he announce his retirement than the University of Texas at Austin called up - their long-time director of the law library at UT Austin passed away suddenly, and they needed an interim director. So my parents decided to move to Austin for a year, and asked me to house-sit for them. Much of the summer was spent packing and moving, and the process of unpacking has really barely begun - most of my belongings are still in my parents' garage. (Did you know that one month is more than enough time for enterprising spiders to lay eggs on the shelves of any bookcases you might keep stored in a basement? Yeah.)
In addition, my part-time job turned into a full-time job. I told Harvard (where I also have been working for the past six months) that I couldn't try to build a music career and direct a church music program while also holding down a full-time non-musical job, so my last day of work was last Friday. So in addition to moving, I am also in the middle of a job-hunt.
Because I have a year of rent-free living, and thus am slightly less economically stressed, I've decided that I want to make my living solely as a musician this year.
Which brings us to today's link! Namely, my resume!
I am interested in the following:
- Conducting! (I will conduct anybody, any ensemble, you name it!)
- Teaching music classes, especially middle school or high school chorus
- Teaching voice lessons
- Teaching conducting lessons
- Tutoring people in theory, sight-singing, or other musical areas they need help with
- Accompanying, especially voice students or choirs and choruses
- Professional singing gigs, especially for Anthology, my professional vocal quartet
Monday, August 18, 2008
Monday link
I just got an e-mail from one Josh Nannestad, who has started a blog on Handel's Messiah. He will be performing the entire oratorio with his church choir throughout the liturgical year.
This is incentive to clean up a paper I wrote at Westminster called "Choose Your Own Messiah." I structured the paper like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, and walked the reader through the various different "editions" of the Messiah that Handel conducted over his lifetime (he conducted it about once a year after he wrote it, and he changed something every time - reassigned solos, re-wrote things, left out movements, etc.) And, of course, if you made the wrong choice of how to use your time-traveler musicologist knowledge, you ended up dead.
So, your Monday link is his blog! Go over to his blog and tell him what your favorite recording is, and what score to use.
This is incentive to clean up a paper I wrote at Westminster called "Choose Your Own Messiah." I structured the paper like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, and walked the reader through the various different "editions" of the Messiah that Handel conducted over his lifetime (he conducted it about once a year after he wrote it, and he changed something every time - reassigned solos, re-wrote things, left out movements, etc.) And, of course, if you made the wrong choice of how to use your time-traveler musicologist knowledge, you ended up dead.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Con report - UUMN 2008
So, I am back from the Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network Conference of 2008!
Well, not really "back", since I didn't have to go anywhere - it was in Boston. But since it was an all-consuming affair, I feel like I got home yesterday, in a way.
It was very excellent. The conference was Tuesday evening through Sunday morning. Tuesday evening I was singing in a concert with my good friend and organist Josh Lawton, so I didn't get to the conference until Wednesday morning. The general schedule of Wed. through Fri. was as follows:
8:30 - morning service
9:00 - Either the General Meeting (Wednesday) or a speaker
10:30 - Rehearsal with Nick Page
12:00 - Lunch
1:00 - Repertoire reading sessions
2:15 - 3:30 and 3:45 - 5:00 - Workshops
5:15 - hour-long pre-dinner concert
(dinner)
8:00 - some special event (I only went to the Wednesday night one)
The events that were plenary sessions were uniformly excellent.
The speaker on Thursday morning was Josh Jacobson, director of the Zamir Chorale, who led us through a repertoire reading session of Jewish music, combined with a bit of history of Jewish music. The speaker on Friday morning was the Rev. Burns Stanfield from Fourth Presbyterian Church South Boston, who talked about music in worship services, basically, which sounds broad, but which was both very inspirational and specifically helpful. They were both really fabulous. The other speaker was Sam Martinborough, who gave a great presentation on cultural appropriation on Wednesday night. He is incredibly dynamic, and it was a perfect topic for a group of UU musicians. And Nick Page rehearsed us every day in preparation for the service on Sunday. He's somewhat of a legend around Boston, and he quite lived up to his reputation. And all these fabulous people are right here in Boston!
The other thing we all did together was the repertoire reading sessions, which were of course wonderful - sight-reading lots of music, and being given the octavos for everything! Free music! (Well, not exactly, considering the cost of the conference, but...) The workshop sessions, though, were much more uneven. Half were fabulous, and half were...well, pretty bad. I loved the session where I learned to play harmonica in an hour, and I also loved the handbells sessions, which gave me great ideas on how to start a handbell choir at my church. (We already have a full set, so this is one of my major goals for the upcoming year.) But some of the other sessions I went to were a complete waste of my time. The silver lining is that I am utterly determined to go present a workshop myself at next year's conference, because if you want something done right, you might as well do it yourself, right? I think I'm going to do one on "Internet Resources for Choral Musicians" because I heard a lot of people asking, "What's the CPDL?" and that's just wrong!
I also saw some people there that I already knew, which was comforting, because I didn't think I would know anybody, and I got to meet a couple of fabulous new people as well. I'm really glad I went to this conference - I came away with lots of valuable new ideas for music and repertoire and all kinds of things. And I'm already looking forward to visiting Portland during next year's conference!
The one thing that cast a shadow over the proceedings, of course, was Knoxville.
For those of you who don't know, two weeks ago a gunman opened fire at the Tennessee Valley UU Congregation during a children's musical performance of "Annie Jr." He killed two people and wounded seven others. He indicated that he attacked the UU church because of their liberal views and because they supported gays and lesbians. If you google "Knoxville UU" you will come up with more news stories than you need.
This event was in our minds, of course, during the course of the week. It particularly hit me during the first afternoon concert. Various musicians signed up to perform a piece, and the last piece on the first concert was a gay couple, both rather fine tenors, performing "Come What May" from the movie Moulin Rouge. I thought it might run the risk of being cheesy when I saw it on the program, but the performers hit just the right note, in all ways, and it was really moving. But during that piece, while I was looking up at them singing in the balcony to each other about their love, I couldn't help imagining someone coming in and shooting them mid-song. It was a terrible thought, but that's one of the effects of terrorism.
The service on Sunday was also very moving. There was a very emotional piece of music during the prayer, which started me on the road to tears. And the minister, the president of the UUA, Rev. Bill Sinkford, talked about Knoxville in his sermon. But the most difficult part for me was that right after the sermon, we sang a song called "We Are Free." It was written by a man from South Africa, and the words are "We are free, we are free, let us celebrate." To be listening to someone talk about the Knoxville shooting, and how someone had tried to attack our beliefs, and then hear about how the congregation of Knoxville responded by saying, "We will not change our beliefs - we stand on the side of love" and then sing this song, well, it was really, really hard to sing; I just wanted to sob. And if you are familiar with South African hymns, you may know that they are incredibly joyful, but with this deep heart-breaking undercurrent somewhere; it's a very eyes-wide-open sort of joy. I have never really understood it, because the harmonies are always just a few major chords, and trying to analyze or dissect them yields no insights. But because of what South African hymns carry inside them, it is just unbelievable to sing that music after you have been attacked. I can only imagine what it would be like to sing that music when you are being attacked every day, as the black South Africans were.
It was a great conference, and a great experience, although it sort of wrung me out. (Did I mention that at the end of this emotionally exhausting service, I had a small solo? Last solo in the postlude. I got through it fine, but it was tough to pull it together!) Clearly, I hope that next year's conference will not be so emotional, but I expect it will be just as educational, and I'm looking forward to it.
In conclusion, since it's Monday, and that means it's time for Monday Links, here are some well-written pieces online about the Knoxville shooting.
The UUA (Unitarian Universalist Association) statement is here. There was an ad in the New York Times yesterday also taken out by the UUA with a longer statement, but at the moment I can't find it online.
RJ Eskow writes on the Huffington Post has a great post about who should bear responsibility - apparently the shooter had many books from people like Pat Robertson who spread hate speech.
PeaceBang, a UU minister and blogger that I follow regularly, has an angry post on gun control in the wake of the shooting. She also posted a lovely sermon a few days later, which while not directly about the shooting, does reference them. (I didn't know that "Israel" means "One who wrestles with God." Amazing. Incidentally, I have always loved the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel, and it might have something to do with the fact that I'm a UU.)
And finally, you can donate here to the Knoxville Relief Fund.
Well, not really "back", since I didn't have to go anywhere - it was in Boston. But since it was an all-consuming affair, I feel like I got home yesterday, in a way.
It was very excellent. The conference was Tuesday evening through Sunday morning. Tuesday evening I was singing in a concert with my good friend and organist Josh Lawton, so I didn't get to the conference until Wednesday morning. The general schedule of Wed. through Fri. was as follows:
8:30 - morning service
9:00 - Either the General Meeting (Wednesday) or a speaker
10:30 - Rehearsal with Nick Page
12:00 - Lunch
1:00 - Repertoire reading sessions
2:15 - 3:30 and 3:45 - 5:00 - Workshops
5:15 - hour-long pre-dinner concert
(dinner)
8:00 - some special event (I only went to the Wednesday night one)
The events that were plenary sessions were uniformly excellent.
The speaker on Thursday morning was Josh Jacobson, director of the Zamir Chorale, who led us through a repertoire reading session of Jewish music, combined with a bit of history of Jewish music. The speaker on Friday morning was the Rev. Burns Stanfield from Fourth Presbyterian Church South Boston, who talked about music in worship services, basically, which sounds broad, but which was both very inspirational and specifically helpful. They were both really fabulous. The other speaker was Sam Martinborough, who gave a great presentation on cultural appropriation on Wednesday night. He is incredibly dynamic, and it was a perfect topic for a group of UU musicians. And Nick Page rehearsed us every day in preparation for the service on Sunday. He's somewhat of a legend around Boston, and he quite lived up to his reputation. And all these fabulous people are right here in Boston!
The other thing we all did together was the repertoire reading sessions, which were of course wonderful - sight-reading lots of music, and being given the octavos for everything! Free music! (Well, not exactly, considering the cost of the conference, but...) The workshop sessions, though, were much more uneven. Half were fabulous, and half were...well, pretty bad. I loved the session where I learned to play harmonica in an hour, and I also loved the handbells sessions, which gave me great ideas on how to start a handbell choir at my church. (We already have a full set, so this is one of my major goals for the upcoming year.) But some of the other sessions I went to were a complete waste of my time. The silver lining is that I am utterly determined to go present a workshop myself at next year's conference, because if you want something done right, you might as well do it yourself, right? I think I'm going to do one on "Internet Resources for Choral Musicians" because I heard a lot of people asking, "What's the CPDL?" and that's just wrong!
I also saw some people there that I already knew, which was comforting, because I didn't think I would know anybody, and I got to meet a couple of fabulous new people as well. I'm really glad I went to this conference - I came away with lots of valuable new ideas for music and repertoire and all kinds of things. And I'm already looking forward to visiting Portland during next year's conference!
The one thing that cast a shadow over the proceedings, of course, was Knoxville.
For those of you who don't know, two weeks ago a gunman opened fire at the Tennessee Valley UU Congregation during a children's musical performance of "Annie Jr." He killed two people and wounded seven others. He indicated that he attacked the UU church because of their liberal views and because they supported gays and lesbians. If you google "Knoxville UU" you will come up with more news stories than you need.
This event was in our minds, of course, during the course of the week. It particularly hit me during the first afternoon concert. Various musicians signed up to perform a piece, and the last piece on the first concert was a gay couple, both rather fine tenors, performing "Come What May" from the movie Moulin Rouge. I thought it might run the risk of being cheesy when I saw it on the program, but the performers hit just the right note, in all ways, and it was really moving. But during that piece, while I was looking up at them singing in the balcony to each other about their love, I couldn't help imagining someone coming in and shooting them mid-song. It was a terrible thought, but that's one of the effects of terrorism.
The service on Sunday was also very moving. There was a very emotional piece of music during the prayer, which started me on the road to tears. And the minister, the president of the UUA, Rev. Bill Sinkford, talked about Knoxville in his sermon. But the most difficult part for me was that right after the sermon, we sang a song called "We Are Free." It was written by a man from South Africa, and the words are "We are free, we are free, let us celebrate." To be listening to someone talk about the Knoxville shooting, and how someone had tried to attack our beliefs, and then hear about how the congregation of Knoxville responded by saying, "We will not change our beliefs - we stand on the side of love" and then sing this song, well, it was really, really hard to sing; I just wanted to sob. And if you are familiar with South African hymns, you may know that they are incredibly joyful, but with this deep heart-breaking undercurrent somewhere; it's a very eyes-wide-open sort of joy. I have never really understood it, because the harmonies are always just a few major chords, and trying to analyze or dissect them yields no insights. But because of what South African hymns carry inside them, it is just unbelievable to sing that music after you have been attacked. I can only imagine what it would be like to sing that music when you are being attacked every day, as the black South Africans were.
It was a great conference, and a great experience, although it sort of wrung me out. (Did I mention that at the end of this emotionally exhausting service, I had a small solo? Last solo in the postlude. I got through it fine, but it was tough to pull it together!) Clearly, I hope that next year's conference will not be so emotional, but I expect it will be just as educational, and I'm looking forward to it.
In conclusion, since it's Monday, and that means it's time for Monday Links, here are some well-written pieces online about the Knoxville shooting.
The UUA (Unitarian Universalist Association) statement is here. There was an ad in the New York Times yesterday also taken out by the UUA with a longer statement, but at the moment I can't find it online.
RJ Eskow writes on the Huffington Post has a great post about who should bear responsibility - apparently the shooter had many books from people like Pat Robertson who spread hate speech.
PeaceBang, a UU minister and blogger that I follow regularly, has an angry post on gun control in the wake of the shooting. She also posted a lovely sermon a few days later, which while not directly about the shooting, does reference them. (I didn't know that "Israel" means "One who wrestles with God." Amazing. Incidentally, I have always loved the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel, and it might have something to do with the fact that I'm a UU.)
And finally, you can donate here to the Knoxville Relief Fund.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
no blogging this week
No blogging this week - concert tonight, then the UU Musicians Network Conference starting tomorrow. (And I don't own a laptop, so you don't get any live conference blogging!) Hopefully next week I will get myself back onto my (admittedly recently sparse) blogging schedule.
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