Caturday cat post!

Well, CERTAIN PEOPLE didn't send me a cat picture this week, but luckily I found this neglected .jpg sitting in my inbox.

I call this one "The Maw."

Weekend Concert Calendar, 2/25/10

The weather outside may be frightful, but should that stop you from supporting local live music? Absolutely not! Especially when you can support Haiti at the same time; see details under Friday's listings.

Friday:

8:00 pm: First Church Boston; "Du fond de ma pensee: a concert to benefit earthquake relief efforts in Haiti"; First Church Boston. This concert will feature Renaissance choral works by Goudimel and le Jeune, new works by Henning and Serpa, and a performance of Bach’s Cantata 131: Aus der Tiefe with soloists, chorus and an orchestra of period instruments.

8:00 pm: Mount Holyoke Chamber Choir; works by Messiaen, Karg-Elert, Caplet, and others; Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston.


Saturday:

3:00 pm: Boston Jazz Voices; A cappella jazz and swing from the Great American Songbook; Belmont Public Library.

7:30 pm: PALS Children's Chorus; "Gala Reception: Food, Wine, and Singing in Support of PALS;" First Parish Brookline. (This is part of the PALS 20th-anniversary weekend festivities; their concert is on Sunday.)

8:00 pm: Mystic Chorale; "Mystic Chorale Celebrates Gospel" (annual gospel concert); Converse Hall, Tremont Temple, Boston.

8:00 pm: The Master Singers of Lexington; "Pops! Locomotion"; First Parish Lexington.


Sunday:

3:00 pm: Mystic Chorale; "Mystic Chorale Celebrates Gospel" (annual gospel concert); Converse Hall, Tremont Temple, Boston.

3:00 pm: Sounds of Stow Festival Chorus and Orchestra; Duruflé's Requiem, Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine, and Britten's Concerto for Violin; Hale Middle School, Stow.

3:00 pm: PALS Children's Chorus; "I Remember the Song: Celebrating 20 Years of PALS;" Jordan Hall, NEC, Boston.

Did I miss anything? Leave it in the comments!

Friday cat post!

Oomi is stalking the camera!

My brother says this is a picture of "Oomi stalking...badly," but although it's true that one doesn't often have success with pouncing on people staring directly at you the whole time, at least she has the idea of camouflage down, right?

Weekend Concert Calendar, 2/18/10

The big event of my weekend is that the award-winning jazz quartet Syncopation is coming to do a concert at my church, First Parish Cohasset! I know it's a hike for Boston residents, but Syncopation is well worth it. And please spread the word to any South Shore friends you might have! 4 pm on Sunday, 23 North Main St., Cohasset!

Friday:

8:00 pm: Boston Baroque; Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610; Jordan Hall, NEC, Boston.

Saturday:

2:00 pm: University Chorale of Boston College; Winter Concert; Church of St. Ignatius, Chestnut Hill.

7:30 pm: Boston Harmony; Lotti's Mass, as well as music from South Africa, Georgia, Bulgaria, Corsica, and American shape-note and gospel tunes; First Church Congregational, Cambridge.

7:30 pm: Choral Art Society; "Fifth Annual Cabaret au Chocolat;" St. Mary of the Nativity Parish Center, Scituate Harbor.

7:30 pm: Syncopation and Boston Jazz Voices; "Eighth Annual A Cappella Night"; Rogers Center, Merrimack College, North Andover.

8:00 pm: Boston Baroque; Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610; Jordan Hall, NEC, Boston.

Sunday:

2:00 pm: Wellesley College Chamber Singers and the Lehigh University Glee Club; Monteverdi's Lamento d'Arianna; Houghton Chapel and Multifaith Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley.

4:00 pm: Syncopation; Syncopation at the Meetinghouse Concert Series; First Parish Cohasset.

5:30 pm: Exsultemus; "Baroque Cantatas of Leipzig; Music of Schelle, Kuhnau and J. S. Bach;" First Lutheran Church, Boston.

Did I miss anything? Leave it in the comments!

Monday link

I am always amused by the fact that the one place to go for hearing classical works online is Youtube. You often can't get a recording just as an audio file; but you can get lots of them as video files! With frequently crazy visuals.

One of my favorite* choral pieces is Rheinberger's "Abendlied."

Here it is by the Cambridge Singers, with a very neat video where you can follow along with the score.



And here it is by the King's Singers. There are numerous other nice versions on Youtube, but mostly they are live, so the sound quality isn't as good.

*Of which there are hundreds, let us be clear.

Friday cat post!

My brother captioned this one: "Oomi looking regal, surveying her domain."

Also, I am mentioning this a little late, but the Boston Globe had a very nice piece on Boston cat-about-town Kenmore! He has a very nice photo spread in the Globe, and quite a story.

Weekend Concert Calendar, 2/11/10

Happy Valentine's Day weekend! There are a couple of awesome concerts this week to give you a mid-February pep-up; and some of them even have nothing to do with Valentine's Day.

Friday:

8:00 pm: Handel & Haydn Society; "Zest for Love"; Jordan Hall, NEC, Boston. (I have to say that this program looks fantastic! Madrigal geeks take note! Take a peek at a list of the songs here, and the program notes here. This program will also be done on Sunday; see below.)

8:00 pm: Boston Gay Men's Chorus; "Love Bites: A Chorus Cabaret"; Club Cafe, Boston.

Saturday:

7:30 pm: NEC Millenium Gospel Choir; "Thomas A. Dorsey Gospel Jubilee 2010"; Jordan Hall, NEC, Boston.

7:30 pm: Boston Cecilia; "Love is the Air"; All Saints Parish, Brookline. (Jessica Cooper sings a variety of love songs in this fundraiser for the chorus.)

8:00 pm: Boston Gay Men's Chorus; "Love Bites: A Chorus Cabaret"; Club Cafe, Boston.

8:00 pm: L'Académie; "(S)he's Just Not That into You: Love songs (and more) from seventeenth-century England and Italy"; Marsh Chapel, BU, Boston.

Sunday:

1:00 pm: Tufts University community, including the Tufts Gospel Choir and the Beelzebubs; "To Haiti with Love; A Benefit Concert from Tufts University"; Cohen Auditorium, Aidekman Arts Center, Tufts University, Medford.

3:00 pm: NEC Millenium Gospel Choir; "Thomas A. Dorsey Gospel Jubilee 2010"; Jordan Hall, NEC, Boston.

3:00 pm: Handel & Haydn Society; "Zest for Love"; Old South Church, Boston.

3:00 pm: Boston Gay Men's Chorus; "Love Bites: A Chorus Cabaret"; Club Cafe, Boston.


And next Tuesday, check out the Noesis Vocal Quartet singing Britten and Copland at 12:15 pm at King's Chapel, Boston. (The concert will be 45 min. - perfect for a lunchtime break!)

Did I miss anything? Leave it in the comments!

Monday link

A Prokofiev piece called "Music for Athletic Exercises" that was discovered in 2004 will be given its New York premiere Tuesday night. More info from NPR.

Weekend Concert Calendar, 2/5/10

Hm...haven't been keeping up so well with the concert calendars lately! This week's is late, and last week's just didn't happen. Oh, well, I'll try to jump back on the bandwagon.

This week you should definitely check out the Schola Cantorum concerts, on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, in which I am singing!

Friday:

8:00 pm: Schola Cantorum; "Josquin des Pres's Missa Gaudeamus, and
motets of Obrecht, Ockeghem, and Poulenc"; Church of St. John the Evangelist, Boston.

7:30 pm: BU Choral Ensembles; Mozart's Vesperae Solennes De Confessore and Bach's Missa in A major; CFA Concert Hall, BU, Boston.

Saturday:

8:00 pm: Schola Cantorum; "Josquin des Pres's Missa Gaudeamus, and
motets of Obrecht, Ockeghem, and Poulenc"; St. Joseph's Church, Providence, RI.

7:30 pm: Heritage Chorale; "A Night at the Theatre"; Nevins Hall, Memorial Building, Framingham.

7:30 pm: Calliope; "Movie and Media Works: To Benefit Forbes House Museum"; Old West Church, Boston.

Sunday:

3:00 pm: Schola Cantorum; "Josquin des Pres's Missa Gaudeamus, and
motets of Obrecht, Ockeghem, and Poulenc"; St. Paul's Church, Brookline.

4:00 pm: New England Classical Singers; "The Seven Last Words of Christ by Theodore Dubois"; Holy Rosary Church, Lawrence.

7:30 pm: Belmont Open Sings; Mozart's Vesperae Solennes De Confessore; Payson Park Church, Belmont.

Did I miss anything? Leave it in the comments!

Friday cat post!

What is this mysterious creature behind the blinds? A bird? A plane? A miniature dinosaur?
A boa constrictor digesting an elephant?


Oh.

Background to the picture: my brother says, "While I was going through these photos to pick the ones to send you, Oomi was sitting in my lap the whole time, purring. Then she saw a photo of herself on the computer and got up to paw at the photo on the screen. But her other paw was on the touchpad and kept zooming it in and out and she got confused."

Monday link

It's Grammy time!

Here is the list of all classical winners. (It's extremely interesting to go and look at who the nominees were, especially if you are looking to build your CD collection.)

Winners of note* to choral artists:

Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance:
Mahler: Symphony No. 8; Adagio From Symphony No. 10
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor; Ragnar Bohlin, Kevin Fox & Susan McMane, choir directors

Best Opera Recording:
Britten: Billy Budd
Daniel Harding, conductor; Ian Bostridge, Neal Davies, Nathan Gunn, Jonathan Lemalu, Matthew Rose & Gidon Saks

Best Small Ensemble Performance:
Lang, David: The Little Match Girl Passion
Paul Hillier, conductor; Ars Nova Copenhagen & Theatre Of Voices

*Ha! See what I did there? Of "note"? That's why they pay me the big bucks, people!...wait a minute...