Friday cat post!

Oomi in a bag!

Weekend Concert Calendar, 4/29/10

Oh, it's that time of year again. Among the thousands of concerts this weekend, you should clearly prioritize the ones I'm singing in! I will be performing music from Spain with Schola Cantorum on Friday in Boston, Saturday in Providence, and Sunday in Brookline. It's a very beautiful program, and a very tight ensemble, and I hope you can make it!

Friday:

8:00 pm: Schola Cantorum; Missa Ave Maris Stella by Victoria, and works by Guerrero, Cardoso, and Lobo; Church of St. John the Evangelist, 35 Bowdoin St., Boston (right near Gov't Center.)

8:00 pm: Handel and Haydn; "Bach Portrait"; Symphony Hall, Boston.

8:00 pm: Halalisa Singers; “A Branch of May: Songs, Chants and Dances from Around the World"; First Parish Lexington.

Saturday:

6:30 pm: Mystic Chorale; 20th Anniversary Gala Bash!; Arlington Town Hall.

7:00 pm: The A Cappella Singers; "Director's Choice"; Fisk Memorial United Methodist Church, Natick.

7:30 pm: New England Classical Singers; "My Spirit Sang all Day," a collection of spirituals, gospel, and madrigals; All Saints Episcopal Church, Chelmsford.

7:30 pm: Boston Saengerfest Men's Chorus and the Boston City Singers; Annual Combined Concert; St. Andrew's Church, Wellesley.

8:00 pm: Schola Cantorum; Missa Ave Maris Stella by Victoria, and works by Guerrero, Cardoso, and Lobo; Holy Ghost Church, Providence, RI.

8:00 pm: Neponset Choral Society; Cherubini's Requiem in c minor; St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Foxborough.

8:00 pm: Broad Cove Chorale; 35th Anniversary Concert; Inly School Arts Barn, Scituate.

Sunday:

2:00 pm: Newton Choral Society with the Boston Civic Symphony; Verdi's Requiem; Regis College, Weston.

2:00 pm: In Choro Novo; Spring Concert; Amazing Things Art Center, Framingham.

2:30 pm: The Fine Arts Chorale; All Britten concert; Old South Union Church, Weymouth.

2:30 pm: Neponset Choral Society; Cherubini's Requiem in c minor; St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Foxborough.

3:00 pm: Handel and Haydn; "Bach Portrait"; Symphony Hall, Boston.

3:00 pm: New England Classical Singers; "My Spirit Sang all Day," a collection of spirituals, gospel, and madrigals; Eliot Presbyterian Church, Lowell.

3:00 pm: The Arlington-Belmont Chorale, with the Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra; Works by Rossini, Mozart, Fauré, and Schumann; First Parish Arlington.

3:00 pm: Halalisa Singers; “A Branch of May: Songs, Chants and Dances from Around the World"; First Unitarian Society of Newton.

3:00 pm: Memorial Congregational Church Festival Chorus and Bay Colony Brass; works of Rutter and Tallis; Memorial Congregational Church, Sudbury.

4:00 pm: Schola Cantorum; Missa Ave Maris Stella by Victoria, and works by Guerrero, Cardoso, and Lobo; St. Paul's Church, Brookline.

4:00 pm: MIT Concert Choir; Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem; Kresge Auditorium, MIT, Cambridge.


For opera buffs, check out the Boston Opera Collaborative's evening of light opera and musical theater "Tonight, Tonight!" For G&S buffs, check out the MIT G&S Players opening weekend of The Gondoliers and the opening weekend of Hot Mikado at the New Repertory Theater. And if you are interested in auditioning for the Christmas Revels, auditions for adults and children are May 2 and 4 - more details at the Revels website!

Did I miss anything? Leave it in the comments!

Friday cat post!

Oomi says: SMELL MY FEETS!

(I don't even know, guys. My brother is the one taking the pictures, ask him.)

Weekend Concert Calendar, 4/22/10

Well, today you get an abbreviated Concert Calendar, b/c I am busy writing my notes for the upcoming Cantilena concert. (May 9! 7 pm! First Parish Arlington!) There's a lot missing; feel free to leave it in the comments!

Saturday:

8:00 pm: Orpheus Singers; "Music of Elgar and Weelkes; Songs of Love, Nature, and the Soul"; Emmanuel Church, Boston.

8:00 pm: The Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus; Fauré's Requiem and Mendelssohn's Psalm 42; Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge.

Sunday:

3:00 pm: Highland Glee Club; Spring Concert; First Baptish Church, Needham.

3:00 pm: Boston Saengerfest Men's Chorus; Benefit Concert for MUSE (Music Serving Elders); Newton Presbyterian Church.

5:00 pm: Cappella Clausura; "Messa Paschale by Cozzolani"; Grace Episcopal Church, 385 Essex St., Salem.

Did I miss anything? Leave it in the comments!

Monday link - The Boston Cecilia concert

Last Friday I had the very pleasant experience of hearing The Boston Cecilia's "When Britten Met Haydn" concert. I got there late (battery died, called AAA, had to get a jump, you know, the old story) so I sadly missed the first piece. But the three pieces I did hear were great! I especially enjoyed the Britten selections, which showed off tenor soloist Aaron Sheehan splendidly. He really has an amazingly pretty voice. And the chorus did wonderfully as always, performing with a great intensity, reaching out and communicating both text and emotion with the audience to a degree that was really admirable. (You can bet I will be mentioning this to my own chorus tonight in rehearsal!)

Sadly, but in these days not too shockingly, The Boston Globe did not review the concert (as far as I can tell.) But happily, there is a new site these days for classical concert reviews. The Boston Musical Intelligencer is a (somewhat new? insiders, fill me in!) site whose goal is to list and review as many classical music concerts as possible in Boston. Keep your eye on them...and check out their very positive review of Cecilia's concert. Says reviewer Brian Jones, "How can a reviewer do justice to a program and performance this fine? Presiding over the entire occasion was the generous spirit, intelligence and musicianship of Donald Teeters, one of Boston’s musical treasures." I couldn't agree more!

Caturday cat post!

Oomi has a catnip mouse!
The new mouse also has a bell.
Watch her chase it through the house,
Just as always, raising hell.

Weekend Concert Calendar, 4/15/10

The spring rush has begun, methinks!

Friday:

7:00 pm: Voices of Imani; Spring Concert; Trinity Chapel, Boston College, Newton.

7:30 pm: Boy Choir of the Choral Academy Dortmund; Program will include sacred works by Rathgeber, Franck, Britten and Faure, selections from several operas, and German folksongs; Trinity Episcopal Church, Concord.

8:00 pm: Boston Cecilia; "When Britten met Haydn"; All Saints Church, Brookline.

Saturday:

8:00 pm: Boston Conservatory Women's Chorus; Kocsar's Missa in A and Kodaly's Quattro madrigali; Seully Hall, Boston Conservatory, Boston.

8:00 pm: The Oriana Consort; "From France: Choral Celebrations ... in chants, motets, choral songs, and Requiems"; First Church in Boston.

8:00 pm: MIT Chamber Chorus; "A Musical Festschrift: Music of Samuel Barber"; Kresge Auditorium, MIT, Cambridge.

Sunday:

2:00 pm: Boston Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival; Cohen Auditorium, Tufts University, 40 Talbot Ave, Medford.

8:00 pm: Boston Conservatory Chorale; Orff's Carmina Burana and Barber's Reincarnations; Fenway Center, Boston.

Did I forget anything? Leave it in the comments!

Monday link

Last Thursday night I went to see the play Opus at the New Repertory Theater in Watertown. Everything I've ever seen at New Rep has been great, and this was no exception. It's a play about a string quartet, and how the members interact with each other. As a member of a quartet myself, I was very excited to see it, although considering the dysfunction of the group onstage, I'm happy to say that it didn't feel entirely familiar. But it all rang very true to life (esp. the passionate conversations about one crescendo in one particular bar) and the acting was truly excellent. This coming weekend is the last weekend, so go see it!

Here is a link to the Boston Globe review; here's a link to the Boston Globe interview with the playwright; and here's a link to buy tickets!

Friday cat post!

Oomi is enjoying the sun just as much as the rest of us - now she can lounge in the sunroom (which is rather chilly in the winter.)

Weekend Concert Calendar, 4/8/10

The concert series that I started at my church in Cohasset is having its final concert of the season this coming Sunday. The Renaissance choir Zefiro (who I used to sing with!) is coming to do a program called "The Spirit and the Flesh." It should be a beautiful day to drive down to a beautiful town on the South Shore. *nudge*

Friday:

7:30 pm: Boys Choir of the Choral Academy Dortmund; Bach's Cantata 150 Nach dir, Herr, verlangt mich, also works by Buxtehude, Telemann and Rathgeber; First Lutheran Church of Boston.

Saturday:

9:30 am: Scott Metcalfe presents a workshop on English Renaissance music; Trinity Episcopal Church, Concord.

7:30 pm: Youth pro Musica and Treble Chorus of New England; World premiere of Kinderkreuzzug ("The Children's Crusade"), by Ralf Gawlick; St. Ignatius Church, Boston College, Chestnut Hill.

7:30 pm: New England Classical Singers; "My Spirit Sang All Day"; Old Town Hall, Andover.

Sunday:

3:00 pm: Chanticleer!!!; Celebrity Series of Boston; Jordan Hall, NEC, Boston.

3:00 pm: Youth pro Musica and Treble Chorus of New England; World premiere of Kinderkreuzzug ("The Children's Crusade"), by Ralf Gawlick; Trinity Episcopal Church, Concord.

3:30 pm: The Oriana Consort; "From France: Choral Celebrations ... in chants, motets, choral songs, and Requiems”; Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church, Cambridge.

4:00 pm: Pilgrim Festival Chorus; Handel's Judas Maccabaeus; The Church of the Pilgrimage, Plymouth.

4:00 pm: Zefiro Ensemble; "The Spirit and the Flesh: Music by Palestrina, Monteverdi, and Duruflé"; First Parish Cohasset.

Did I miss anything? Leave it in the comments!

Monday link

It's been crazy times over at Longy recently, from what I hear - lots of changes. And here's a huge one - Longy might become part of Bard College?

Longy insiders, share your opinions on where the school is headed!

Happy Easter!

I just wanted to share the quote in this morning's order of service at my church. It was written by our minister, Jan Carlsson-Bull, and it really touched me, so I thought I would share.

“Easter is about our readiness to be astonished that the stones of our tombs, whatever form those tombs take, have been rolled away and there we are holding hope when we thought all was lost.”

It is a picture-perfect Easter day here, sunny and warm and exceedingly beautiful. And I am proud and relieved to report that all the music this morning went excellently well. Happy Easter to all who celebrate!

Friday cat post!

This week's post features a returning guest star, Toby. Toby is the cat that lives next door to my mother and father in Austin, and he is fond of coming over for visits, and insisting that he has never been fed. This visit occurred a little over a week ago.

"Hello. I've come for a visit. Would you let me in?"

"No, really. I insist. I'll wait."

"Hm, you don't seem to understand. Perhaps I can manage this door myself."

"Well, as long as I'm here, I might as well mark it as my territory."

"Finally. Thank you. What's for tea?"

(The full story actually involves Toby trying to slice off the screen to get through, getting his claw stuck in the screen, and having my mother open the door to rescue him, at which point he sauntered in. Hey, whatever works.)

Weekend Concert Calendar, 4/1/10

It's Easter weekend! Go hear the BSO perform Mendelssohn's Elijah, and if you are a church-goer, go see what your music director has cooked up for Easter. And enjoy the fact that spring and Easter seem to have coincided!