Annual Messiah Sing Post!

Here it is, your annual Messiah Sings post for 2013! Late as usual. But there are still quite a lot of sings coming up! If I missed any that you know of, leave a comment!

Upcoming:

Fri. 12/6: Messiah Sing to benefit Project Bread. 7:30 pm. At All Saints Parish, Brookline. Tickets $10/$5 stu&sen. Scores provided, or bring your own. (You can still make it!)

Sun. 12/8: Nashoba Valley Chorale annual Messiah Sing. 3:00 pm. At the Congregational Church of Littleton. More info here.

Sun. 12/8: Sudbury Memorial Congregational Church Annual Messiah Sing. 3:00 pm. At Sudbury Memorial Congregational Church, Sudbury. More info here.

Sun. 12/8: Carter Memorial United Methodist Church Messiah Sing. 3 pm. At the Carter Memorial United Methodist Church, Needham. Scores available, or bring your own. More info here.

Sun. 12/8: JP Concerts Messiah Sing-a-long. 7:00 pm. At St. John's Episcopal Church, Jamaica Plain. Suggested donation $10. Scores provided, or bring your own. More info here.

Tues. 12/10: Brandeis University Messiah Sing. 4 pm. At the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium, Brandeis University. Free admission. Scores available, or bring your own. More info here.
 
Wed. 12/11: Cathedral Church of St. Paul Annual Messiah Sing. 12:15 pm. At the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, downtown Boston. More info here.

Fri. 12/13: Masterworks Chorale annual Messiah Sing. 8:00 pm. At Cary Hall, Lexington. Suggested donation $12. Scored provided, or bring your own. More info here.

Fri. 12/13: Roxbury Latin School Concert and Messiah Sing. 7:30 pm. At the Roxbury Latin School, West Roxbury. Free admission. Scores provided, or bring your own. More info here.

Sat. 12/14: Masterworks Chorale annual Messiah Sing. 8:00 pm. At Cary Hall, Lexington. Suggested donation $12. Scored provided, or bring your own. More info here.

Sun. 12/15: Assabet Valley Mastersingers Messiah Sing. 3:30 pm. At St. Mark's School in Southborough. Scores available, or bring your own. More info here.

Sun. 12/15: St. Peter's Church in Weston Messiah Sing. 4:00 pm. At St. Peter's Church, Weston. Free admission. Limited scores available, or bring your own. More info here.

Sun. 12/22: Harvard Unitarian Church Messiah Sing. 5:00 pm. At the Harvard Unitarian Church in Harvard, MA. More info here.

Sun. 12/22: Belmont Open Sings Messiah Sing. 7:30 pm. At All Saint's Church, Belmont. Tickets $10.  Scores provided, or bring your own. More info here.  

Passed:

Thurs. 12/5: Annual Dunster House Messiah Sing. 8:00 pm. At Dunster House, Harvard. More info here. 


Merry Messiah season to everyone!

Cantilena concert this Sunday!

Cantilena's winter concert is this coming Sunday, and I hope you all come!

I am very proud of the pieces on this concert - we are (of course!) doing Britten's A Ceremony of Carols in honor of his 100th birthday year. We're also doing Paul Csonka's Concierto de Navidad, a very cool piece that I was introduced to by our awesome harpist, Barbara Poeschl-Edrich. The pieces are very different, and compliment each other nicely, and we have worked very hard on both!

The concert will be this Sunday at 4 pm. We'll be performing at First Parish Arlington, 630 Mass Ave, Arlington, MA. And there will of course be a delicious reception afterwards!

Hope to see you there!

Friday cat post!

It's been a while since we've had a Friday cat post, but my mother sent along this article last week, and I thought I would share. I think you will find it very helpful in planning your next vacation!

Anthology new music concerts this weekend!

Anthology, my women's vocal quartet, is starting our fall season with a concert of world premieres, written particularly for us by six members of the Boston Composers' Coalition! Join us this weekend, in person or online, to experience six unique pieces of new music by Heather Gilligan, PoChun Wang, Brett Abigana, Andrew Smith, Ramon Castillo and Justin Casinghino! (To pique your interest, I will say that one of these pieces is something I would definitely like to program again with a women's choir; and another is one of the cleverest pieces of new music I have ever sung.)

Friday, October 4th at 8 pm (7:30 pm pre-concert reception) at
The Green Room (thegreenroomsomerville.com)
62 Bow Street, Somerville, MA
Come and join us in this intimate new performance space for a salon-style evening of new music, conversation and refreshments. Be warned: we expect this concert to sell out, so get there early!

Saturday, October 5th at 8 pm at
Killian Hall, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA

Both concerts are free and open to all. Details concerning both concerts and directions to venues can all be found at: www.bostoncomposers.org
If you can't attend the concert in person, you can also visit the website during concert time to be connected to a live stream of each event. 

 

We have worked our tails off on this concert, and there is so much variety and invention on the program that there is sure to be something for everyone! Hope to see you this weekend, either in person or in cyberspace!

Sing with Cantilena!

My women's chorus Cantilena is singing Britten's Ceremony of Carols this semester! We're pairing that with Concierto de Navidad by Paul Csonka, an Austrian-Cuban-American 20th-century composer (he had to keep running away from fascists.)

Auditions are tonight, and also next week. Come to First Parish Arlington at 7:30 pm either tonight or 9/23 and join an awesome, friendly group for some great singing!

Who wouldn't want to sing this?

Cats have vocal prowess!

Apparently some cats employ what is called a "soliciting purr" to get food from owners.

I wish Samson would talk to those cats. He just meow, meow, meows when he wants to nag me about something!

Monday link

Check out 10 tips for better practicing from NPR! (And conductors, don't neglect it!)

In non-musical news, check out these awesome photos a photographer dad took of his daughters.

Monday link

Happy September, and happy back-to-school!

Now that everything gets busy, it's very important to remember to get enough sleep! Especially because it turns out sleep is an essential part of practicing! (But not the only essential part, don't get too excited.)

And also, have a charming class syllabus. Hat-tip to Anney Barrett (whose new rehearsal and performance space is opening in Somerville, for all you Boston-area musicians! Check out the Green Room.)

Monday link

Great article about Marin Alsop! I find it so refreshing that she acknowledges that it's somewhat taboo to talk about sexism when it comes to conductors, but she's willing to do it anyways. Hat-tip to my mother.

And if things weren't hard enough, there is a new study out on the importance of appearance for musicians. I don't think most of the singers or conductors I know would find this particularly shocking; it's kind of cute (i.e. naive) that the reporters for both the articles I read on this study remark that it's "surprising." After all, there's a lot of research done on how appearance and attractiveness benefit people across the employment spectrum. One would assume it would matter even more in an artistic and performance-based job! Doesn't mean we have to like it, though. Hat-tip to my father.

Job for beginner conductors!

Chorus pro Musica has a fantastic reputation as one of the best amateur choruses in Boston, and they are looking for a conducting intern! This would be a great job for a college student, or anyone who would like to break into choral conducting.

Monday link

A great article about the long-term effects making an opera together had on a second-grade class.

Monday links

I came across a couple of articles today, both from Northwestern:

I'm a Trans Composer. What the hell does that mean?

Northwestern U. Student Jeopardizes Degree by Refusing to Perform Whitman

(The latter link is sadly only completely available if you are a subscriber to the Chronicle of Higher Ed, but I'd be happy to send anyone the full text via e-mail. Very interesting!)

Monday link

To all the kids out there, whether you self-identify as creative or artistic or weird, or haven't yet labelled yourself...we're waiting for your stuff!

And to anyone out there who misses Opera Boston - a similar type of bird might be rising from the ashes.

Summer lectures voting results

This past Wednesday, I finished up a series of lectures I was giving at Lasell Village. I taught eight classes on the works of Benjamin Britten, and eight classes on the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan. At the end of each class, I had everyone vote for their favorite work - it's a nice way of having a final discussion, and it's always interesting to me to see what people go for.

In the Britten class, the votes fell out as follows:

Peter Grimes won with six votes.
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and the War Requiem tied with three votes each.
The Third String Quartet came next, with two votes.
And Curlew River and Sacred and Profane got one vote each.

For the Gilbert and Sullivan class:

The Gondoliers narrowly beat out The Mikado, with HMS Pinafore coming in third. Yeomen of the Guard got two votes, while Patience, Iolanthe, and Trial By Jury each got one.

(I'm happy to share my syllabi with anyone who is interested!)

Friday cat post!

It turns out that cats ALSO like watching cat videos! New levels of meta.

Another great summer sing with Cantilena, and another repertoire list!

This past Monday Cantilena hosted our second summer sing! The theme was "classics of women's choral repertoire" (that is, "whatever the conductor feels like") and it was just as fun as the first one! For those who are interested, here is the repertoire list! (The repertoire list for the first sing is here.)

• Britten – "Old Abram Brown" from Friday Afternoons
• Lotti – Vere Languores Nostros
• Haydn, M. – Laudate Pueri Dominum
• Mendelssohn – "Lift Thine Eyes" from Elijah
• Brahms – "Benedictus" from the Missa Canonica
• Brahms – Ave Maria
• Kodaly – Evening Song
• Elgar – The Snow
• Morley – Though Philomela
• Weelkes – The Nightingale
• Weelkes – Come, Sirrah, Jack, Ho!
• Casals – Nigra Sum
• Rachmaninoff’s Six Choruses for Women's Voices
• Munn – "The Stove" from The Muse, the Stove, and the Willow Plate 

Thanks to everyone who came! I am already thinking about next year's summer sings!

Winner of the book giveaway!

I'm happy to announce that (thanks to Mrs. Glosser's Math Goodies Custom Random Number Generator) we have a winner of last week's giveaway! Kirsten, you'll be getting a copy of Stacy Horn's Imperfect Harmony: Finding Happiness Singing with Others in the mail!

Monday links

A handful of links today from various corners of the web.



My cousin sent me this trailer, which looks FANTASTIC. And it's playing right now in Kendall Square!

I got inundated last week with people sending me this link about how choir singers synchronize their heartbeats. So I pass it on to you!

Did you know? Choral Arts New England has a concert calendar and an online newsletter, both packed with information.

Via a friend on Facebook, read all about composers and their maladies! (They should mention, however, that Fauré also suffered from increasing deafness during his last two decades.)

And while doing some programming research, I found this wonderful website about Latin American choral composers!

Friday cat post!

The Amazing Acro-Cats (a 13-cat stunt troupe) is coming to Somerville on 7/24 and 7/25! You should get your tickets. Click on the link for a video of what you might see these trained cats doing.

And for your daily dose of cute, if you don't mind a dirty song (audio is NSFW) then check out this talented geeky singer-songwriter singing an unintentional duet with a kitten.

Great summer sing w/ Cantilena - repertoire list

So, last Monday night I hosted my first summer sing with Cantilena, and it went very well! I was really impressed with the level of reading ability among all the folks who showed up. The repertoire got increasingly more difficult throughout the sing, but we got through absolutely everything I threw at them!

A summer sing with a women's chorus is of course different from most summer sings, because the repertoire was unfamiliar to everyone. In most summer sings with SATB groups, you can rely on most of the people in the room having already sung the Brahms Requiem or the Mozart Requiem or Vivaldi's Gloria at least once already. But there is no repertoire for women's chorus that is SO well known that I can rely on the majority of the group knowing it, with the possible exception of Britten's Ceremony of Carols, which is hardly appropriate for July. So everyone is really sight-reading!

Therefore I had to choose repertoire that I thought would be readable as well as interesting and fun! Here's what I came up with under the topic of French sacred music for women's choirs (I included links to the CPDL to some of them):

• Dufay's Gloria ad modum tibi
• Gounod's Messe brève no. 4 in C
• Delibes' Messe brève
• Massenet's Ave maris stella
• Caplet's "O Salutaris Hostia" from Messe a Trois Voix
• Fauré's Ave Maria
• Fauré's Ave verum corpus
• Franck's Alleluia (so fun! but long)
• Charpentier's Gaudia Virginis Mariae (also so fun! and short)

And I had copied, but we didn't have time for:

• Fauré's Tantum Ergo
• Franck's O Salutaris Hostia
• Saint-Saëns' Ave Maria

Remember, the next sing is this coming Monday at 7:30 pm! Come do some sight-singing with me!

Exciting book giveaway!

Several weeks ago, I was contacted by Stacy Horn, who has just come out with an exciting new book, Imperfect Harmony: Finding Happiness Singing with Others. You may have heard her interviewed on Talk of the Nation last month - it was an in-depth and interesting conversation that I recommend. (I also recommend her blog, at her website, because she ALSO has many cat pictures!)

She has generously agreed to do a book giveaway on this blog! If you would like Stacy Horn to mail you a free copy of her book, please leave a comment here describing a fond memory you have of singing with other people. (It doesn't have to be the-very-best-memory-ever. Just a positive memory that pops into your head!) I'll choose someone using a random number generator one week from today, and contact you to get your mailing address, so be sure to leave contact info in your comment.

Ready, set, go!

Cantilena's first summer sing - TONIGHT at 7:30 pm!

Calling all sopranos and altos! If you are free tonight, I hope you will come to Cantilena's first summer sing! Tonight we are going to be singing French sacred music for women's voices. (Next week is a little broader - just doing some of the most popular works for women's chorus out there.) Both sings are at 7:30 pm, at First Parish Arlington, 630 Mass. Ave, Arlington. Easily accessible by T (77 bus) and there is plenty of parking! And there will be SNACKS! See you there, and spread the word!

Summer Sings Calendar, 2013!

Here it is, your 2013 Summer Sings calendar! Apologies to those groups who have already held some sings!

I also would like to take this opportunity to announce that I will be conducting my first summer sings with Cantilena this summer! This coming Monday we will be doing French sacred works for women's voices, and on Monday, 7/15 we will be singing Best-Beloved Classics for women's choruses!

Monday, July 8, 7:30 pm
French sacred choral works for women's voices by Dufay, Delibes, Fauré, Franck, Gounod, Saint-Saëns and others
Conducted by yours truly, hosted by Cantilena
At First Parish Arlington, 630 Massachusetts Ave, Arlington, MA

Tuesday, July 9, 8:00 pm
Poulenc's Gloria
Conducted by Jamie Kirsch, hosted by Masterworks Chorale
At the Noble and Greenough School, Lawrence Auditorium, 10 Campus Drive, Dedham, MA

Monday, July 15, 7:30 pm
Popular classics of women's choral repertoire
Conducted by yours truly, hosted by Cantilena
At First Parish Arlington, 630 Massachusetts Ave, Arlington, MA

Monday, July 15, 7:30-8:30 pm
Choruses from Handel's Messiah
Conducted by Danica Buckley, hosted by the Choral Art Society of the South Shore
At the First Trinitarian Congregational Church, 381 Country Way, Scituate, MA

Tuesday, July 16, 8:00 pm
Mozart's Requiem
Conducted by Steven Karidoyanes, hosted by Masterworks Chorale
At the Noble and Greenough School, Lawrence Auditorium, 10 Campus Drive, Dedham, MA

Monday, July 22, 8:00 pm
Mozart's Requiem
Conducted by Max Hobart, hosted by the Paul Madore Chorale
At the Old Town Hall, 32 Derby Square, Salem MA

Tuesday, July 23, 8:00 pm
Verdi's Requiem
Conducted by Katherine FitzGibbon, hosted by Masterworks Chorale
At the Noble and Greenough School, Lawrence Auditorium, 10 Campus Drive, Dedham, MA

Monday, July 29, 8:00 pm
Brahms' Requiem
Conducted by David Callahan, hosted by the Paul Madore Chorale
At the Old Town Hall, 32 Derby Square, Salem MA

Monday, July 29, 7:00 pm
Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass
Conducted by Gerald Weale, hosted by the Newburyport Choral Society
At the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, 7 Harris St., Newburyport, MA

Tuesday, July 30, 8:00 pm
Bach's Magnificat
Conducted by Steven Karidoyanes, hosted by Masterworks Chorale
At the Noble and Greenough School, Lawrence Auditorium, 10 Campus Drive, Dedham, MA

Monday, August 5, 7:30 pm
Mozart's Requiem
Conducted by Jamie Kirsch, hosted by Chorus pro Musica
At Old South Church, 645 Boylston Street, Boston, MA

Monday, August 5, 8:00 pm
Fauré's Requiem and Vivaldi's Gloria
Conducted by William Sano, hosted by the Paul Madore Chorale
At the Old Town Hall, 32 Derby Square, Salem MA

Tuesday, August 6, 8:00 pm
Fauré's Requiem
Conducted by Steven Karidoyanes, hosted by Masterworks Chorale
At the Noble and Greenough School, Lawrence Auditorium, 10 Campus Drive, Dedham, MA

Monday, August 12, 7:30-8:30pm
Opera, Operetta, and Broadway Choruses
Conducted by Danica Buckley, hosted by the Choral Art Society of the South Shore
At the First Trinitarian Congregational Church, 381 Country Way, Scituate, MA

Monday, August 12, 7:30 pm
Brahms' Requiem
Conducted by Jamie Kirsch, hosted by Chorus pro Musica
At Old South Church, 645 Boylston Street, Boston, MA

Monday, August 12, 8:00 pm
Orff's Carmina Burana
Conducted by Paul Madore, hosted by the Paul Madore Chorale
At the Old Town Hall, 32 Derby Square, Salem MA

Monday, August 19, 7:30 pm
Orff's Carmina Burana
Conducted by Jamie Kirsch, hosted by Chorus pro Musica
At Old South Church, 645 Boylston Street, Boston, MA

Did I miss anything? Please let me know in the comments, and I'll update the list!

Friday cat post!

It's been a while since we had any pictures of Samson! But he's doing great, totally unconcerned by the lack of publicity, sitting on his little seat next to my bedroom window.

Monday link

Maestro Flummerfelt is retiring from the Spoleto Festival! I sang and studied under him at Westminster; feel very lucky to have done so!

Friday cat post!

Together with last week's post, this week's link would seem to demonstrate that the Japanese really know the value of cats. Hat-tip to my mother.

Monday link

So, full disclosure, I am not a huge fan of Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir project. It is just not my thing. But if it is your thing, Virtual Choir 4.0 is in the works, so if you would like to sing in it, check out the website, download the score, and go nuts!

Friday Cat Post

Apparently this has been going around a while, but I missed it. There is an island in Fukuoka, Japan that has a large population of feral cats. The photographer Fubirai has spent five years documenting the cats on this island. Buzzfeed has a compilation of some of the photos, but it's really worth going to his blog, because you can see series of photos of a single cat over a few seconds or minutes. (The photos of cats leaping onto things are great!)

Monday link - Cantilena on TV!

Check out this TV segment on Cantilena's concert last Sunday!

Great Cantilena concert, and a nice review!

I'm happy to say that Cantilena's "Poetic License" concert on Sunday went splendidly. The premiere of Scott Wheeler's "Jabberwocky" went particularly well - we kept a zippy tempo and high energy all the way through! There's a chance I'll be able to share a video later on, but I'm not sure yet. And I got lots of happy feedback after the concert, so I think everyone enjoyed it quite a lot.

And we got this review from the Boston Musical Intelligencer! (My favorite quote is that on the first piece, "Cantilena surprised with a burst of volume filling the sanctuary." I worked very hard on getting them as loud as possible at the end of Gwyneth Walker's Now I Become Myself - glad to see it paid off!)

Monday link

This is a great TED talk about body language, projecting power, and how your body language can shape your thoughts and emotions and even who you are, not just the other way around. Great reading for everyone, but obviously very relevant for conductors!

Fabulous concert weekend!

John Tenniel's illustration of Jabberwocky.

I hope you don't have any important plans for this coming weekend, because it is going to be a GREAT concert weekend!

Being the second weekend in May, of course there are a billion choral concerts. But the one I want to call to your attention is, of course, my own! Cantilena will be performing their spring concert, called "Poetic License." This performance is in honor of Mordena Babich, a member of our alto section who passed away last spring. She was a writer, so in her honor we have chosen musical settings of all the best poets. Jane Kenyon, E. E. Cummings, Yeats, Shakespeare, and others will all be represented. And we will be performing the world premiere of a commission by Scott Wheeler, his setting of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" for two cellos and women's chorus. It's a very exciting program and I hope you can come! For more about our commission, check out the interview I did with Scott Wheeler.

If that is not enough choral music for you, I also feel that I owe a nod to Musica Sacra, who always has the most interesting programming, and this weekend is no exception. This year is the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address, and Musica Sacra will be celebrating these events. To quote from their press release, "In this Saturday's concert, music from and about the Civil War period will be interspersed with readings of texts by Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, performed by drama students from Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School."

I greatly enjoyed Musica Sacra's March concert, "Baltic Inspirations," where they explored some stunning Northern European music that had a truly head-spinning quantity and variety of languages. (And I felt a little guilty for not reviewing it on the blog!) So go check out Musica Sacra for a very patriotic Saturday...and then come see Cantilena for a poetic and inspired Mother's Day!

Friday cat post!

Hat-tip to my mother: Feline film festival makes cats the stars.

Walk for Music follow-up

I just wanted to post a follow-up to my post about the Walk for Music. April 28 was the most beautiful possible spring day in downtown Boston - everything was blooming and flowering, and the sun was out in a clear blue sky, and it was absolutely beautiful. We had more Cantilena walkers than in any previous year, and it was altogether a delightful afternoon!

And I'm happy to say I beat my goal, which was $250, and raised over $300! Thanks to the following people for helping me out with that goal:

Anney Barrett, Derek Bruneau, Jody Doyle, Peter Eldredge, Dave Galvin, Eve Goldfarb, Edwin Henneken, Adrian Martin, Jack Martin, Molly and Terry Martin, Sophie Michaux, Mary Parker, Vicky Reichert, Nancy Robertson, Chartis Tebbetts, Ron Wallace, Jeff Watson, and Todd Weber.

Now don't forget to come to the Cantilena concert this coming Sunday at 7 pm at First Parish Arlington!

2 job openings

Both of these positions look interesting!

Mak'hela, the Jewish chorus of Western Mass, is looking for an Interim Director to lead rehearsals in Northampton on Tuesday evenings.

 The Rhode Island Children's Chorus is looking for a conductor to lead one of their choruses one evening a week.

Be fruitful and multi-apply!

Monday link - Scott Wheeler interview

I haven't done any "Monday link" entries in a while, but this one should make up for it!

Check out this video of an interview I did with Scott Wheeler about the piece we commissioned him to write for Cantilena. He set Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky." It is awesome, and we will be premiering it in 6 days (on Mother's Day, this coming Sunday!) at 7 pm at First Parish Arlington. If you have never been to a Cantilena concert, now would be the time!

Friday cat post!

I think what today needs is a picture of a cute kitty in the middle of some spring flowers, don't you?

Courtesy of my brother, here is one of his cats Porkchop!

 

You may remember Porkchop, who is the younger and newer housemate of Oomi. Porkchop recently had a little...operation, and now he is also free to roam outside!

Walk for Music - I need $5 of support!

I'm happy to say I'm doing the Walk for Music again this year on April 28! This fundraiser supports all types of music programs in Boston's neighborhoods and surrounding communities. 100% of the pledges raised will go straight to these music programs (and are tax deductible)! I will be part of the Cantilena team, and my personal goal is to raise $250. It's extremely ambitious, but my goal is to get 50 people to give me $5 in the next week and a half!

This is an important fund-raiser for Cantilena. A big portion of our annual budget comes from donations and fund-raisers; ticket sales cover a very small part of our operating costs. And we have a special goal this year; we have started a new music fund! This fund is in honor of former alto Mordena Babich, who was a beloved member of the chorus for a long time. We are committed to commissioning new works for women's voices (already while I have been the director we have commissioned three works, and we will be doing a premiere by Scott Wheeler on May 12! You will be hearing more about that soon; it is a FANTASTIC piece.)

I hope that you are able to support me with a pledge of $5! Checks can be made out to Cantilena and sent directly to me at Cantilena, PO Box 380702, Cambridge, MA 02238. Or you can use the "donate" button on the Cantilena web site (www.cantilena.org). Or you can hand me $5 when you see me!

$5 for new music and women's voices singing together! Spread the word!

Job opening

A chorister forwarded this on to me - the UCC church in Davis Square is looking for a music director. Looks like a great congregation!

Monday link

RIP Sir Colin Davis.

Friday link

Earlier this month I was lucky enough to visit my parents in Austin, TX (where it was either 80 or 90 degrees, sunny every day, and there were flowers out everywhere in the city.) They took me to see the movie Quartet while I was there, which was utterly delightful. It is a movie about a home for retired musicians, and the process of putting on a gala concert there. Everyone's performance was marvelous, and the whole film was utterly charming. One of the best things about it is that many of the roles were played by retired professional musicians, not actors, and Dame Gwyneth Jones had a cameo. I heartily recommend it. You can watch the trailer here.

Today's link is Maggie Smith being interviewed. Even though she clearly is not the biggest fan of tooting her own horn, she is quite funny, charming, and honest!

Weekend Concert/Service calendar

Hey, it's Holy Week! So the chances of great choral concerts are more slim, but there is a lot of good choral music going on this week! Feel free to leave a note telling us what crazy-awesome music is going on at your church this weekend.

And if you are on the South Shore, stop by First Parish Cohasset at 10 am on Sunday, where you can fill your needs for Handel and Sweelinck and folk and gospel all at the same place!

Audition announcement!

This is an audition announcement for any sopranos looking for an a cappella singing opportunity during Wednesdays before noon. The Notables, a group that I used to direct, is looking for both soprano 1's and 2's. They are a tremendous amount of fun, and a really generous group of ladies - the purpose of the group is to go sing in retirement homes in the MetroWest area. Details are below!

NEEDED!!!

SOPRANOS (I and II)

for a

WOMEN’S A CAPPELLA GROUP

“THE NOTABLES”

• 16 member FUN group made up of women of all ages from the western suburbs

• Rehearsals and most of the concerts are Wednesday 9:30-11:30 am, September through May

• Approximately 16 concerts bringing music to a wide variety of independent and assisted living and nursing home venues

• Wide repertoire of songs from the early 1920’s to the 1970’s in 4, 5 and 6 part harmony, occasional kazoos and choreography

• Under professional direction; audition required

Interested? Find out more and come see us sing!

Contact : Alice Moylan 781-899-9397

Kay Wynant 781-894-4102

(E-mail addresses also available, just leave a comment.)

Great job, Boston Gay Men's Chorus!

I am sticking my head back into the blogosphere to congratulate the Boston Gay Men's Chorus, who gave a tremendous concert today. I was looking around last month for a concert I could share with my college singers, and since the title of today's program was "Seize the Day!" and we sang that song last year, I thought it would be a great show to take them to. I also knew that the BGMC often has a Broadway bent, and lots of my kids like Broadway, so it seemed like a great fit. I had no idea how right I was!

I didn't think anything was going to be able to top Ricky Ian Gordon's multi-movement work Only Heaven, settings of the poetry of Langston Hughes that was arranged for the BGMC and also stunningly danced by two great dancers, Christian Bufford and Bradley Gibson. This is a work that people should absolutely look into (solo sopranos, it was originally a song cycle for you!) Kudos are also due to the Wellesley High School Select Choirs, who sang in the middle of the show. But Stephen Schwartz's work Testimony, based on words from the It Gets Better Project, was definitely the high point for me - it brought me to tears. It was written for the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, whose performance is in the video below. Hearing a stage full of hundreds of gay men singing full-throated and full-hearted "It gets more than better, it gets amazing and astounding" was a really powerful moment. The concert is over now, as today was the last performance, but you can hear "Testimony" below and you can go to the BGMC's next performance! I was very impressed at their professionalism and quality; they really assembled a program that perfectly played to their strengths and had a powerful emotional impact. Bravo, guys!

 

Harvard Women's Chorus Festival!

Guess what Cantilena is doing this weekend? We are participating in the Harvard Women's Chorus Festival!

Cantilena will be singing in the concert on Saturday at 4 pm at Sanders Theater. We are going to be doing quite the mix of music, including the most Romantic, angst-y piece you've ever heard, by d'Indy, as well as stuff by Eleanor Daley, Roger Bourland, and Irving Fine. And we have some good company, so come to this concert!

(Related to the above, this weekend is ALSO going to necessitate the most careful and accurate application of caffeine to my system that I have ever been required to balance!)

Friday cat post

A little bit of humor. Hat-tip to my brother.

Thursday Self-Promoting Open Thread

Do you have any choral concerts this weekend? Let us know!

Monday link

"What Every Music Teacher Wants You to Know"

#4 is the absolute best one. "We didn’t go into teaching music because we wanted to get better at math. We want what we do to be valued for its own purpose. We want people to think it’s important to have music in schools, well, just because it is! Imagine your life without music."

Yes, that.

Thursday Self-Promoting Open Thread

Did anyone plan ahead, and schedule some concerts for this weekend, when there are very few choral concerts going on? Let us know in the comments!

Cantilena CD release

Hey look, I'm in the papers! Happy New Year to me!