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!