Weekend Concert Calendar, 11/11/10

Do you know a veteran? (I should think most of us do.) Treat them to a concert this weekend!

Friday:

I have nothing for Friday. Nothing! Very weird. In the absence of any straight-up choral concerts, I recommend going to see the Boston Opera Collaborative's production of Mark Adamo's Little Women. I have heard good things, and will be checking it out myself this weekend.

Saturday:

For Saturday, among many delightful offerings the Spectrum Singers are offering a totally fascinating program called "Sound the Trumpets!"; fascinating because I am unfamiliar with much of the repertoire they are presenting, and that always makes for a good time. From their publicity material:

"[The concert will include] Joseph Jongen's Mass for Chorus, Brass and Organ. Come hear why Jongen was considered a superb colorist and genius of form, harmony, and melody. The Mass is absolutely beautiful and moving. Also hear Marcel Dupré's Poème Héroïque for organ, brass and drum plus festive choral music by Lili Boulanger, William Mathias, Daniel Pinkham, Virgil Thomson and William Walton. With Heinrich Christensen on organ and a special pre-concert talk by Steve Ledbetter at 7:00." The concert is at 8 pm at First Church Congregational, Cambridge.

Also on Saturday: Cappella Clausura, the Salisbury Singers, the Assabet Valley Mastersingers, the Boston Children's Chorus, the Wellesley College Choir.

Sunday:

Check out Cappella Clausura's production of Hildegard von Bingen's Ordo Virtutum. A liturgical drama, it is one of her major works and contains some of her most beloved chants. Cappella Clausura has updated this ancient play for modern audiences; in their version, "a soul interviews for a job at the Devil's corporation. Can she resist a tempting offer, or will she join a virtuous non-profit? Come find out in this unforgettable new production!" 5 pm at First Lutheran Church in Boston. Also on Saturday in Newton.

Also on Sunday: Cappella Clausura,the Paul Madore Chorale, the Boston Russian Chorus and Festival Singers, the Brandeis University Chamber Choir.

Did I miss anything? Leave it in the comments!

Monday link

This one's for all the organists! I am sure you will all relate. (Warning: sound is NSFW.)

Friday cat post!

Today my friend Michelle helped me out with the camera, so you get a rare shot of me and Samson together!

"What do you think? Headbutt?"

"Of course!"

Weekend Concert Calendar, 11/4/10

Let's just dive right in, shall we?

Friday: On Friday, I recommend going to see Masterworks Chorale present Handel's oratorio Alexander's Feast. The soloists will be excellent - soprano Teresa Wakim, tenor Jason McStoots, and baritone Sumner Thompson - and the Treble Chorus of New England will also be featured. At 8 pm at Sanders Theatre.

Also on Friday: BSO w/ the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Cantata Singers, University Chorale of Boston College.

Saturday: Go to the BSO! In addition to Brahms' Symphony No. 2, they will be performing the rarely-heard Atlàntida (“Atlantis”) by Manuel de Falla. Sung in Catalan, this work is about the lost continent of Atlantis and its subsequent rediscovery by Columbus. This concert will be Friday, Saturday and Tuesday at Symphony Hall at 8 pm.

Also on Saturday: The Master Singers of Lexington, BSO w/ the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Cantata Singers, Blue Heron Renaissance Choir, Night Song Schola.

Sunday: It's a weekend for big choral works! On Sunday I recommend the Chorus pro Musica concert, featuring Dvorak's Mass in D as well as works by Janáček, Duruflé, and Holst. 3 pm at Old South Church in Boston.

Also on Sunday: Candlelight Chorale, Divi Zheni.

Monday link

This has been making the rounds, though hat-tip to EG for being the first to let me know about it.

Here, the musical talent of the next generation! (I would actually love to see him in front of a professional orchestra; how much fun would everyone have? I bet that would be a very positive feedback loop, and a hugely energetic performance!)

Weekend Concert Calendar, 10/28/10

Because of Halloween weekend, not so many choral concerts going on, but still enough to fill your dance card!

Friday: On Friday, take a little hike down to Providence to hear Zefiro, a group of eight Renaissance singers. They will be stretching their repertoire with a program called "Meditations," which will include Arvo Pärt's Prayer after the Canon, as well as a cappella works by Parry, Brahms, and more. If you don't want to trek down to Providence to hear them on Friday at 8 pm at St. Stephen's Church, check them out at 8 pm on Saturday closer to home, at the Nave Gallery in Somerville.

Saturday: Or on Saturday, you could also check out the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum and Radcliffe Choral Society as they present a program called "Exuberance and Elegance," featuring classics of Tudor England and new America. This concert is a big deal, as it is the debut of Andrew Clark, the newly appointed Director of Choral Activities at Harvard. Sanders Theatre, 8 pm!

Sunday: The Boston Camerata will team up with the choral fellows of the Harvard University Choir to present works by Dufay, Josquin, Marenzio, and Monteverdi. At Memorial Church on the Harvard campus, 4 pm.

Did I miss anything? Leave it in the comments!

Weekend Concert Calendar, 10/21/10

How ironic that I write this entry with earplugs in my ears to blog out the music from my upstairs neighbor, who apparently only ever listens to one piece. Or at least music with one exactly-the-same bass beat. Anyways, moving on. What should you be listening to this weekend?

Friday: Of course on Friday I choose myself! Come to the Schola Cantorum concert tomorrow night (today, by the time you read this) at 8 pm at St. John's on Bowdoin St. in Boston. We will be doing a pile of English Tudor music, including Byrd's Mass for 4 Voices. And I have a solo on one of the Tomkins pieces! We are repeating this concert in Rhode Island on Saturday and Sunday; see the website for details.

Saturday: Since both were gracious enough to give away tickets on this blog, obviously Saturday is a tie between Musica Sacra (Rutter's Requiem! Schütz's Musikalisches Exequien!) and the Boston Cecilia (Mendelssohn! Schubert!) Musica Sacra is at 8 pm at the First Congregational Church in Cambridge, and the Boston Cecilia is at 8 pm at All Saints Parish in Brookline.

Also on Saturday: Power Sing with Nick Page, Brandeis University Chorus.

Sunday: On Sunday, go see Simon Carrington direct Canto Armonico and members of the Harvard Baroque Orchestra in a performance of a new critical edition of CPE Bach's Magnificat at 3 pm at First Lutheran Church in Boston.

Did I forget anything? Leave it in the comments!

Ticket winners!

I'm happy to announce the winners of the ticket giveaway. Shannon Rose is going to the Boston Cecilia concert, and Curious Patient is going to the Musica Sacra concert. Curious Patient, could you please e-mail me your real name? Otherwise you will have to go to will-call and ask for the tickets being held under Curious Patient. For real, I'm telling their manager that tomorrow morning!

Ticket giveaway!

This is a very special week, as we have TWO ticket giveaways for concerts this weekend! They are on the same day, but life is full of tough choices.

The first concert is Musica Sacra, who have paired two great works together for what will no doubt be a very intense evening. They will be performing John Rutter's 20th century Requiem with the 17th century Musikalische Exequien by Heinrich Schütz. This concert is this coming Saturday, 10/23, at 8 pm, at the First Congregational Church in Cambridge (close to Harvard Square.)

The second concert is The Boston Cecilia, who are going Romantic with a program of Mendelssohn and Schubert. Tenor William Hite will be featured on the program, as well as pianist Barbara Bruns and up-and-coming mezzo-soprano Eileen Christiansen. (Please note: even if you don't win this pair of tickets, you can still get a two-for-one deal deal on the Boston Cecilia website if you use the code OCT50.) This concert will also be this coming Saturday, 10/23, at 8 pm at All Saints Parish in Brookline.

If you want a pair of free tickets to either of these concerts, leave a comment on this post before Wednesday at 6 pm, and tell me which concert you would want to go to, and what the last choral concert you attended was. I will choose one comment at random for each of the free pair of tickets. (Although if you truthfully tell me you have never been to a choral concert, I am throwing the random thing out the window and you are definitely getting one of the pairs!)

Monday link

You may have heard by now of the "It Gets Better" project. Started by always NSFW sex advice columnist Dan Savage and in honor of Billy Lucas, a queer teen who committed suicide in September, this project asks LGBTQ folk to make a video talking to younger LGBTQ people who may be threatened, harassed, bullied, depressed, or otherwise going through tough times, to encourage them, tell them they are not alone, and assure them that their lives will get better. Many, many folks have contributed wonderful videos already, including both celebrities like Tim Gunn and my own friends.

Here is NYC's Youth Pride Chorus and their contribution to the It Gets Better Project.

Friday cat post!

Let's check in with Oomi, shall we? What's she been up to?

Well, as you may remember, she is now a sometimes-outdoor kitty! Time for a game of Where's Waldo Oomi?

But she's not outdoors all the time.

Weekend Concert Calendar, 10/14/10

It has BEGUN. In my opinion, at least. The choruses, they are rolling out their first concerts, and the season is off to a good start! This is also the first week I will be challenged to stick to my new format, where I recommend only one concert per day. I know it's going to be good for getting a decent amount of sleep on Thursday nights, but it's hard to choose!

Friday: I think I have to pick the concert I'm going to, right? Probably the only concert I will get to this month that I am not performing in. BEMF presents Stile Antico, a Renaissance choir from Britain. Publicity folks make a big deal of the fact that they have no conductor and are self-directed, but with a dozen Renaissance singers having no conductor is pretty much the only right way to do it in my opinion (somebody up there conducting music with no bar lines only gets in the way); more exciting to me is the fact that they are supposed to be truly excellent.

Also on Friday: the Orpheus Singers.

Saturday: This is a good weekend for Renaissance music! If you go to Stile Antico on Friday, then you can go to the Blue Heron concert on Saturday and see how the home team holds up against them furriners! They will be singing music by Ludford and Aston from the Peterhouse Partbooks. Blue Heron are hot stuff; if you love early music and you have never been to one of their concerts, then you should be ashamed of yourself! And fix that this weekend.

Also on Saturday: the Orpheus Singers, Lorelei Ensemble, Boston Conservatory Combined Choruses.

Sunday: My pick for Sunday is "Halleluyah" at Emmanuel Church. Boston Jewish Spirit and Emmanuel are presenting an interfaith concert, featuring the Zamir Chorale under Joshua Jacobson, the Orpheus Singers under James Olesen (who are also giving two other concerts this weekend, see above) and the Spectrum Singers under John Ehrlich. This concert is a program of choral music celebrating the sesquicentennial of Emmanuel Church and the fifth anniversary of Boston Jewish Spirit. All three of these groups are great; all of them together should be fantastic!

Also on Sunday: King's Chapel Choir and Soloists, the Seraphim Singers, Belmont Open Sings, Music Arts Alive, Vox Lucens, Harvard University Choir, Cappella Clausura.

Did I miss anything? Leave it in the comments!

Monday link

RIP, Joan Sutherland. Thanks to friend AS for bringing this to my attention.

Weekend Concert Calendar, 10/7/10

It's Columbus Day weekend, so concerts are still a little thin on the ground (didn't find any choral concerts on Friday night) but next week things really get rolling!

Saturday: Check out the BSO's performance of Mahler's 2nd, "The Resurrection Symphony" at 8 pm. Levine is back on the podium, and everyone is all a-flutter! (Also next Tuesday.)

Sunday: Exsultemus performs the Italian madrigals of Palestrina at 3 pm. (Also Saturday at 8 pm.) This is their core repertoire; it should be exquisite.

Also on Sunday: the monthly Boston Sacred Harp sing.

Monday link

It's not choral, but it sure is fun! The comedy troupe Axis of Awesome explains the Four Chord Song. NSFW! (Stand-up comedy, you know.)

(I'm not sure this is a fair critique of pop songs of the last 40 years, since it completely leaves out any variation that might exist in the bridge, for one thing, but it's still hilarious.)

Friday cat post!

So, I am sadly aware that I have missed the last two Friday cat posts. And you all must be wondering how Samson is. (Or, y'know, not.) Samson is fine...the dirty truth is that it turns out I am terrible at taking pictures of him. I mean, really. They are not good pictures.

To fix this, I think we should have WAY MORE guest spots on this blog. Do you have a cat? Want your cat to have its 15 minutes of fame? (Er, "fame"?) Drop me a comment, and we'll tawk.

In the meantime, here is an example of why I need photographic help. This is Samson trying to scratch his face on my feet. I mean, it's cute, but really, it's not an aesthetically pleasing photograph.


In other cat news, I was introduced to the funniest cat-related website ever by my new organist. (That deserves a whole excited entry of its own!) It is a website called "Simon's Cat" and features wonderful animated films about a very, er, personality-filled cat. The first one is a classic. Samson behaves quite a lot like this in the morning, although luckily without the denouement, and happily for me only when he perceives that I am waking up anyways. I also recommend this one for my mother in particular, who may recall a similar incident.

Weekend Concert Calendar, 10/1/10

Hm. Choral concerts are thin on the ground this weekend, let me tell you. I can only offer you a couple of options on Sunday. (Friday and Saturday I suggest you explore other musical genres.)

On Sunday at 2:30 pm, you could attend one of the Cantata Singers Chamber Series concerts, titled "Vocal Chamber Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Friends." It will be at the Edward M. Pickman concert hall at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge.

Or, you could go to the Paretsky Center at Simmons College in Boston, and hear "Jaguza! Celebrate the Children of Uganda" where the Ugandan Martyrs Choir will perform with other native African singers to benefit the Malaka Fund, a non-profit based in Jamaica Plain.

That's all I got!

Did I miss anything? Leave it in the comments!

Monday links

busy day today STOP no time for full sentences STOP go read about clothing and posture STOP interesting that they chose to do that first experiment with women not men don't you think STOP samson sends his greetings

Weekend Concert Calendar, 9/23/10

Concerts are not yet thick on the ground, this being September, but what there is is quality stuff!

On Friday, be sure to go to Emmanuel Music's performance of Alexander's Feast by Handel. This is new music director Ryan Turner's debut concert with the group, so you will want to be there to check him out! The usual roster of extraordinary singers will be there, along with the choir and orchestra, and the estimable and amiable Donald Teeters will be giving the pre-concert lecture at 7 pm. Located at Emmanuel Church in Boston, naturally.

On Saturday, go support Blue Heron by attending their Season Preview Event. Starting at 6 pm in the Chapel of the Episcopal Divinity School, you can hear samples of the 2010-2011 season, have some food and drink, and meet the musicians.

On Sunday, you can attend Opera Harvest, a gala benefit for the Boston Singer's Resource. The Boston Singer's Resource is a great, well, resource for singers in Boston - for one thing, they are one of the primary websites I use to create this here Weekend Concert Calendar, and for another, they are my primary source for audition notices. In addition to the venerable Robert Honeysucker, some of Boston's best young singers will be performing, including my fellow Anthology member Michelle Vachon! The festivities start at 3 pm at the Hamilton-Wenham Community House in South Hamilton.

Also this weekend on Friday and Saturday, check out the Contemporary Americana Festival.

Did I miss something? Leave it in the comments!

Monday link

I kind of fell down on the Weekend Concert Calendar and the Friday cat post last week. Oh, well, this week is a new week. Samson is still doing well; he got cat grass today, which he seems to like. (This seemed a good idea after I noticed him chomping on my bamboo plant.)

Today's link is the group Cantus singing "There is Sweet Music Here" by Daniel Gawthrop. Very lovely performance. (Cantilena singing this piece in December, along with his classic "Sing Me to Heaven.")