Charleston, Post 6 - Nrityagram Dance Ensemble

Yesterday was another free day, so in the afternoon I went to see the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble perform a show called Sacred Space. It was amazing. The unity of the ensemble was unreal, and their precision was unbelievable. From the first movement you could just relax, knowing that you were watching dancers who absolutely knew what they were doing. Every part of their bodies is considered - hands, toes, facial expressions. And since they were wearing bells everywhere, the dance was part of the music, and far more connected to the sound than I usually feel is the case at dance performances. The only thing I've seen to compare, in terms of music and dance being one and the same, was here at Spoleto last year, when I saw Savion Glover. The difference was that Glover, a tap-dancer, concentrated all his energy into his feet, and the dancers of Nrityagram concentrated on everything. It was really beautiful, artistic, impressive dancing.

In the evening I went out to dinner with a few friends, and picked up some of the world's best pralines at a candy shop on the way. I never had pralines before - I had no idea I liked them. But these are amazing, and I think I've found a new food obsession! We also saw the artistic director of the chamber music program having dinner in the same restaurant, so we sent him a drink, and he came over and talked to us for a bit. I'd never sent someone a drink before, but it's fun! Now I'll have to actually get to some of the chamber music performances, or I'll feel guilty. The difficulty is getting myself to a performance at 11 am, which is when the chamber music is. That may not sound like much, but when your opera gets done at 11:30, and you get home at midnight, and nobody goes to bed for at least an hour, it can be difficult to get up before noon.

Charleston, Post 5 - Pickles! and reviews

I neglected in my last post to mention the most important thing about the Spoleto Festival opening, namely - the Pickle Ceremony! Before opening night, the assistant electrician of every show rigs up a pickle with some wires and a power cord. The entire cast assembles in the green room about 10 minutes before curtain, and after the lights are turned off, everyone starts a slow chant of "Pi-ckle! Pi-ckle!" Then the assistant electrician throws the switch, and if the pickle glows, then that means good luck for the festival. Naturally, both pickles did indeed glow. There was one at Don Giovanni at the preview, and one at Romeo et Juliette on the actual festival opening night. (That pickle was artistically decorated with a white veil and a knife in its little pickle heart.)

Today was our first day off since the Festival started, meaning we finally had time to attend some of the other shows. (As a Spoleto Festival member, I can show my badge and get in free to any show that's not sold-out.) In the afternoon I saw the Paul Taylor dance company, which was just fabulous. It was beautiful, and one of my favorite things about it was that there was so much joy in some of the pieces. Often it feels like artists feel compelled to only present dark things, but the first piece of choreography especially, set to Handel, was just pure happiness. And the second piece, set to early American jazz, was very funny, with incredibly original ways of moving. I enjoyed the abstract pieces the most, because that was where I felt the choreography really explored shapes and new ways of moving.

In the evening I went with some other Westminster Choir folks to try and see Tristan and Yseult. Owing to being sold out, and some confusion with the ushers, we didn't get to see the first ten or fifteen minutes, but after my friend AG approached the house manager again to see if we could stand in the back, we finally got in. I was sorry to miss the beginning, but glad I decided to stick around and watch it anyways. It was wacky and funny and odd in parts, but it achieved some really heart-rending moments, and the whole show was original and well-done.

Tomorrow is one of the longest days we'll have - rehearsal at 10, call for opera at 1 pm, with the performance at 2, and then call for a different opera at 7:30 and performance at 8. Luckily there's another free day afterwards, which means more shows! I'm either in an opera or planning on watching a show every single night until we go home. Who knows when I'll be able to come back again, after all.

Charleston, Post 4 - Festival Opening

Today is the official opening of the Spoleto Festival. The opening ceremony was at noon down at the Old Exchange Building. Apparently Philip Glass wrote a fanfare for car alarms, but I got there too late to hear it. I'm not too sad about this, as I hear it was highly anti-climactic.

Last night was the preview performance of Don Giovanni (which just means it was a performance before the official opening of the festival) and tonight the festival really gets swinging with the first performance of Romeo et Juliette. This entire past week has been piles of dress rehearsals for both shows - there's always a piano dress/tech and two orchestra dresses for each show. It's exciting that we're finally into performances, because those are much more exciting - having an audience can really transform a performance.

Doing both operas really eats up time - Don Giovanni has seven performances, and Romeo et Juliette has 4, which means that there are very few days off (or more importantly, evenings off) to go see other performances. All performers in the festival get free admission to any performance they want, as long as it's not sold out, and since there are so many performances, very few things are sold out. One of my favorite performers last year, Mike Daisey, is coming back, but I sadly won't be able to see any of his performances as I have performances at all the same times.

The make-up and wig call is in half an hour, so I'll sign off here. (I am wearing a black wig. I look rather like a wax-work person in it, since I'm so pale.) It's hard to know what else to say about the festival - give me help. What should I post about?

Charleston, Post 3 - Water

The theme of this year seems to be water. We were met with a torrential downpour coming into the Charleston airport. The first day rained. In the Gounod opera, Act III ends with us being rained on (after Tybalt and Mercutio die.) And in Don Giovanni, there is an onstage lake that we splash around in, and get totally drenched in. Don Giovanni has a set that truly deserves a lengthy description, another day. For now, suffice it to say there is a pool with a small stream that runs to an onstage lake. On the chorus's first entrance, we run to this pool as fast as we can, jump into it, and then proceed to splash each other. Today was the first day practicing with water, and we sure do get soaking wet! We then proceed to go and sit next to the audience in the aisles, and watch the rest of the act, still soaking wet. At a later point, Don Giovanni also sprays us with champagne. (Hopefully it will be real - don't know yet!)

Luckily I have tomorrow for laundry - it's our first day off! Also for trying to find an optometrist, so I can get contacts - splashing water plus glasses do not combine to create the best vision.

Charleston, Post 2 - The choir

Day 3 of the Westminster Choir's schedule at the Spoleto Festival rehearsals was much like days 1 and 2. Music rehearsal in the morning, 10-12:30. Staging rehearsal for one of the operas, 2-5 pm. Staging rehearsal for one of the operas, 7-10 pm. Sprinkled in between are meetings with the costume shop and the wig shop for fittings.

The Westminster Choir has been a part of Spoleto Festival USA since the festival's founding in 1977. We serve as the opera choir for all the operas at the festival - last year there were three, this year there are two, Gounod's Roméo et Juliette and Mozart's Don Giovanni. The chorus for the Mozart is smaller, only using half the choir, and the full choir is in the Gounod. I am in the half of the choir that is performing in both. In addition, there is one performance of Mozart's Mass in C and two performances of the choir performing shorter works accompanied only with piano (a Bach motet, some of the Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes, Barber's Reincarnations, etc.) We have two weeks of rehearsal before the festival to get the two operas staged - it's been three days, and they are almost entirely staged already - only a few scenes remain in each to really nail down. A good thing, too, because we begin orchestra rehearsals on both sets tomorrow.

Physically, staging is fairly exhausting (especially the Mozart, which involves sprinting around an auditorium in bare feet.) Mentally, being at Spoleto is more restful than being in school - after all, I only have to be where people tell me, and then do what other people tell me once I'm there. However, physical exhaustion alone can be overwhelming, and my wig fitting tomorrow is at 9:30 am (yes, I will be wearing a wig for the Gounod!) so it's off to bed for me.

Charleston, Post 1 - Arrival

I made it to Charleston, SC! This is slightly more of an accomplishment than it sounds. We (the Westminster Choir) left yesterday afternoon, and flew into the Charleston airport in the middle of a fairly impressive thunderstorm. While I felt this was less exciting than I would have imagined, we did see some fairly impressive bolts. Once we landed, we had to wait for a while, because the thunderstorm meant it wasn't safe for the airport workers to go and unload our luggage. Then we had to stay in the airport because there was a tornado warning for the airport - several tornados were seen touching down close to the airport, one 1/4 of a mile away. In addition, the chorus was on two planes - the second plane was not allowed to land, but was diverted, and we had to wait for them to arrive.

Once planes were allowed to land and we were allowed to load the bus and leave, we reached our temporary lodgings with no further adventures, but since it was sheeting down rain, very very wet. We're staying in the dorms of the College of Charleston, which are fairly nice - two to a room, with bathroom included, and two rooms to a suite, which has a mini-kitchen and a little area for a couch and TV.

More on what the Westminster Choir is actually doing here in Charleston tomorrow.

Roseae Feminae

It's approaching that time of year when everything gets the adjective "last." Last night was the last concert of Roseae Feminae, the women's choir I put together a year and a half ago.

It went really well! We had more audience than at any previous concert (meaning double-digits!) and the group sounded really strong. There were a few bobbles, mostly because I got overly enthusiastic in the last month and added too much new repertoire, but concert as a whole was strong and solid. The sound was beautiful, and I was proud that there were many different sounds of the choir, depending on what era of repertoire we were singing. And even better, I feel like we all, me included, were energetic, extroverted, and communicative, something that after last year I knew would be my biggest challenge. I was able to look at specific singers and think, "Wow! They are really delivering the piece! I know they didn't sing like that a year ago."

I'm glad I got to do one more conducting concert after my Master Singers concert - I felt like I was able to continue applying a lot of what I learned several months ago, and continue to make progress.

So thank you to all my Roseae Feminae singers - not only was leading that choir one of the most educational things I did here, but it always reminded me that the reason I do this is not for class credit or a degree or recognition, but love of the job!

P.S. Apparently what I was complaining of in the last entry is not tennis elbow, which affects the outer side of the elbow, but golfer's elbow. This is disappointing, as it's much less fun to claim I have golfer's elbow. However, since my arm feels fine now, I suppose it's irrelevant.

Final Roseae Feminae concert

The final concert of my women's choir, Roseae Feminae, is tomorrow, May 2. I strongly encourage anyone and everyone to come - it will be at 7:30 pm at Christ Congregation (50 Walnut Lane in Princeton, NJ.) The chorus sounds really awesome - I'm very encouraged at how everything always sounds better and better! I know that's what's supposed to happen when you rehearse, but it is nevertheless quite encouraging that it actually does.

However, we just had our dress rehearsal, and I am sorry to report that I am turning into that dreaded being, the over-enthusiastic conductor who runs over time. I kept them 15 minutes past the end of the rehearsal. Luckily they have not been smart enough to form a union yet, or I'd be taken out and thrashed. However, keeping people late is something I really do try not to do - I'm rather ashamed I didn't quite succeed.

Also, I'm getting tennis elbow from conducting too enthusiastically - this happened during my Master Singers concert as well. Suggestions for how to care for tennis elbow (ice? heat?) are welcome.

The merits of light-sabers vs. batons

Someday I'm going to conduct with a light-saber! (Mom, you can be the Storm-Trooper in the middle of the video on the tympani, of course.) This video link was sent to me by my friend Johanna - credit where credit is due!

In other news, I passed my orals. Classes are over in a week and a half, and graduation is the week after that. There sure is a lot to get done in that time!

Kantorei performance

I am pleased to announce that tomorrow, Friday, April 6, and Saturday, April 7, Westminster Kantorei and Fuma Sacra will be performing Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610. We will be in Princeton on Friday, and in Manhattan at the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church on Saturday. Both concerts are at 8 pm - I encourage you to check out the Westminster website for further information.

This will be my last performance with Kantorei, since I'm graduating, and it will be pretty spectacular to boot. We have period instruments (think sackbutts, cornetti, theorbo) and the dress rehearsal today was very exciting. It's an effervescent piece, and there will be some pretty good performers involved, if I do say so myself! Please come if you can!

Paulus

The Masterworks Chorale, under the direction of Dr. Megill, is performing (among other things) Stephen Paulus's Visions From Hildegard, Part III in our spring concert. I am an intern for the group, meaning I show up and sing, and run sectionals when necessary. Since Paulus was in New York for the week, and he and Dr. Megill are friendly, he came to our rehearsal today to talk about the piece and work with us. It was quite an excellent experience. We sang through each movement, and then he would talk about what he thought were important musical points, what he had been thinking about when composing it, and his feelings about the text. He also fielded many general questions about his life as a composer. He was very down-to-earth and somewhat self-effacing. It was great to see him warm up over the course of the rehearsal and feel more and more comfortable talking about himself. He presented his work and his life as a composer in a very simple, accessible, and charming way. He also talked about the spirituality of the work (the text is all by Hildegard von Bingen) in a manner that made it feel very accessible and personal to me - he was very careful to be inclusive, and I came away from the discussion feeling more personal ownership of the piece. All in all, it was a great rehearsal, and a great experience.

Post-Concert Post, WC tour

It will probably come as no surprise that I passed my concert. Although it was a rocky road getting there, I was happy with the result. I programmed some fairly challenging music, and we all performed it very well. However, my primary feeling about the whole matter is relief that it's over!

The other major event that passed since my last post was the Westminster Choir's tour to England. This was not a particularly happy event. I did appreciate the chance to get to know the choir better, and feel that the group is a remarkably positive, energetic, and generally nice group of people. However, there were problems with the schedule, which was far too busy, and left us all exhausted and unable to fully appreciate the experience. There were also problems with the leadership. Due to these factors, our musical performance was not nearly what it could have and should have been.

This whole event brings up a very pertinent question about blogging, which is how to address negative issues. Obviously, saying bad things about people, especially personal acquaintances, can lead to problems. I know that certain of my readers who care about me get very concerned when I say anything that might offend someone. However, I also don't want to present a picture of my life, and especially my musical experiences, that is utterly skewed towards sunshine and roses. Sometimes things may be really, really hard. In the musical world, especially, I have already come into contact with a profound amount of drama and unprofessional behavior, and I'm young yet! I don't think it's to my benefit or anyone else's if I pretend those problems don't exist - I want this blog to tackle a wide variety of issues, and sometimes that will mean the problems I encounter. Another aspect of this question is that I feel society in general views musical careers through an extremely romanticized lens. Conductors, especially, are often viewed as a breed apart. One of the purposes of this blog is to chronicle the passage of one conductor in a realistic and down-to-earth manner.

Wil Wheaton (formerly Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, now a writer, actor, poker-player, and well-known blogger) addresses this question in his book Just a Geek. He chronicles the history of his blog (which is now hugely popular) and explains that in the beginning, he used it as a front, only saying positive things, and pretending things were going smoothly when they weren't. It was when he started honestly confessing that things weren't going well for him, and writing deeply about the issues that he was facing (at that time, as a struggling actor) that his blog really took root, and his readership expanded.

Obviously, being honest with the struggles one may be facing is quite different from publishing negative remarks about people, or being insulting. Every blog must find its own point of balance about such matters. I try not to write anything in an entry that I would not say to anyone who might possibly read this blog (and to me, that means anyone alive on the planet.) Sometimes, no doubt, I will cross the line. Feel free to weigh in - what do you think about being honest with negative experiences when blogging?

Concert post, #4

I am happy to report that I passed my jury today!

In the middle of the last week of rehearsals, the conducting faculty drop by to make sure that your chorus will be able to sing your music in concert. It is understood that you have a little rehearsal time left, but you have to get through all the pieces. With only a few mishaps, we were able to do this. I am enormously relieved.

However, these last few days are going to be a huge amount of work. If you wish to see the final product, my graduate conducting recital is on March 4 at 7 pm in Bristol Chapel on Westminster Choir Campus. Hope to see you there!

Academy Chamber Choir of Uppsala

This evening, the Academy Chamber Choir of Uppsala, Sweden came and performed Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil at Bristol Chapel. It was quite wonderful. Despite arriving only yesterday, they used the space extremely well, doing some pieces surrounding the audience, the first piece from the back, and using different lighting and standing arrangements. They had a wonderful, blended, sincere sound. The conductor, Stefan Parkman, was fabulous - he has a very physical style of conducting, where he really digs down into the sound. Everyone seemed to love what they were doing - they got a well-deserved standing ovation at the end.

Especially now, when I am working so hard to make my own concert come together, it was nice to sit on the audience's side for once!

Fuma Sacra concert

For anyone in the Delaware or New York City area, there is going to be a fabulous concert this weekend near you. Fuma Sacra, a professional early-music ensemble led by Dr. Megill, will be performing a Handel concert this weekend, and I strongly urge you to check it out! I heard their Christmas concert, and it was one of the most excellent concerts I've ever been to.

Works performed will include Handel's Dixit Dominus (quite a pyrotechnic work) and "Choice of Hercules."

Friday:
Christ Church Christiana Hundred
Buck Road East
Wilmington, DE 19807
8 pm
Tickets: $22

Saturday:
St. Peter's Church
Second and Market Streets
Lewes, DE 19958
7:30 pm
Tickets: $15

Sunday:
Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church
82nd and Broadway
Manhattan, NY, NY
3 pm
Tickets: Yes

Concert post, #3

I have very happy to announce that the Tavener piece got here safe and sound from England. I have thirty copies in my hot little hands as we speak, and I'll be giving them to the choir tomorrow. Thank goodness that's all settled!

The first rehearsal was today. It went OK - I have some wonderful singers - but I sure do have a lot to work on in the next three weeks. At the top of my list is being more demanding, perfectionist, and assertive. I have a hard time telling people, "No, that's wrong!" It's not exactly something one is trained to do in everyday life.

That's all I have time to say right now, but for more on this topic, see my essay in Dr. Jordan's book. Hint, hint.

The Musician's Walk

This is a somewhat belated announcement, but Dr. James Jordan's most recent book, The Musician's Walk, has been published, and yours truly contributed a chapter. If you are interested in musical or artistic philosophy, you might enjoy it. My chapter was on the phenomenon of women's tendency to apologize for everything, and how that impacts conducting.

If you are only interested in reading my chapter, then I'd be happy to lend my copy to you. I also have a few extra copies sent to me by the publisher, so if you are willing to pay postage, I'd be happy to send a book to the first one or two commenters. However, you'll have to wait until my concert is over before I have time to wrap them up and walk over to the post office!

King's Singers review

I just returned from a King's Singers concert, given at McCarter Theater in Princeton. There was a schedule lying around in the Graduate Assistant office this morning, and I happened to pick it up and glance through it. I noticed that the King's Singers were singing tonight! So, despite vast amounts of work I ought to be doing, I decided to be spontaneous, and ran down to the theater this evening and took in their concert.

They were fabulous, as always. A tight-knit ensemble, but very individually expressive - real chamber music. One of the charming things about the King's Singers is that they never sound like anyone else. In the first half, where they sang some madrigals, a set by Estonian Cyrillus Kreek, and some Spanish Renaissance music, the tuning was not as impeccable as I might have liked, possibly owing to fairly new counter-tenor Robin Tyson, who doesn't yet have quite the beautiful flexibility and ease in his voice that David Hurley does. He occasionally sounded like he was pushing upwards rather than floating. But any quibbles disappeared in the second half, where the group performed two works they commissioned by Jackson Hill and Takemitsu, which were stunning, and their signature popular rep, which is just the tightest sound you can imagine.

One of the great things about the King's Singers is that they maintain a sense of humor while never sacrificing the quality of the music. They are entertainers as well as consummate musicians, one reason for their popularity. Possibly my new favorite in the group is tenor Paul Phoenix, who danced a little during the Spanish Renaissance music. Watching someone boogie down to Renaissance music gave me a warm fuzzy feeling and reminded me of my old college group the Williams Elizabethans. He also had a few stunning solos, in particular during one of the Spanish pieces called Rodrigo Martinez, and during the Beatles' Blackbird. Chris Gabbitas had a lovely baritone solo during Billy Joel's Only A Woman. Philip Lawson had only one extremely brief solo, which was sad - I would have liked to hear him highlighted more. Although I picked on Tyson earlier, he and David Hurley had a wonderful high sound together, and Stephen Connolly held down the low end of things with flair. Their encore was an Italian version of "Old MacDonald", which inspired equal parts laughter and awe - the perfect blend of their talents.

And really, David Hurley bleating "maa" like a sheep is the cutest thing I've heard all year.

Concert post, #2

I sent 41 e-mails today. I just counted, and I'll probably send some more before the day is done. Some of them were arranging meetings with undergraduate conducting students for my graduate assistantship; others were to members of various choirs I'm trying to assemble, for both my and other people's upcoming concerts; some (but not many) were just the normal interactions with friends and family. My point is, a lot of time has to get sunk into administration when you're a conductor!

I had my hearing last Friday, and I passed, meaning the conducting faculty are satisfied with how well I know the music. However, they aren't satisfied with the expressiveness of my conducting, and made it clear I have a lot of work to do in the next month. I have my first meeting with my advisor tomorrow to address this issue.

But since I passed my hearing, the concert program is as follows:

Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich? by Schütz
La Nuit Froide et Sombre by Lassus
Waldesnacht by Brahms
Calme des Nuits by Saint-Saëns
Wedding Anthem by Britten
Village Wedding by Tavener
Cocktail by Mike Veloso
Heart, We Will Forget Him by Ashi Day
Jefferson from the Sacred Harp Hymnal
The Boatmen's Dance by Copland, arr. Fine
Good News arr. Dawson
Rhapsody of New York by Gerschwin, arr. Wright

That is, that was the concert program until I got an e-mail yesterday, informing me that Village Wedding is back-ordered, and it may not come in time for the performance. So I don't know what's going to happen with that. One idea is to go to inter-library loan and try to get 30 copies of the piece to Westminster. I'll have to call the publisher tomorrow. Stay tuned, because the drama never stops!

I am the very model...

Humor, religious commentary, Gilbert and Sullivan...this link has something for everyone!

I am the very model of a model Unitarian.