Monday links

Maestro Dudamel visits Elmo on Sesame Street.

Congrats to Meryl Streep on her Oscar win last night! Here, she talks to Terry Gross about how her opera training helped her acting.

Singers had better be careful when they go to North Carolina! I wonder what the punishment is.

Stephen Colbert and Placido Domingo together - can't go wrong!

Weekend Concert Calendar, 2/23/12

I'm not going out to any concerts this weekend, because I'm going to be testing for my second degree black belt on Sunday. But you should get out there and enjoy yourself!

Friday:

• Berklee College of Music Gospel Ensemble, NEC Community Gospel Choir and the Endicott Singers, "Gospel Journeys", 7:30 pm, Beverly (more info here.)

Saturday:

• Boston College University Chorale, Mozart's Coronation Mass and other selections, 2:00 pm, Chestnut Hill

Sunday:

• Labyrinth Choir, "We Who Believe in Freedom", 2 pm, Framingham
  
• Nashoba Valley Chorale, Harvard Pro Musica, and the Indian Hill Symphony Orchestra, Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Haydn's Harmoniemesse, 3 pm, Littleton
• Eliot Church Singers, "The Choral Singer's Art", 3 pm, Newton
• Una Voce, Halalisa Singers, Vessels of Honor, GBCCA Choral Society, and Charles Street A.M.E. Gospel Choir, "Many Voices, One Song", 7 pm, Boston (more info here.)

Did I miss anything? Leave it in the comments!

Monday links

I was at the ACDA conference last week, so I'm a little behind on everything. Here, have some links that I myself have not had time to read! Tell me if they're interesting.

On concert silence...

A deaf and hearing children's choir in Africa...

A lego harpsichord...

The lifespan of the voice...

Do you have any links we should look at?

Friday cat post!

Having trouble sleeping? Then imitating some of these kitty sleeping poses will probably not be the least bit of help.

Monday links

RIP, Whitney Houston.

I never became a strong fan of her most well-known pop tunes, but in college I discovered the soundtrack to the movie The Preacher's Wife, and it is still one of my all-time favorite albums. There is some GREAT gospel on there. (Thanks to both Houston and the Georgia Mass Choir, who are no slouches.) I sang the song "Step by Step" as I biked across the country in 2001, and nothing can top that version of "Joy to the World." Whitney, we'll miss your effortless voice and joyful singing. We wish we could have had more of it, but we're happy for the "Joy" you brought while you were here.

Weekend Concert Calendar, 2/9

I have two concerts coming up this weekend with Schola Cantorum - Friday in Boston, and Sunday in Providence. Please join us for one of them - there are some very silly madrigals on there in addition to some very beautiful motets!

Friday:

• Schola Cantorum, "The Folly of Love: Motets and Chansons by Lassus and de Rore", 8 pm, Boston

Saturday:

• Master Singers of Lexington w/ the Clarke Middle School Choruses, Annual Children's Concert, 3 pm, Lexington
  
• Libana, Music and Dance from Women Around the World, 8 pm, Littleton

Sunday:

• Schola Cantorum, "The Folly of Love: Motets and Chansons by Lassus and de Rore", 3:30 pm, Providence
• Soweto Gospel Choir, presented by Celebrity Series Boston, 3 pm, Boston
  
• Heritage Chorale, "Pops Diamond Jubilee", 4 pm, Framingham
  
• Scituate High School Select Choir w/ South Shore Interfaith Choir, Fundraiser for the Scituate Food Pantry, 4 pm, Scituate. More info here (scroll down).
• Concord Five Choirs Festival, works by Bruckner, Mendelssohn, and others, 4 pm, Concord
  
• Libana, Music and Dance from Women Around the World, 7 pm, Easton
• Boston Camerata, "The Game of Love", 8 pm, Boston

Did I miss anything? Leave it in the comments!

Monday link

Producers in England are looking for a bass to sing the lowest-ever-written-note for a choral bass part in the new work by Paul Mealor. More details are here - Boston basses, represent! Via my mother.

Friday cat post!

Cats make everything better! Even - especially? - great art!

Weekend Concert Calendar, 2/2/12

Folks, I only have found one choral concert going on this weekend. Which seems crazy - tell me what I missed? But this one choral concert is a doozy! You want to be there! It's:

The 33rd Annual New England Conservatory (NEC)
Thomas A. Dorsey GOSPEL JUBILEE

Featuring!:

• The Reverence Gospel Choir of Berklee College
• The Herbet S. Jones and the Inner Strength Gospel Choir of Boston University
• Linda Brown and Lesley University's Gospel Choir Unity
• David Coleman and the Third Day Gospel Choir of Tufts University
• The UNITY Gospel Ensemble of Northeastern University
• The NEC Community and Millennium Gospel Choirs

It's THIS SUNDAY at 3 PM at NEC's Jordan Hall in Boston.

Be there or be square!

Weekend Concert Calendar, 1/26/12

My quartet Anthology is performing this Sunday at 2pm at the Shirley-Eustis House in Roxbury. You should come! Parking is available. And if you are on the South Shore, come to my church this Saturday at 8 pm for a great voice-and-pianoforte concert by Clara Rottsolk and Sylvia Berry!

Saturday:

Convivium Musicum, "Orlandissimo: A Renaissance Prodigy", 7:00 pm, Cambridge

Wellesley Choral Society, "Mid-Winter Concert: A Folk Song Fest", 7:00 pm, Wellesley

Voices Rising, "In Her Own Words", 7:30 pm, Boston

Exsultemus, "Music for Voices and Brass from Italy and Germany", 8:00 pm, Cambridge


Sunday:

Anthology, "Hot Music for a Cold Afternoon," 2 pm, Shirley-Eustis House in Roxbury

New England Gospel Ensemble, Rockport Music series concert, 3 pm, Rockport

Exsultemus, "Music for Voices and Brass from Italy and Germany", 3:00 pm, Boston

Andover Choral Society, Brahms' Requiem, 4:00 pm, North Andover

Convivium Musicum, "Orlandissimo: A Renaissance Prodigy", 4:00 pm, Brookline

Did I miss anything? Leave it in the comments! Self-promotion for non-choral musical events also welcome.

Wanted: Sopranos

Sopranos! How often are you desired above all other voice parts? Not often enough, right? Well, read on!

The Appalachian Mountain Club puts on 3 weekends a year in the White Mountains where about 100 instrumentalists and singers come together to make music and enjoy the outdoors with activities of the season. These events are called Mountains and Music. I have gone out several times to be the conductor for these events, and they are always a lot of fun. (Side note: also, the food is fantastic.) The next weekend is Feb 17-20 and they are looking for more singers, especially sopranos, to join. (Men are also needed - nothing new there!) More information is here.

I urge you to consider it - it's a lovely and refreshing weekend getaway!

Monday links

You might have noticed the lack of a Weekend Concert Calendar - I am especially sorry about that because there were some amazing concerts this past weekend. The Cantata Singers had a spectacular program reviewed here by the Globe; and I'm also sorry I missed the Lorelei Ensemble's performances. But I was pretty busy singing myself - here's a review of the King's Chapel Choir performance I sang in yesterday. (As the conductor pointed out when he sent out this link this morning, the reviewer seems quite taken with the altos! *does a little Miss-Piggy-style preening*)

If you don't want to read reviews, have a hilarious video of the day - Queen of the Night translated!

Monday links

Well, we have some gossip today!

First of all, there's this recent hubbub at NEC over Benjamin Zander.

Then there's this Boston Globe article about what on earth happened over at Opera Boston.

Did you hear that a NY Phil performance was interrupted by a cell phone? And that Alan Gilbert stopped the proceedings to wait until the phone stopped ringing?

Well, the cellphone miscreant has spoken up to apologize and explain.

Weekend Concert Calendar - not

Sorry folks, no Weekend Concert Calendar today. I'm just too behind right now! Check out bostonsings.org, and I'll let you know what's going on next week!

Correction!

Whoops, when I made that list of all my concerts yesterday, I made a mistake - the King's Chapel
"Baltic Cruise" concert is at 5 pm on Sunday, January 22 (not Sunday, January 29). I hope you all come anyways! The program is really varied and fantastic.

Friday cat post!

Who says kitties are stand-offish? This patient policeman would probably beg to differ.

My own upcoming concerts

There is a lot of stuff going on in the next couple of months!

First of all, Anthology has a few concerts coming up. On Sunday, January 22 we will be performing at 2 pm at the Wellesley Public Library. The following Sunday, January 29, also at 2 pm, we will be participating in the Greater Boston House Concert series by performing at the Shirley-Eustis House in Roxbury. And on Sunday, February 19, we'll be performing at 3 pm at First Parish Cohasset. The Cohasset concert will be the first performance of our new program that we are calling our "Love Concert" - it is full of music suitable for weddings and romance - but we will premiering some of those new pieces in our repertoire in Wellesley and Roxbury! Hope to see you there.

Also on Sunday, January 29 I'll be singing with the King's Chapel Choir, in a program called "A Baltic Cruise." It will include choral music from Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, and Russia. I'm working hard on my Russian and Latvian! That will be at King's Chapel in downtown Boston at 5 pm.

On February 10 at 8 pm in Boston, and February 12 at 3:30 pm in Providence, I'll be singing with Schola Cantorum in a program of motets and madrigals by Lasso and De Rore. This group is a collection of really excellent early music singers from the Boston area and beyond, and it's always a treat to perform with them.

And finally, this coming Saturday my chorus Cantilena is going to begin a recording project! We will be recording our December Christmas concert, and releasing that next fall. We are looking for people to help fund this project, as recording projects are always extremely expensive. You can always go to our homepage and click the Donate button in the lower left corner. (There are also some giving levels, you can see them in this PDF!)

Monday link

Let's have some Rowan Atkinson doing Beethoven. Two great tastes that taste great together! (Thanks to Facebook for this one, I don't remember who posted it.)

Friday cat post

Teehee. Enjoy this clever spoof by an ad agency. Cat videos are the future, people!

The comments claim it's a copycat of Kittywood Studios. I take no sides - enjoy both!

Weekend Concert Calendar, 1/5/11

Happy New Year! If you haven't made a resolution to support local music by going to lots of concerts, you should. Start this week!

Your options are limited, but quality! On Saturday evening, the Green Mountain Project is on Saturday at 7:30 pm at St. Paul's Church in Cambridge. This is the brainchild of local Scott Metcalfe, as well as soprano Jolle Greanleaf and others. From their website:

Our highly acclaimed Green Mountain Project goes to Cambridge, MA with our new program Vespers of 1640, which features works drawn from Claudio Monteverdi’s monumental collection Selva Morale e Spirituale, as well as works by Gabrieli in honor of the 400th anniversary of his death. This performance already happened in New York - you can read the New York Times gush about it here.

And on Sunday, the Arabella Ensemble will be at the Arlington Street Church at 5:30 pm singing songs for winter by Bach, Sibelius, Brahms, and others.