I love choirs. My earliest (enjoyable) musical memories are of singing in elementary school choir. Of course, I was a soprano then and got to sing the melody. Then there were years of no singing at all but in high school I happened to walk by the choir room as they were rehearsing "O Magnum Mysterium" (Victoria) and I was hooked. I gave up my lunch hour to sing second bass parts with buddy Steve Russell.
These days I mostly accompany choirs and we have such fine mixed choirs in the Triangle. But the sound that moves me the most is that of the unmixed choirs - all men, or all women - equally potent. This Saturday the Women's Voices Chorus performs. I'll be joining them on a few tunes playing bass as they celebrate dance. There will even be some dancers. John Hanks will play percussion.
Women's Voices Chorus has been around since the early 90's - founded by Mary Lycan. I've played with them many times over the years and they've had their ups and downs but tonight at rehearsal sitting in the middle of the ensemble I got goose bumps the singing was so beautiful. Rich, expressive, wonderfully in tune and oh, those altos! There is nothing like the sound of a women's chorus. Cheerfully and artfully directed by Allan Friedman - yeah, a guy - but I can tell they love him. Should be a very pleasing concert - please come.
Saturday, May 2, 2:00 pm - Chapel Hill Bible Church
Basso in Concert
Barbara Blaker Krumdieck ~ Baroque Cello
Robbie Link ~ Baroque Cello, Viola da Gamba, Violone
John O’Brien ~ Harpsichord, Violin, Flute
Chamber music by Bach, Ortiz, Gabrieli, Vitali et al
Two Performances:
The Music House
408 West 5th St., Greenville, NC
Admission Free but Reservation Required
Reservations: (252) 328-4137
Saturday April 18, 2009 7:00 pm
Harmony Hall
109 E King St., Kinston, NC
Sunday April 19, 2009 2:30 pm
It's too late. I've started. Upcoming rants and raves have started brewing in my head. I'm a slow writer - it can take me hours to do a post. Things that keep me up at 3:00 - the fretting hour:
Freelancing and Contractors - fear and loathing in the music world. No, I'm not going to rewrite Blair's Book but I've got a few thoughts about this.
When is it time to get out of the way of the "hot, young players"? (and when did I get so old?)
How do you figure out when you're wearing too many hats and starting to not look good in any of them? Focusing on a career instead of being jack of all trades, master of none.
Is the pencil mightier than the computer? When a fascination with technology gets in the way of creativity and productivity.
Floods of memories about places and people not thought of in years when an old friend finds you on the net.
OK. I've dared myself. Stay tuned. But time is scarce so don't hold your breath. Give me a year or so.
Friend Kitty Mitchell sent this back in July and I meant to put it up then but never got back to it.
Many on Ocracoke Island are opposed to offshore drilling for oil and Kitty paints the picture well.
Here's what she said back in July - some things have changed since then, obviously, but the issue
still needs to be addressed strongly.
I know I've stepped in it this time, but I don't care. The visions come for
a reason so I'm passing it on.
My newest painting is a post card to Senators Dole & Burr, and also to
Congressman Walter Jones, and to Mr. McCrory.
Three cheers to Bev Perdue who is the ONLY candidate so far that has refused
to endorse off shore drilling.
This will not be good for our economy. We have a thriving tourist and
fishing industry that does not need to invest our resources in old polluting
technologies when we are so capable of doing better for ourselves, our
children and our planet. We have more wind than oil, it's ours and it can't
be shipped to China.
Feel free to use this image to save our coast, I only ask for artistic
credit.
Painting by Kitty Martin Mitchell
The credit card companies can think of a million ways to take your money but they can't come up with a functional website. Trying to make a payment online today, the last day of the year, would only give me payment date options for 2008 (but not today). Impossible to schedule a payment for January 2, 2009. Helpful Mr. Customer Service says "Try again tomorrow, it will be the first day of 2009 and hopefully the calendar will show dates for 2009."
but I've got a few thoughts about this.
