2012 has creep-ed up on me, and as I look through my blog posting history of 2011, it's a surprise that google has allowed me to continue residency in this place. Perhaps a simple New Year's resolution would be to put out a post once a week, heck, even once a month would be an improvement!
Before I look at what is to come in 2012, let's look back at 2011, picking up somewhere in September.
It's been, to say the least, a very busy season. I've participated, either as a chorister or conductor, in seven different concert programs. One with Scona Chamber Singers, three with Da Camera Singers, and four with Pro Coro. Ok, I cheat a bit - Da Camera and Pro Coro collaborated on a concert the week before Christmas, and I just counted that one twice - but I had to double up rehearsals with the two different choirs, so it is fair to count it twice.
A very exciting year for all three choirs though, let's stat with the youngest, Scona Chamber Singers. this is our third full season as an ensemble in Edmonton - specializing in early music repertoire. We have a very close association now with Early Music Alberta, also in its fledgling state as a society, just a year and a half old. In October, we mounted a one to a part concert of the madrigals of Monteverdi and Gesualdo. It was a great collaborative effort from the five of us who sang. And a great reminder to me of just how difficult the music of Gesulado is! We were successful, two years in a row now, at securing a bit of grant money from the provincial arts granting organization, and continue to receive support from both my church concert series, as well as Early Music Alberta. I think, in due time, this ensemble will flourish - but it will continue to take some work.
Da Camera is celebrating its 50th anniversary as an ensemble. No, there are no original members in the choir anymore, however we are having a great time going through archive material, and notifying past members to come back in March to join us for a weekend of socializing, and most importantly, singing! Already, since September, we have performed three concerts. One complete a cappella concert of new music and past commissions of the choir, then a collaboration with Alberta Baroque Ensemble, and then the aforementioned collaboration with Pro Coro Canada.
Pro Coro Canada is having an exciting year as well - six concert with six different conductors. The first three were concerts that featured candidates for the position of Artistic Director of the choir. This was an absolutely fascinating process for me as a chorister in the choir. The opportunity to observe three different conductors styles and expertise was as much of a great an experience from a musical standpoint as it was professional development. I learned something from all of them, and took features of conducting style, repertoire selection, diction lessons, and rehearsal planning, and brought them with me to my own ensembles. It was invaluable as a conductor to be able to be a part of this. There is still an official gag order on the selection itself, but no matter which direction the choir takes, we will be in very good hands.
The rest of my choral season of 2012 will bring more memorable moments, and another extremely busy period for the next few months. First, Scona Chamber Singers will present a concert of music from the Sistine Chapel this coming Sunday. We will feature music of Allegri mostly, including a complete performance of his Missa 'che oggi il mio sole (as well as the famed Miserere Mei), but a few other great composers as well. We'll meet again in mid-April for a concert as part of the 2nd annual Early Music Festival, however, my involvement will be limited - more on that later. Pro Coro has concerts in mid-February and early April to round out their season, but the most involved work for me will be with Da Camera.
Our anniversary concert weekend is slated for the first weekend of March. We have invited all almuni members of the choir to join us for the chamber performance of Carmina Burana. The response has been great, and we expect around 90 singers for this performance. However, only a week before that, we will be performing with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra in a choral concert, with a few other local choirs, in a performance of the Poulenc Gloria, as well as works of Bach, Mendelssohn and Schubert. All this music needs to be learned in two months, or about eight rehearsals (including Carmina!) so needless to say, it's going to be busy. After that weekend is done, we revisit Rachmaninoff's All Night Vigil with Spiritus Chamber Choir of Calgary for two performance (one here, one there). At least that's not until May, so a few months to put that back in our ears. We performed it about six years ago, so it should come back fairly quickly.
AND (if I haven't mentioned this before) in mid-April, Kathleen and I will welcome our first child into the world. So ... 2012... Here we go! I hope you're ready!
Showing posts with label Scona Chamber Singers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scona Chamber Singers. Show all posts
Friday, January 13, 2012
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Great Expectations
You might read one of two things in the fact that I haven't had a post on this blog since August 30th. Either I've been neglectful blogger, or I've just been flat out too busy.
Well, truthfully, it's a bit of both. I really should blog more, and I can make time for it, but I've also been very busy. I'm back singing with Pro Coro full time. We are going through an artistic director search this year, and the first three concerts of that season are the finalists concerts. We've done one already, and are well into the rehearsal process for the next one. A very interesting experience. I'm very much enjoying what each conductor has to bring, and I'm learning a lot as a chorister and conductor from each of them, so far. Pro Coro's new artistic director will be the first of the great expectations this year.
The fourth concert of the Pro Coro season is the Christmas concert, and I'm happy to say that I've been offered the podium for that one. I'm very much looking forward to joining Da Camera an Pro Coro forces for that one. I still have to finalize the program, something I better do this week.
Da Camera's season is also a busy one - it is our 50th anniversary year, and we are involved in many a collaborative concert. November with Tonus Vivus (Edmonton's Composer's Society), then in early December with Alberta Baroque, and the aforementioned concert with Pro Coro later that month. In late February we sing with the Edmonton Symphony, then a week later our alumni weekend concert feature Carmina Burana. In May we take on Rachmaninoff's All Night Vigil with Spiritus Chamber Choir from Calgary - a great season ahead - the second of the great expectations!
I'm also continuing to build the early music group, Scona Chamber Singers. We presented a concert last week of madrigals of Monteverdi and Gesualdo, all sung one to a part. Considering it was Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada - it was a reasonably well attended concert, and I thought we sounded great! There is one video up from this concert on YouTube now - and there will be more to come yet - click here to see the duet "O Come Sei Gentile" of Monteverdi from that concert. In January we'll present a concert of the sacred music of Palestrina, and then in April a concert of the music of Thomas Tallis, with a larger ensemble for both those concerts. The third of the great expectations of the year ahead.
But, without argument, the GREATEST expectation of the year will come in mid-April, when my wife and I will welcome into the world, our first child!
Well, truthfully, it's a bit of both. I really should blog more, and I can make time for it, but I've also been very busy. I'm back singing with Pro Coro full time. We are going through an artistic director search this year, and the first three concerts of that season are the finalists concerts. We've done one already, and are well into the rehearsal process for the next one. A very interesting experience. I'm very much enjoying what each conductor has to bring, and I'm learning a lot as a chorister and conductor from each of them, so far. Pro Coro's new artistic director will be the first of the great expectations this year.
The fourth concert of the Pro Coro season is the Christmas concert, and I'm happy to say that I've been offered the podium for that one. I'm very much looking forward to joining Da Camera an Pro Coro forces for that one. I still have to finalize the program, something I better do this week.
Da Camera's season is also a busy one - it is our 50th anniversary year, and we are involved in many a collaborative concert. November with Tonus Vivus (Edmonton's Composer's Society), then in early December with Alberta Baroque, and the aforementioned concert with Pro Coro later that month. In late February we sing with the Edmonton Symphony, then a week later our alumni weekend concert feature Carmina Burana. In May we take on Rachmaninoff's All Night Vigil with Spiritus Chamber Choir from Calgary - a great season ahead - the second of the great expectations!
I'm also continuing to build the early music group, Scona Chamber Singers. We presented a concert last week of madrigals of Monteverdi and Gesualdo, all sung one to a part. Considering it was Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada - it was a reasonably well attended concert, and I thought we sounded great! There is one video up from this concert on YouTube now - and there will be more to come yet - click here to see the duet "O Come Sei Gentile" of Monteverdi from that concert. In January we'll present a concert of the sacred music of Palestrina, and then in April a concert of the music of Thomas Tallis, with a larger ensemble for both those concerts. The third of the great expectations of the year ahead.
But, without argument, the GREATEST expectation of the year will come in mid-April, when my wife and I will welcome into the world, our first child!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Recent Activity
There is much to blog about, but to avoid a TL;DR from my faithful blog readers, I thought I would just post a few highlights from my recent activity.
Earlier in January, I conducted a concert with my early music ensemble, The Scona Chamber Singers, in a program of all J.S. Bach (as highlighted on an earlier post). My cellist, who is also a baroque enthusiast, put together a group of string players who played on all gut strung instruments, a few of them for the first time in public. It wasn't without challenge (especially having to mix 415 instruments with 440 oboes, and organ) but it went very well indeed!
Here are a few YouTube videos from the concert, as filmed by my cellist's husband.
Kyrie, from Missa Brevis in F Major (BWV 223)
Motet: Fürchte Dich Nicht (BWV 228)
Motet: Singet Dem Hernn (BWV 225)
Tomorrow, I'm conducting Da Camera Singers in a concert which will feature Fauré's Requiem in D, The same person who videoed the above is going to test out a live webcast for this concert, which should be fun. So, if you aren't doing anything Sunday February 27th around 5 PM Eastern, feel free to sneak a peek here!
Earlier in January, I conducted a concert with my early music ensemble, The Scona Chamber Singers, in a program of all J.S. Bach (as highlighted on an earlier post). My cellist, who is also a baroque enthusiast, put together a group of string players who played on all gut strung instruments, a few of them for the first time in public. It wasn't without challenge (especially having to mix 415 instruments with 440 oboes, and organ) but it went very well indeed!
Here are a few YouTube videos from the concert, as filmed by my cellist's husband.
Kyrie, from Missa Brevis in F Major (BWV 223)
Motet: Fürchte Dich Nicht (BWV 228)
Motet: Singet Dem Hernn (BWV 225)
Tomorrow, I'm conducting Da Camera Singers in a concert which will feature Fauré's Requiem in D, The same person who videoed the above is going to test out a live webcast for this concert, which should be fun. So, if you aren't doing anything Sunday February 27th around 5 PM Eastern, feel free to sneak a peek here!
Friday, January 14, 2011
Spending the weekend with Bach
This Sunday night, I'm conducting an all Bach concert with my newly co-founded early music ensemble (2 years old this year) the Scona Chamber Singers.
The concert will feature:
We were offered a nice spot in today's Edmonton Journal previewing the concert, and I'm hopeful that the place will sell out.
I've put the poster here below for your interest, and if you are in the Edmonton area this weekend, I highly recommend you check us out!
The concert will feature:
- Kyrie from Missa Brevis in F: BWV 228
- Weihnachts-Oratorium Part V: BWV 248 Am Sonntag nach Neujahr (Cantata for the Sunday after New Year)
- Motet: Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf: BWV 226
- Motet: Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir: BWV 228
- Motet: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied: BWV 225
We were offered a nice spot in today's Edmonton Journal previewing the concert, and I'm hopeful that the place will sell out.
I've put the poster here below for your interest, and if you are in the Edmonton area this weekend, I highly recommend you check us out!
(Click to enlarge)
I'll post again about the trials of mounting a concert such as this in a city where it is difficult to find period instruments, and players who can play them (and the fun with transposing organ continuo parts, as we don't have a 415 organ at my church ... yet)
Monday, January 4, 2010
'010 musings
Four days into 2010, and the holiday that was, is all but a memory. A really good memory though. Jasper was as relaxing as it was energizing. We could have done without the drive back in bad winter driving conditions, but we are back in one piece, and quickly getting back into the regular routine.
This weekend, I'm conducting the second concert of the Scona Chamber Singers in a program of Heinrich Schütz, which includes selections from both Geistliche Chormusik, as well as smaller ensemble selections from Kleine Geistliche Konzerte. The program was selected by my co-artistic director, and soprano Jolaine Kerley, and we are being joined by organist Jeremy Spurgeon and a DMus cello student, Amy McClary. We started rehearsing on the 2nd, and put in quite a few hours this weekend, and will meet again on Friday for two more days of rehearsals, and do the concert on Sunday. The music is coming together fast, but it will take a few more runs for us to keep into the rhetoric of the language, and gel as an ensemble.
Scores, of course, have been a bit of an issue, especially finding good continuo realizations. The U of A library does house the complete works, and most of the Kleine Geistliche Konzerte is realized nicely in the Bärenreiter-Verlag Kassel edtion, but there is nothing for the Chormusik except a figured bass. Luckily, Jeremy is a pro - so I don't think it will be too much of an issue. The added complication is we are doing much of the concert in a different key than published, so I will be spending the better part of the day tomorrow in front of the computer transposing the cello part - but it will be worth it, and it's mostly quite straightforward.
Aside from this project, everything else is running as it should - Da Camera gets back into action tonight, and Richard Eaton Singers tomorrow. The church choir resumes after just one week off, and we enter our seven month period of interim ministry following the retirement of our Rector of ten years. It will be very different around the parish, but I am lucky to have an extremely supportive vestry and staff. It seems I will be relied on for much of the liturgical planning, which will up my work load a bit - but it will be a great learning experience!
On top of all this - I'm back to counting my calories today. I did manage to lose close to 30 pounds last time I started this regime, and of that, only 10 have crept back again. If I can drop another 25 or 30 by summer, maybe it will drop another 5 or 6 strokes off the handicap. Four more months until golf season! sigh.
Poster for concert:
After a friend pointed out that Schütz looks like the original owner of a local wrap and sub sandwich restaurant I can't look at this portrait, painted by Rembrandt, without seeing Schütz holding a ham and cheese wrap.
This weekend, I'm conducting the second concert of the Scona Chamber Singers in a program of Heinrich Schütz, which includes selections from both Geistliche Chormusik, as well as smaller ensemble selections from Kleine Geistliche Konzerte. The program was selected by my co-artistic director, and soprano Jolaine Kerley, and we are being joined by organist Jeremy Spurgeon and a DMus cello student, Amy McClary. We started rehearsing on the 2nd, and put in quite a few hours this weekend, and will meet again on Friday for two more days of rehearsals, and do the concert on Sunday. The music is coming together fast, but it will take a few more runs for us to keep into the rhetoric of the language, and gel as an ensemble.
Scores, of course, have been a bit of an issue, especially finding good continuo realizations. The U of A library does house the complete works, and most of the Kleine Geistliche Konzerte is realized nicely in the Bärenreiter-Verlag Kassel edtion, but there is nothing for the Chormusik except a figured bass. Luckily, Jeremy is a pro - so I don't think it will be too much of an issue. The added complication is we are doing much of the concert in a different key than published, so I will be spending the better part of the day tomorrow in front of the computer transposing the cello part - but it will be worth it, and it's mostly quite straightforward.
Aside from this project, everything else is running as it should - Da Camera gets back into action tonight, and Richard Eaton Singers tomorrow. The church choir resumes after just one week off, and we enter our seven month period of interim ministry following the retirement of our Rector of ten years. It will be very different around the parish, but I am lucky to have an extremely supportive vestry and staff. It seems I will be relied on for much of the liturgical planning, which will up my work load a bit - but it will be a great learning experience!
On top of all this - I'm back to counting my calories today. I did manage to lose close to 30 pounds last time I started this regime, and of that, only 10 have crept back again. If I can drop another 25 or 30 by summer, maybe it will drop another 5 or 6 strokes off the handicap. Four more months until golf season! sigh.
Poster for concert:
After a friend pointed out that Schütz looks like the original owner of a local wrap and sub sandwich restaurant I can't look at this portrait, painted by Rembrandt, without seeing Schütz holding a ham and cheese wrap.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Great Show!
The inaugural concert of the Scona Chamber Singers was a great success yesterday. A near capacity house, and the choir was in very fine form!
And now - I'm exhausted, but have to quickly change gears to conduct Mendelssohn and Bach with Da Camera next weekend, with dress rehearsal #1 tonight. So away from the English repertoire I go, and into the Bärenreiter editions I fall!
Will post more once the dust has cleared - and hopefully link some mp3's of the show.
And now - I'm exhausted, but have to quickly change gears to conduct Mendelssohn and Bach with Da Camera next weekend, with dress rehearsal #1 tonight. So away from the English repertoire I go, and into the Bärenreiter editions I fall!
Will post more once the dust has cleared - and hopefully link some mp3's of the show.
Monday, October 19, 2009
And then, it was Monday
What a great weekend!
Scona Chamber Singers rehearsals started on Friday for our concert next Sunday, and even though a good portion of the choir was very tired, having not only had ten hours of rehearsals with me, but also a day long retreat with the University choirs for a production of Haydn's Creation which is coming up for them.
I was very pleased with the ensemble though - the focus during the rehearsals was very strong, and we accomplished quite a lot in the weekend process. There were a lot of notes left on the floor, but a substantial amount of progress was made from Friday to Sunday night. We have two more full rehearsals, and a dress rehearsal left next weekend before the concert on Sunday afternoon. Hopefully they will all take the few days away from the full choir rehearsals to look at a few notes. In general though, a lot of great music making was had this weekend.
Here is the program for the "Cathedral Music" concert:
O clap your Hands – Orlando Gibbons
Lift up your heads – Orlando Gibbons
Super Flumina Babylonis – Philip De Monte
Quomodo cantibus – William Byrd
Peccavimus a 7– Christopher Tye
Intermission
I Was Glad – Henry Purcell
O Lord, the Maker – William Mundy
Evening Hymn (solo)– Henry Purcell
Turn Thee unto me, O Lord – William Boyce
O Where shall wisdom be found? – William Boyce
O God Thou Art my God - Henry Purcell
In particular, the De Monte, Byrd and Tye set are proving to be the most challenging, but for most of the younger singers, they haven't been exposed to a lot of this high renaissance polyphony, so it doesn't come naturally. It is however, agreed by all that the music is absolutely beautiful!
Time to put this aside for the day though, and concentrate on Da Camera rehearsal tonight, we are only two rehearsals away from that concert too - and there is a fair amount of work to be done on Jesu Meine Freude tonight.
Scona Chamber Singers rehearsals started on Friday for our concert next Sunday, and even though a good portion of the choir was very tired, having not only had ten hours of rehearsals with me, but also a day long retreat with the University choirs for a production of Haydn's Creation which is coming up for them.
I was very pleased with the ensemble though - the focus during the rehearsals was very strong, and we accomplished quite a lot in the weekend process. There were a lot of notes left on the floor, but a substantial amount of progress was made from Friday to Sunday night. We have two more full rehearsals, and a dress rehearsal left next weekend before the concert on Sunday afternoon. Hopefully they will all take the few days away from the full choir rehearsals to look at a few notes. In general though, a lot of great music making was had this weekend.
Here is the program for the "Cathedral Music" concert:
O clap your Hands – Orlando Gibbons
Lift up your heads – Orlando Gibbons
Super Flumina Babylonis – Philip De Monte
Quomodo cantibus – William Byrd
Peccavimus a 7– Christopher Tye
Intermission
I Was Glad – Henry Purcell
O Lord, the Maker – William Mundy
Evening Hymn (solo)– Henry Purcell
Turn Thee unto me, O Lord – William Boyce
O Where shall wisdom be found? – William Boyce
O God Thou Art my God - Henry Purcell
In particular, the De Monte, Byrd and Tye set are proving to be the most challenging, but for most of the younger singers, they haven't been exposed to a lot of this high renaissance polyphony, so it doesn't come naturally. It is however, agreed by all that the music is absolutely beautiful!
Time to put this aside for the day though, and concentrate on Da Camera rehearsal tonight, we are only two rehearsals away from that concert too - and there is a fair amount of work to be done on Jesu Meine Freude tonight.
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