Singing

Six or seven years ago somebody asked me to sing a St. John Passion. It was two rehearsals (for the solos only), three performances, and I believe two sound recording sessions.

The offer was something like $250.

Plus exposure.

At first I wasn't sure if he meant $250 per call or $250 total. $250 total would have been less than minimum wage.

I tried to clarify, and he proceeded to berate me to take the gig because "All of my colleagues had accepted the same amount of pay."

So he first offered…

After crying through the news last night and this morning this popped into my head.

Bach BWV 170, Movement 3

In German:

Wie jammern mich doch die verkehrten Herzen

die dir, mein Gott, so sehr zuwider sein:

Ich zittre recht und fühle tausend Schmerzen,

wenn sie sich nur an Rach und Hass erfreun.

My English translation:

How they wail at me, these backward hearts,

who are so contrary to you, my God.

I just shake and feel a thousand pains

when they rejoice in revenge and hate.

Replac…

It's Christmas!

The Elm Ensemble has recorded "Let All Together Praise Our God" for Christmas.

The recording is now up on YouTube.

I hope you enjoy it! It was really fun making this recording.

Listen to this piece on YouTube

Merry Christmas. :)

The Elm Ensemble has more music to help sustain you this holiday season.

In the Bleak Midwinter, text by Christina Rosetti.

I've sung this song often, most frequently in the past 10 years.

This one is my favorite.

Listen on YouTube

We sing Bach because of a pandemic.

We sing Bach in spite of a pandemic.

The Thüringer Bachwochen did a LOT of work in a very short amount of time and released a video of 160 singers singing a Bach chorale with Helmuth Rilling.

Bach singers from around the world took part - it was delightful to see all the different people I've worked with in Germany, Chile, and the U.S. singing along.

The list of countries of the singers who participated is at the end of this video. It's quite a long list!

The Elm Ensemble has recorded and posted new Advent/Christmas hymns and they are up on YouTube!

Here is one of them: O Lord, How Shall I Meet You.

Go and listen. :)

Listen to this piece on YouTube

For Advent the Elm Ensemble recorded "Comfort, Comfort Now My People."

The recording is now up on YouTube.

I hope you enjoy it! It was really fun making this recording.

Listen to this piece on YouTube

Recording from home is sometimes a challenge.

My particular challenge is the volume coming from and the length of time it takes my fridge to run.

Seriously, my fridge is running. And when it runs it prevents me from recording, so I have to get creative.

It really doesn't matter how long it takes me to record a piece like this, I do a couple of takes and sometimes I have to stop.

Stop in the middle to cry.

Stop between takes to pull myself together.

Because there is no good reason why we sh…

The Elm Ensemble has posted videos from our April 2019 Evensong project, which was called "Hope for the Journey."

On that program we sang several moving pieces and now the recordings are up on YouTube.

It's truly a pleasure to sing with the Elm Ensemble as we gather together in Dexter, MI for a weekend and there are a wide variety of singers, from local church choir singers to professionals from out-of-state.

I cannot tell a lie, the post-service reception is one of my favorite parts. Having …

This post has been updated. Twice.

The amount of gigs canceled right now is no joke. Neither is the income lost for artists who are already overworked and underpaid.

Right now we're fluctuating between not knowing a whole lot and really not knowing anything at all. The uncertainty can be overwhelming.

Yesterday a friend canceled a long-planned trip to Europe. A friend in Venice (Italy is on lock-down) has had to cancel a performance; her performance group is posting "Music for Quarantine" to …