Singing

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...

...and you're so excited for your first lesson, you leave an hour early.

Yep, I did that this morning. I got into the car, looked at the time, and thought, "Oh no! I'm an hour early!"

I was warmed up, had all my music, had a bottle of water and a snack and was rearing to go! I was simply ready to go an hour earlier than I needed to. So I ran my quick errands, did some more work, and then left again.

But not before I had a good laugh at myself.

Greetings, dear readers!

The first half of this year holds a few really interesting pieces, including one piece that's new to me, however the text is not.

I'm joining the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra in Sioux Falls for the Arvo Pärt Stabat Mater in April, and while I've sung the text of the Stabat Mater countless times, it is the first time that I've sung a Pärt piece solo.

So far I think it will be a new and different experience from any other Stabat Mater I've sung.

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On the same program...

Hello, dear readers!

This coming musical season I'll be back at two of my favorite singing destinations, the Elm Ensemble in Dexter, Michigan and the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra.

I have three gigs planned and you can read about them here according to date.

October 2019:

In October I'll be joining the Elm Ensemble for another Evensong, which is always such a lovely experience. We'll be singing a bit of German as well as other English-language pieces.

The Elm Ensemble is comprised of...

I love singing with the Elm Ensemble.

One of the best parts of singing with the Elm Ensemble is raising money for good causes, which is a part of the Evensongs I've participated in. As part of the April 2019 Evensong a freewill collection was taken for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) chapter in Washtenaw County, where the Elm Ensemble is based.

The collection was quite awesome that day.

The NAMI Washtenaw County has received $417 from the freewill offering that day! That's...

Last Fall I joined up with the Elm Ensemble in Dexter, Michigan for a fantastic weekend of music-making. (There may have been excellent food & drink involved, but that's just between you and me. Bacon-fried Brussels sprouts, that's all I'm saying.)

The Elm Ensemble has published the recordings we made as a playlist on YouTube, which is fabulous and fantastic!

I'd like to draw your attention to this recording of Mary to Her Savior's Tomb, Sacred Harp 451, which was at the time the first...

Our Easter Evensong in Dexter, Michigan (just west of Ann Arbor) was a delight! It was a weekend of singing, community and connecting people with music. This Evensong service also functioned as a fundraiser for a club at this church, it's called the Open Hearts Club; this club it will provide a safe, fun, and inclusive drop-in space for area youth.

I think we can all get behind that.

Here's a photo showing all the wonderful people who were singing, including several folks I'd sung with...

Next weekend I'll be in Dexter, Michigan to sing with the Elm Ensemble. We'll be singing in an Evensong service on Sunday, April 29th at 4:30 p.m. It will be a small choir of wonderful singers and we'll be singing Early Americana pieces from the Southern Harmony. This is also known as shape-note singing and, believe it or not, I'd never heard of it until I moved back to the US in 2008.

Click here to see the calendar event.

Should I have named this "lower peninsula dwellers" instead? ;)

When the lady sang another country's national anthem at the olympics and just sang "la la la," I thought that was really silly. A national anthem represents a country, just as the sports teams who are playing the game represent the country. And for an official meeting between countries that calls for music, it can set people at ease and give them a topic of conversation. Music bridges a lot between nations.

A couple of years ago I was asked to sing the German Nationalhymne (national anthem),...

Now that I've moved to Milwaukee it's safe to tell this story.

My former neighbor, whom I'll simply call "Neighbor," was not what you might call the "communicative" type. If I said "hello," he would do a double-take and then say, surprised, "Hello." If I didn't say hello, he would just walk awkwardly past me. And the woman that he lived with, she was even worse. I once saw her outside, turned to her to say hello, and she literally turned and ran in the other direction. (Needless to say I...