WCCC Concert & Holidays preparation
A week ago today the Wisconsin Cream City Chorus (creamcitychorus.org) had its annual December concert -- this year's entitled "One World: Dare To Dream." I was very pleased at how it went. Turn-out was good, and all of the songs came off well. No one I know from LJ was at the concert, though several others were, including Todd V, Greg & Georgie, Tori C, and a few others. Two of the songs we performed "Baba Yetu" (from Civilization 4) and a great arrangement of "O Holy Night" are going to also be sung by my church choir next year -- one in February, and one in December.
The next WCCC concert will be "Whirled Music in April, which should be a lot of fun. It's a choral theatre piece, and unlike last year's april show, this one is very silly, There are also only two roles and one narrator for this one, so everyone else gets to focus on the music. We've got Joel Kopischke and J. Ruben Piirainen lined up to play the two character roles. Tim Ruf from the choir will be doing the role of the Narrator. The music is all things you've heard, but altered, as if seen through a funhouse mirror.
Last Sunday, the day after our concert, I spent about 5 hours getting one of our trees set up -- the one in our big living room. We also have one in the front hall, which is open to the staircase and bay window to the banistered hall above. Wil decorated that one a couple days ago. (Maybe I'll post a picture once the clean-up is all done.) It's all part of our preparations for his family's big Christmas Eve gathering. I invite a few close family & friends to the event, but his people far outnumber mine. He's one of three kids, his mom is one of our, and the whole brood from Grandma on down come to the event. We love hosting and having a house full of people, but it sure is a lot of work -- and a lot of cost -- every time we do. Fortunately, his brother alternates years with us, since we're the only ones with a big enough house in the area to have everyone over. Other holidays get hosted by other folks, so in the end it all balances out.
Today we did a huge shopping for the day, and a little bit of cleaning, too. Then I prepared the salad for a monthly potluck tonight. This group, called "Bardic" gets together monthly for dinner and reading. Everyone prepares a part of a themed meal, and one person does reading on a subject related to the theme. Tonight's theme is "Medieval Yule Feast." I don't recall what the reading is, though. Did a little online research and found out that a beet root salad was common for Medieval Yule feasts, so I found a recipe that I liked.
After that I cae back upstairs. I've just now finished revising the arrangement of "Baba Yetu" for church. We don't have any true sopranos in the choir, but fortunately Lindsey from WCCC has agreed to join us for church the Sunday we do the song. She's already learned and performed the complex solos in Swahili, so that will save someone in our group doing it. What's more, she's an excellent soprano, so I've made some tweaks to the arrangment the WCCC did, so it will work well with her on a mic. Just went online and ordered the accompaniment CD, too, so we'll have a great back-up and the director can focus on directing us. (Hear the song at http://www.christophertin.com/samples.html.)
I guess that's about all for now.
The next WCCC concert will be "Whirled Music in April, which should be a lot of fun. It's a choral theatre piece, and unlike last year's april show, this one is very silly, There are also only two roles and one narrator for this one, so everyone else gets to focus on the music. We've got Joel Kopischke and J. Ruben Piirainen lined up to play the two character roles. Tim Ruf from the choir will be doing the role of the Narrator. The music is all things you've heard, but altered, as if seen through a funhouse mirror.
Last Sunday, the day after our concert, I spent about 5 hours getting one of our trees set up -- the one in our big living room. We also have one in the front hall, which is open to the staircase and bay window to the banistered hall above. Wil decorated that one a couple days ago. (Maybe I'll post a picture once the clean-up is all done.) It's all part of our preparations for his family's big Christmas Eve gathering. I invite a few close family & friends to the event, but his people far outnumber mine. He's one of three kids, his mom is one of our, and the whole brood from Grandma on down come to the event. We love hosting and having a house full of people, but it sure is a lot of work -- and a lot of cost -- every time we do. Fortunately, his brother alternates years with us, since we're the only ones with a big enough house in the area to have everyone over. Other holidays get hosted by other folks, so in the end it all balances out.
Today we did a huge shopping for the day, and a little bit of cleaning, too. Then I prepared the salad for a monthly potluck tonight. This group, called "Bardic" gets together monthly for dinner and reading. Everyone prepares a part of a themed meal, and one person does reading on a subject related to the theme. Tonight's theme is "Medieval Yule Feast." I don't recall what the reading is, though. Did a little online research and found out that a beet root salad was common for Medieval Yule feasts, so I found a recipe that I liked.
After that I cae back upstairs. I've just now finished revising the arrangement of "Baba Yetu" for church. We don't have any true sopranos in the choir, but fortunately Lindsey from WCCC has agreed to join us for church the Sunday we do the song. She's already learned and performed the complex solos in Swahili, so that will save someone in our group doing it. What's more, she's an excellent soprano, so I've made some tweaks to the arrangment the WCCC did, so it will work well with her on a mic. Just went online and ordered the accompaniment CD, too, so we'll have a great back-up and the director can focus on directing us. (Hear the song at http://www.christophertin.com/samples.html.)
I guess that's about all for now.