Singing
I havn't posted in a long time. Life has been very routine. Even my musical activities are largely routine. Sometimes I'm the tenor section leader--often I'm the entire tenor section.
Today was something a bit different. Flo has a group called the Italian Learning Circle. I'm not a member because it is so time consuming. But I was asked to sing at a couple of their events next week. I don't have much of an Italian repertory (I mostly sing German) so my accompanist, Paul, a music professor at Flo, did some rehearsing today--mostly things I have not sung in 25 years. It was very gratifying.
I'm having some trouble with the high notes, and rehearsing involved alot of stopping and fixing things on both our parts. But the gratifying thing was that every time we stopped Paul said something like "I can't believe how musical you are." He commented on my Italian, my phrasing, my dynamics--you name it. It was a big change for him, since he works almost exclusively with community college students who have very undeveloped musical habits.
He is giving a piano recital in April and asked me to do a set of lieder as part of it. I am teaching a four hour class that night and may have to turn him down--I have to negotiate for a substitute and that is not easy.
Anyway, for next week, I'll probably sing "Libiamo" from La Traviata, "Come un Bel Di" from Andrea Chenier, "Caro Mio Ben," everbody's first Italian song, and, if I can get my high A working, "Vesti la Giubba" from Pagliacci.
I'm flattered.
Today was something a bit different. Flo has a group called the Italian Learning Circle. I'm not a member because it is so time consuming. But I was asked to sing at a couple of their events next week. I don't have much of an Italian repertory (I mostly sing German) so my accompanist, Paul, a music professor at Flo, did some rehearsing today--mostly things I have not sung in 25 years. It was very gratifying.
I'm having some trouble with the high notes, and rehearsing involved alot of stopping and fixing things on both our parts. But the gratifying thing was that every time we stopped Paul said something like "I can't believe how musical you are." He commented on my Italian, my phrasing, my dynamics--you name it. It was a big change for him, since he works almost exclusively with community college students who have very undeveloped musical habits.
He is giving a piano recital in April and asked me to do a set of lieder as part of it. I am teaching a four hour class that night and may have to turn him down--I have to negotiate for a substitute and that is not easy.
Anyway, for next week, I'll probably sing "Libiamo" from La Traviata, "Come un Bel Di" from Andrea Chenier, "Caro Mio Ben," everbody's first Italian song, and, if I can get my high A working, "Vesti la Giubba" from Pagliacci.
I'm flattered.