Choral Arts gives masterful tour of Rossini piece - at least, that's what philly.com says. Me, I noticed that people really like to eat cheese afterwards. By the time I got to the brie I brought, there might have been a smear on the plate left. Might. There was a tiny hunk of Gorgonzola left at the end, which I gave to someone else to take home ( Read more... )

A good dress rehearsal last night; we even got out early, which my feet and knees appreciated. We had our first encounter with the harmonium (from the accordion-like sounds it makes, and the way the player has to work his feet, I envisioned it full of mice on treadmills), and also with the gorgeous, sexy Bösendorfer piano we are using - it's from ( Read more... )

We have the first of two dress rehearsals tonight, for the Rossini. These are always somewhat of an endurance test because of 1) standing on a stone floor for three hours and 2) churches with high ceilings and stone flooring usually aren't very warm on weeknights in the winter. I have my thick, fuzzy red socks and comfy Danskos to wear ( Read more... )

Video preview of my choir's Rossini concert! Includes bel canto & piano geekiness. The clips of rehearsal are pretty early on - you can see, for example, that my score is not even stapled together yet, and we are mostly staring at the pages - but luckily there's not too much of that, as it's mostly the nerdtastic bits ( Read more... )

The Rossini Crescendo, also known as the Rossini RocketSinging Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle is like being inside of a Bugs Bunny cartoon, both in the sense that "Rabbit of Seville" uses "The Barber of Seville," and in the sense that those fugues make me feel like an actual brightly-colored, fast-moving cartoon character. Fun! I was still in ( Read more... )

Our concert went great, even the singalong to "Zadok the Priest" - we had a lot of choristers in the audience! I did have to cough a couple of times, but I only lost maybe three measures. Otherwise, so far as I could tell, I was singing pretty much normally.

( Not a lot of Hobbit spoilers, but some. )

I can sing!!!!! Sort of - you can tell how abused my vocal cords are from coughing. But I made it through the entire rehearsal on a cough suppressant, two puffs on the inhaler, and lots of water and cough drops ( Read more... )

I have reached the stage of getting better at which I am very twitchy and impatient and sick of coughing. I am also sick of taking medicine, but still need a cough suppressant and an antihistamine if I want to sleep at night. I'm still using the inhaler, too, in the hope that it will help clear everything out faster ( Read more... )

I am still coughing some but am back at the dayjob today. There is so much stuff on my desk (*whimper*) but I will just do as much as I can ( Read more... )

In the midst of our break between "All Night Vigil" and the December Bach and Vivaldi concert, we're having a final recording session tonight, for David Ludwig's Kaddish. The main purpose of the recording was to do his Hanukkah Cantata, which we did back in the spring, but this piece is short and will make a nice sample piece; also, we like it ( Read more... )