Schola Concert

The concert was called the "Hour of Hope" and to this day I can only think it's meaning was that the audience had to wait an hour to hope to hear a well sung rendition Schoenberg's Friede auf Erden. We gathered as many people as possible into the Chapel at Exeter College Oxford for a very intimate concert of a wide variety of music and styles. The concert was really a continuation of the tour music we sang in Poland minus the English Christmas Carols. My favorite piece remains to this day the Zielenski Magnificat a 12. The Kurpian Songs which felt much more touch-and-go during the summer, felt very comfortable to sing, especially for an audience of people less likely to be listening to the diction!
The Friede auf Erden had proved to be a challenge, as most Schoenberg tends to be. When I was still studying at McGill one of the choir directors decided to tackle all the Webern choral works in one concert. With the experience I gained from learning the Webern music, I tried, at first learn the Friede with the same dissection and mathematical approach. It was not until I realised this was an early Schoenberg and more influenced by the Romantic composers than atonality that I was able to learn the unusual phrases. In context with the other voice parts, it made the performance even more challenging but a great experience for training my skills as a young singer. To build even more on this already huge challenge (since we had one rehearsal before the concert) the conductor decided to sing the piece in a mixed formation instead of in each of our voice parts! I think the end result was magical, but it is still not a repertoire I would seek out to perform regularly.

St. Mary's Organ and Choir Concert

Thanks to the generous donations of many hundreds of people to the St. Mary's Church Organ Restoration Fund essential work was completed on the organ to make it fully functional again.
According to the Parish website the organ was last fully restored in 1902. The current work involved putting new keys on the three keyboards of the consoles using recycled ivory keys from other salvaged organs, repairing the air reservoirs that pump the organ with air, along with several other minor repairs. Our organist is most impressed with the remote control that turns the pumps on and off...
Our music director organized a concert to expose the new bells and whistles of the organ which included repertoire from Bach to Messiaen. The choir sang the Mozart Laudate Dominum and the Hayden Little Organ Mass, both of which included a Soprano soloist. I was happy to oblige when approached to sing both pieces. It was a great opportunity to be "introduced" as a professional in the fold of the choir and as well as a new member of the church community.
With the organ being repaired I look forward to arranging and being part of many more concerts to come!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving being a completely North American tradition, is still very much in keeping with the traditional Harvest Festival which is a universal celebration. So this being our first Thanksgiving in Henley I had to pay specific attention to finding just the right quirks for our festivities. My first port of call of course was to the local butcher since John Kentch does not deliver this far south Mr. Machin obliged. He said I need only let him know the week before I needed my Turkey, since they do quite a few at this time for Thanksgiving. What I should have clarified for him at that moment was that I was from a little further north than the American border... When I did call him he wanted to know if I was freezing the bird, or if I had wanted it aired out. I had to explain it was a whole other Thanksgiving tradition to which he laughed and said he would have a beautiful ten pound bird for me for Friday.
Some of you may be confused at my particular excitement towards turkey since I do not eat meat. I love my meat free lifestyle, but who can resist a 4.7kg free-range turkey, who had had a great Henley life and had been butchered three days before it was roasted?!
This is Bob-the-Bird. Look how pretty he is!! Every year my turkeys get named by someone who is going to help eat it. This year this was Mark, who adores Bob-the-Builder so much that it really was not a hard question to answer. This is Bob sitting over his bath of Old Hooky, salted and ready for some tanning bed time!
Gradually over the past few weeks I have been collecting little thinks like cranberry sauce and pumpkin puree in preparation for the feast. All the good china was brought out of storage and washed, the silver was polished and on Friday I picked up some chrysanthemums. I had wanted orange ones, but that was clearly a popular colour that day...
To make sure Bob had a successful roasting, I had to plot out all the necessary basting and salting in specific time increments before hand. Apparently this was only truly possible with the help of my Dalek-tipped pencil of course!
After about four hours of cooking Bob and the feast were ready to be consumed! Unlike previous years, this years' gravy was a particular success for which I would like to thank all the little gravy gods :D As is the tradition, we happily gorged ourselves with decadence!!
What Thanksgiving would be complete without a pumpkin pie, whipped cream and coffee?! I must admit I was completely satisfied with the outcome of all the planning and we will happily be living off of stuffing, turkey potatoes and gravy for decades to come...

Lavish Wedding!

This weekend we went to the wedding to end all weddings! I met Imogen when I was about seven years old, on one of many transatlantic vacations. I thought she was the coolest person in the whole world because she had a Swiss army knife when we were only about ten! Even better was how she demonstrated, with great skill how to make bows and arrows with said knife. So when I heard that Imogen was to be married, I was extremely flattered that she would have asked me to sing during the ceremony. Despite early suggestions of something Wagnerian, we decided the whole Mozart Exultate Jubilate would suite the glamour of the occasion. I was exceptionally pleased to see Imogen wearing a red wedding dress, as it befits her Hindu heritage. The whole service was very touching and full of unique charm and individuality.
After the ceremony the three hundred or so guests meandered over to the reception where, champagne, samosas and mini Yorkshire puddings were circulated in abundance. The sun was warm and there was not a cloud in the sky! The first stage of the dinner was help under a series of tents latched together, with patterned cloth from Morocco draping down from the ceiling. The North African look was completed by hemp rugs and little sofas adorning the interior. Dinner was followed by dancing and among many things. At approximately 8:30pm the full fireworks display began ushering in the rest of the villagers who were not already in attendance for more dancing, drinking and a pig roast.
Owing to many things, not the least of which was having to get up early to sing the next morning, our little posse meandered down to the pub where most... except perhaps Ed... drank coffee and caught up with all the local gossip.
I couldn't believe the gravitas of this wedding! In all honesty I never thought I would ever see such a fantastically festive occasion where absolutely nothing was spared to provide such a spectacular celebration! Congratulations Imogen and Alastair!!!