I sang with Fredericksburg Singers combined with two other choirs at University of Mary Washington. The main piece is Bob Chilcott’s setting of Native American poetry, accompanied by two pianos and percussion, about 40 minutes. Hear five minutes of another group’s recording below.
I enjoyed the great pleasure of singing with Fredericksburg Community Chorus’s two concerts Dec 3rd 2pm and 4th 7pm, with orchestra and eight soloists. The chorus did And the Glory, Purify, Oh Thou that Tellest, Unto Us, Glory to God, Lift Up, and Hallelujah followed immediately by the Great Amen. I had a good seat in the back row, next to David P the tallest bass.
First performance was Saturday June 25th 7pm at St Peters Lutheran. Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3qJWQCPC_M\u0026t=19s ; part 2: https://youtu.be/4BqmDEPNoE0. We repeated the concert 3pm Sunday at the Marine Corps Museum (not recorded).
The Fredericksburg Community Chorus’s 51st annual Messiah had to be virtual. Although last year’s 50th performance was the complete Messiah, this year’s may have been the least complete (under 30 minutes!) See it on YouTube here. The anonymity of my preferred seat in the back row seemed somewhat diminished, as surely I must have spent at least a few moments under the director’s microscope. But the number of singers grew due to collaboration with the Williamsburg United Methodist choir. Photo by Elspeth.
Our run-through before the 50s gala: we were doing the Unchained Melody arrangement done by the Acoustix, whose performance can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REujbffsNQM.
httpv://youtu.be/OnW0gb0mZiM
14 November 2014: “Hole in the wall” from John Playford’s Dancing Master
Gareth says “It’s a compilation of video from Nick’s Kindle and my Android phone.”
A higher-priority item on my calendar this weekend — the Charlottesville Ten Miler — took place before the three musical events, but will have to be written up later.
Attended the U Mary Washington Philharmonic concert Saturday. Heard Itzhak Perlman play the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Terrific! And the orchestra sounded better than I’ve ever heard them.
Sunday, sang my second ever solo in church. (A few years ago, I sang If Thou Be Near, being enamoured of Kirsten Flagstad: If Thou Be Near) This time it was Wilt Thou Forgive, a John Donne poem. I listened many times to one done by a baritone to lute accompaniment (which I actually paid for), and really enjoyed. There’s one done by a boy soprano here: Connor Burrowes: Wilt Thou Forgive
Our choral society’s annual spring gala “Just Jazz” (dinner/concert) was held Sunday.
We sold 98 of the 100 tickets — I think there were ten tables with ten $75 seats, and I didn’t notice any vacant. Here’s what we did:
5:15 p.m. SET 1
5:45 ish SET 2
6:45 SET 3
7:35 SET 4
Sandy said the best small group number was the Don’t Mean a Thing mother and daughter duet. After the men’s Sweet Georgia Brown, I thought the men’s director’s wry grin hinted that we blew it. SoundCheck is the auditioned subgroup of our “y’all come” choir. Pass Me the Jazz was its most ambitious piece, evidently too ambitious for the whole group so it was done as a subgroup of the subgroup, so I was not in that.
Of the whole-group numbers, I think my favorite and the one I think we did the best was Ain’t Misbehavin’. Linus and Lucy went pretty well. It was a clear favorite of all those lovers of the cartoon characters, something I never could understand. The James Bond theme had a similar strangeness for me, until one of the altos mentioned Pierce Brosnan and I realized he must be the source of much of the bass lyrics, “baaaaaaaaaaaah, baaaaaaaaaaaah, baaaaaaaaaaaah.”
There may be a photo or two later.