Hi Jerry and anybody else,

That's great about the heavier than thou shadowbox. It points up another gap in my knowledge--I don't even know what a shadowbox is--and how it got that name.

And I bet a lot of us would like to hear your stories about how your trio is becoming a quintet.


About my Choral Arts situation, since you said you were interested: ( but at the risk of boring everybody):   

One of my theories is that the conductor highly prizes loyalty. And though I've been in the group since 1990--and sung in concerts large and small, in large and small subsets of the main group, as well as participating in CD's, virtually all tours etc--this year I made a mistake. Though in the past, he just picked the singers he wanted for a small group, this year he had auditions for a Bach cantata. I signed up for the audition--but, for the first time in my life, I totally forgot about an audition. They e-mailed the list of people picked, and I was wondering why I wasn't on the list. Then I realized I had not shown up for the audition.   Whoops. So I didn't sing the cantata.

But my theory is that when he had auditions for the Mozart, he decided to take anybody who had already done the Bach and wanted also to do the Mozart. Since there were only 40 slots for 180 singers, if quite a few basses from the Bach wanted to do the Mozart, there weren't many slots left for others. And there was one bass at the audition who was better than I was at the sightreading--though he told me afterwards it was not sightreading for him--he had done the piece the conductor picked for the audition.

Actually I'm starting to burn out on Choral Arts--one reason being it is really putting a bad crimp in folk activities. For the Getaway last year, I had to miss both days--and only show up at night--then drive back--and back again--several times. (Not very ecologically good either).

And so far this year, I've had to miss a great weekend singing in West Virginia--and the next concert will kill another folk weekend. Timing seems to be getting progressively worse.

Added to this, we are doing a lot of repeats--partly since only certain pieces are virtually guaranteed to sell out--Carmina Burana, Mozart Requiem, Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Brahms Requiem, and a few others. My theory on this is that we do this to counter the financial disasters that concerts of modern music are likely to be--and we do a lot of that too. Like all conductors, it seems, he's very enamored of composers he knows--and they tend to like to write music reflecting the chaos and problems of modern life. Can't understand why audiences don't like to pay for expensive concert tickets in order to hear a reflection of modern chaos and anguish.

Or we do what I call California-style composers--mellower than thou. And I can get enough of them too.

Some of my best friends are no longer in the group--some have gone to other groups--and some have died. And then you tend to compare the past to the present--and it's no contest.

So I'm considering what I thought totally out of the question just last year--leaving the group myself.

But I'm rambling.

Anyway, does my theory make sense to you?


And please don't forget to tell us about a trio becoming a quintet.

Thanks.