my first performance in thirty years

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Jun 25 - 07:49 PM

Stilly, there will be a YouTube video, but it will have to be waited for patiently.
The conductor says it will be ready in five to six weeks' time.
They use multiple cameras and it will take some editing,
and the person doing the editing has got a day job which affords him little time.

We just had the performance today,
and I am a funny combination of tired and keyed up.
At least I just had a nice supper out with a friend who showed up to give moral support, and enjoyed the concert.
So I'm not hungry anymore, that's something.

It looked like we had a good turnout of people,
and the applause was warm and hearty, so I think they liked it.
This was not an easy piece to pull off,
and several of us made mistakes with entrances at different times.
We were comparing notes afterwards about coming in at the wrong times.
But it is beautiful music and rarely heard,
so we were privileged to participate in such a performance.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Helen
Date: 02 Jun 25 - 04:33 AM

Congratulations keberoxu! A great result built on creativity, musical capability, and working together with like-minded people. A win for all of you!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 05 Jun 25 - 06:05 PM

Not to brag, but
all week long people have been coming up to me to say
how much they enjoyed the concert, which feels really good.

The chorus is now off for the summer, to resume in September.
Meanwhile we need a new place to rehearse every week.
For many years, the chorus would rehearse in the same church building.
But the church has come upon such hard times that
the building is all but falling down around our ears.
So we have had our last rehearsal there, after all this time.

The most likely place for us to resume rehearsals is
a rehearsal studio with a theater company one town over.
The theater company is in reasonable health and they take care of their property.
So hopefully we can resume there in September.
The chorus board looked around at other churches,
but nothing worked out.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: JennieG
Date: 06 Jun 25 - 02:48 AM

That's wonderful, keberoxu....positive feedback is very heartwarming!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 12 Jun 25 - 07:50 PM

The chorus director says it may be August by the time the video of the performance comes out,
as a lot of editing is required, both visual and audible.
The director was complaining to me that
the mikes in some places picked up
the worst singers in their respective sections,
instead of the better singers in their sections.
It was funny to witness the director imitating the awful noises
that some of the choristers were making.
I know what he means because one of those choristers was directly behind me!
He was bawling in my ear from beginning to end.
Ah, the pleasures of an amateur community chorus.
But maybe my singing bothers someone else just as much, who knows?

I know that my second soprano section includes a singer whom I think of as "the mosquito,"
because her voice whines just like the pesky insect.
There are enough singers in each section who have a decent vocal quality
to support and somewhat mask the inadequate voices.
We are fortunate to have the balance in voices that produces a good overall sound.
And we have a director who is not only a good musician
but has a special gift for finding the best in people and getting along well with everybody,
which I think is somewhat rare.
I hate to think what would happen when the chorus loses the director,
and he is getting old enough to think about retiring one day.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Dec 25 - 07:02 PM

Update:
our new rehearsal space is a studio within a theatrical complex;
the studio has a decent piano so it works for the chorus.
We've been rehearsing there since September.

Tomorrow night we have our first holiday concert,
largely a cappella works with a few carols thrown in (keyboard for those).
It will be held in a large Catholic church with great acoustics.
Word has it that someone will videotape this concert
and it will be available online at some point next year.

Our repertoire includes the famous Randall Thompson "Alleluia"
which is closely associated with the Tanglewood festival in the summer.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Dec 25 - 07:37 PM

Good news! Please share a link when they finish processing it. (You keep those cards close to the vest - all of this rehearsing and not a peep about it!)

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Dec 25 - 07:22 PM

One concert down, two to go, for my choral group.
The weather is cold, but fair, so I hope it stays that way until we are done performing for the season.
We had a good turn-out of audience and a warm reception.
Even though there were a few flubbed moments in the performance...

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 14 Dec 25 - 05:06 AM

congratulations to you & your fellow choristers

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Dec 25 - 01:33 PM

Two concerts down, one to go.
The second one left me very tired but it went well, good audience.

Our third concert will have some variety.
There will be other songs, mostly popular/secular;
and there will be a skit with Santa Claus and an overeager elf (an adult behaving like a little kid).
This concert is meant to be more family-friendly than the others,
it will be Saturday in the early evening.

Some chorus members will be absent because they are taking advantage of the weekend
to travel for the Christmas holidays the following week.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Dec 25 - 02:52 PM

Chances are if the songs are more popular and secular, your audience will sing along and fill in any gaps for chorus voices.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 20 Dec 25 - 08:34 PM

Third performance done and dusted, over for the season.
We start rehearsing again the week after New Year's.
It was a tiring round of performances this year,
but I wouldn't have wanted to miss out.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Dec 25 - 09:25 PM

Did the audience participate? And did you have enough of the chorus members there to still sound the way you hoped?

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Mar 26 - 12:58 PM

The videos at last are up for our June 1 concert last year.
If it works, this will link to the video for the opening piece.

Beethoven: Calm Seas and Prosperous Voyage

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Mar 26 - 01:10 PM

keberoxu, that's wonderful! What a peaceful work to perform, and your hall seems to be well-filled with an appreciative audience.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 May 26 - 07:50 PM

It's the night before our big performance of the spring season:
my group, the Berkshire Lyric Chorus, tomorrow will perform
the St. Matthew Passion of Bach.

It won't be perfection, I can tell you that.
We have had too much to do and too little rehearsal time in which to do everything.
But a performance can have flaws and still be satisfying.
For one thing, we are blessed with professional, not amateur, soloists
who have been brought in to sing the parts of the Evangelist, Jesus, and to sing the big arias.
The young man singing Jesus is persevering in his assignment
in spite of the fact that he is on crutches with his foot in one of those boot things. Don't know what happened to him, but he is with us nonetheless.
These are all young American, English-speaking professional singers
and it is a wonder how well they sing in Bach's native German.
I wish the chorus's German was up to that standard,
but the German diction is one of the things that are full of little flaws.

With the one intermission, we will be performing for over three hours.
The rehearsals have been punishing, I come out of rehearsals with my voice fried.
We had our last rehearsal last night,
and today we have the day off to rest up for tomorrow.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 May 26 - 08:31 PM

Even with the challenges it sounds like a great evening for everyone in attendance! Enjoy yourself!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Helen
Date: 30 May 26 - 09:35 PM

Bach's St. Matthew Passion is beautiful. I wish I could be there.

I have a CD by Thijs Van Leer who played flute in a rock band called Focus. One of my favourite tracks is his interpretation of Erbarme Dich from 'St Matthew Passion' BWV 244 with the flute and a woman singing.

I hope it goes well, but that work is such a beautiful musical experience so I am sure everyone will love it.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jun 26 - 10:34 AM

keb, how did the performance go? Was it recorded to load on YouTube at some point?

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Jun 26 - 07:59 PM

All those nerve-wracking rehearsals paid off well.
The performance went much better than I feared it would do,
and the large audience gave us warm and sustained appreciation.
I have heard compliments since then from people who were there.

It always takes time for one of these performance videos
to make it to YouTube, because there is a fair amount of editing that goes on first.
But it should eventually be available as a viewable video,
probably a matter of several months.

I would be interested to view it myself.
We had six excellent professional solo singers, and
their backs were to the chorus, facing the audience;
so if nothing else, I would like to hear what the audience heard of them.
We were all so tired when it was over!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Jun 26 - 08:21 PM

congratulations.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jun 26 - 11:58 PM

Please post the link when they do finish the processing of the video - I look forward to hearing it!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Aug 26 - 03:49 PM

Last night my group, the Berkshire Lyric Chorus,
performed with Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the Koussevitsky Shed at Tanglewood.
We opened the program with Faure's Cantique de Jean Racine, in French.
Yo-Yo Ma, when planning this program with the BSO,
specifically asked for a local group, and so he ended up with us.
We have never performed with the BSO or Yo-Yo Ma before, so this was an historic occasion for us.

There won't be videos of this concert, as far as I can tell,
although it was broadcast live on a New York radio station somewhere.

Personally I was on pins and needles with nerves, as so many things could have gone wrong.
But the performance went well.
There were over one hundred of us in the chorus.
We filed onstage behind the orchestra, on risers with narrow benches.
The Faure lasted a little over five minutes and was warmly applauded.
Then Yo-Yo Ma took a microphone and improvised a little speech to the audience.
While he spoke, the stage was being reset for the next piece,
and we choristers slowly filed offstage, unable to hear the speech.

The rest of the program was:
a movement of Messiaen's Quatour pour le Fin du Temps, featuring a violin solo, by Renaud Capucon;
Brahms's Second Sextet for Strings in G;
Brahms's Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra,
with Renaud Capucon, Yo-Yo Ma, and the orchestra.

I had taken the extra trouble to buy a ticket for a seat inside the Shed.
So I got to sit down in comfort for the second half of the program and listen to the great musicians onstage.
The Double Concerto doesn't get performed often, and I doubt I will hear it again soon;
I know I won't hear it played better than I heard it last night,
with the violin and cello harmonizing together. It was glorious.
The Sextet was beautiful as well.
Mercifully, there was only a little light rain, and none of the thunderstorms we were worried about (those are supposed to happen tonight).
The audience was full of people who adore Yo-Yo Ma,
and the applause was rapturous and sustained.
IN short, an evening to remember and cherish.
(And I only got two mosquito bites.)

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Helen
Date: 08 Aug 26 - 04:31 PM

Oh keberoxu! That is a brilliant outcome! Congratulations to you and the choir and I am so envious that you not only contributed to the concert with Yo Yo Ma but that you also saw the rest of the performance.

What a night to remember, and I know how anxious you were in the lead-up to the event so I am happy that it all went so well.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: JennieG
Date: 08 Aug 26 - 05:28 PM

What a wonderful evening, keberoxu! Thank you for taking us along with you.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Aug 26 - 05:46 PM

I'll second (third?) that!!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Aug 26 - 06:21 PM

Thank you for the report, and wise of you to get a ticket to enjoy the rest of the program! What a treat!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Aug 26 - 07:06 PM

I was a little nervous about newspaper reviews after the concert.
After all, Yo-Yo Ma is a big deal and critics check out his performances.

The nearest large-city newspaper posted a critique of the concert in today's issue;
the critic completely overlooked our six-minute opening and offered their opinions on the rest of the program instead.
Because the journalist was highly critical of what went on for the rest of the evening,
I have a feeling that we were lucky NOT to be mentioned, actually.

Then there was the local newspaper, a much more modest affair.
There we were included in a big color photograph of the stage, not quite big enough to feature every member of the chorus, but we were there.
The reporter praised Yo-Yo Ma and said that the piece which we performed was "contemplative" and "moving", which I'll take as pluses.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 12 Aug 26 - 07:53 PM

well deserved!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Helen
Date: 12 Aug 26 - 08:09 PM

I have always had a beef with critics who think they should criticise artists and performers because that is their definition of criticism, i.e. to find fault. A good critic evaluates the positives and the negatives. S/he doesn't ignore the positive and only state the negative.

In view of that, it seems like you got off lightly by getting praise of any sort from a person who is deemed a critic.

Just my own not-so-humble point of view. LOL

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Aug 26 - 10:07 PM

You know the saying - "those who can, do. Those who can't become critics." It sounds like you had fun and everyone enjoyed themselves so that is entirely what matters.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: JennieG
Date: 13 Aug 26 - 03:14 AM

The phrase "damning with faint praise" comes to mind.