my first performance in thirty years

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Mar 23 - 10:58 PM

Please report back and tell us how it went. And if someone records for Facebook or posts it on YouTube, a link would be lovely!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 19 Mar 23 - 06:06 PM

Well, both performances are over,
and both were sung to a packed house, with more people than seats,
some were standing along the wall.
The audience applauded warmly and participated in the singalong part.
The experience was fulfilling yet tiring.

Of interest to Mudcatters:
the teenage girls' chorus sang "The Parting Glass"
in an arrangement by the Wailin' Jennys (three-part harmony).

The skits and jokes went down well also.
One of the funny songs was
"Who Put the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?"
THe children's chorus sang that one,
along with the Unicorn song.

Good grief, I almost printed Unicron song -- pandemic misspelling.

Speaking of pandemic:
THis event would be considered a super-spreader,
packed to the walls as the hall was.
I don't know the auditorium's capacity,
it was of course on the small side.
Only a handful of people, mostly older people, wore facemasks;
the rest savored their liberty from facemasks, plainly.

The adult chorus sang:
Deep Peace
Salley Gardens
Danny Boy
Black is the Color of my True Love's Hair
A Gaelic Good Night (an Irish room blessing)

And the dance-school troupe of student Irish step-dancers
brought the house down.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Mar 23 - 09:03 PM

Sounds beautiful!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: JennieG
Date: 19 Mar 23 - 09:11 PM

Sounds like a great concert - well done you, and well done to all the performers!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: leeneia
Date: 19 Mar 23 - 11:36 PM

It sounds like a wonderful concert, keb. We are all proud of you.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 03:29 AM

I'll second that!!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: GUEST,Mark
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 05:55 AM

I'm a little late to the party.

First, congratulations on finding some rewarding outlets for your talents. Long may it continue. I'm much the same age as you and rather frustrated at the moment that I don't have such an outlet.

Then two things about the "Trout".
1) Many years ago I took my eldest son to one of Hilary James' and Simon Mayor's "Musical Mystery Tour" shows, and after that all my children got great pleasure from their cassettes (I said it was many years ago). One cassette included this wonderful treatment of the "Trout Quintet" with non-Schubertian lyrics The Slippery Slimy Trout - hopefully some others will also enjoy it.

2) More recently we got a Samsung Washing Machine and also a Tumble Drier from the same manufacturer. When they finish a cycle, they play a short burst of the "Trout" which always makes me laugh and break into Simon's song...

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 08:38 AM

my washing machine just BEEPS, but as it's dying I might look for a new one that plays music!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Mar 23 - 09:56 PM

Good on you Keb.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 May 23 - 07:13 PM

The same amateur chorus, with which I performed on the weekend of St. Patrick's Day with the Irish theme,
is performing in the next ten days.

This time it is "ein Deutsches Requiem" by Brahms, with soloists and a very full orchestra. So full, in fact, that the chorus director has a little anxiety about the chorus not being full enough to match. A bigger chorus would be more standard towards a performance of this piece. But we are going to attempt it anyway. The performance will be on a Sunday afternoon, the first Sunday in June, and although the performance is indoors, I am hoping that the weather will cooperate.

I'm having to pace myself carefully in rehearsing the Brahms and most probably in the performance to come.
For one thing, I don't have the high notes that I used to have, and I am singing second soprano.
There are places where I simply lip-sync and let the other second sopranos carry the line without me. It's a dirty trick, but it works.
The Brahms Requiem is seven movements long and lasts over one hour.
So I feel justified in doing whatever I have to in order to not burn out my singing voice.

This coming week, we will have a piano rehearsal on Memorial Day evening, and then there will be rehearsals every other day, two of them with the orchestra; the performance is two days after the last rehearsal.

I hope the experience is a happy one. There is good reason to be hopeful of this. It's still a big undertaking and if I am honest, I have a little fear about how all of us are going to get through it.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Helen
Date: 25 May 23 - 07:20 PM

Sandra, we recently bought a new musical washing machine too. It's kinda fun.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Helen
Date: 25 May 23 - 07:22 PM

And keberoxu, I hope your performance goes well. Even the lip-syncing.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 May 23 - 09:49 PM

Keb, a friend of mine in New York City loved to sing with groups. He was active with at least one barbershop quartet. We were both park rangers at Ellis Island, and one day he came out with his group and the stood on the balcony of the Great Hall and sang a couple of songs. The acoustics were amazing! Brooklyn has a robust Norwegian population and he also performed with a Norwegian male choir. In my part of the Puget Sound where many Scandinavians settled there were lots of these groups, and I heard a few as a kid. I went to a concert Joe performed in and it was like seeing all of my cousins and great uncles there on stage - tall, thin, pale Norwegian men. The fact that my friend was a fairly brown skinned, black haired Italian meant that he was the raisin in the oatmeal up there. And after the concert he said they surprised him by listing a song he hadn't practices, so he did the lip sync thing the whole time. We wouldn't have known if he didn't tell us.