Upcoming events:
Thanks, everyone, for a wonderful OSHER class!
Nov. 17, 7 p.m. -- Festival Concert with
The Chorale and guest conductor Dr. Craig
Jessop, McKinley Presbyterian Church, Urbana
Illinois
Nov. 21 Mason Christian Village (7pm) -- Mason,
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Life happens, to composers as it does to everyone else. Sometimes it
isn't that pretty.
I didn't set out to depress everyone when I decided to teach
"Composers in Exile: Music in Adversity," a five week OSHER course
that included the music and life stories of a number of persons
making music in difficult circumstances. Those circumstances
included voluntary and involuntary exile, imprisonment, isolation,
societal shunning, war, the threat of execution, mental illness,
racism, sexism, and depression.
On the other hand, it would be facile to see in all of those stories
of composers who went on creating their art in the midst of trying
circumstances a triumph of the human spirit. Not just because some
of those spirits broke down in the end but because it is easy for
those not in the midst of those trials to use the suffering of
others as feel-good entertainment. We like movies in which the
heroes struggle as long as they win in the end. Well, some of us do.
There are also those who don't even like to confront life's ugliness
long enough to make it a plot point.
Given my usual propensity to inject wit into the proceedings, as
well as the music's frequently cheerful tone, the class was not the
funeral procession you might think if you were not in attendance.
Before last week's litany of woman barred from public performance,
composition, and even teaching by the attitudes of the men who
controlled their decisions, I strode to the piano holding my
three-ring binder filled with music aloft and proclaimed "this is my
binder full of women." Several people laughed, which was a good
release since the next half-hour was more likely to make them angry
or depressed.
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Wow.
If you're dialing in from Saskatoon or Zanzibar or any
other place that isn't Champaign-Urban Illinois, and you
weren't in the audience of about 300 who packed First
Methodist Church in Urbana last night to hear The
Chorale perform it's annual Celebration of Life concert,
you missed an event.
The Chorale sang 15 hymns and spirituals largely from
arrangements by Alice Parker and Robert Shaw. Tenor
Davion Williams, a former Chorale scholarship winner,
sang three lively pieces by African-American composers.
I played a set of pieces you can hear by checking out
the blog above. We were led for most of the evening by a
man Artistic Director Julie Beyler referred to as "our
Principal Guest Conductor" since he has been with us now
five times in the last decade, Dr. Craig Jessop. Dr.
Jessop was the director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
until 2008 and apparently doesn't mind conducting our
"chamber ensemble" of a mere 70-80 members from time to
time!
What can I say about this man? He has a pile of energy.
I don't know where he gets it all, but it is certainly
necessary when working with groups of that size. Even
better, it radiates outward to the members of the
ensemble and makes it seem we will never get tired and
that there is no place we would rather be than right
here right now making this glorious music. What a
privilege!
read on
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from November 4, 2013
in case you're confused, this picture is
actually from a different festival concert, one
with more instruments! |
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from May 10, 2015
This weekend marks both a homecoming and a
finale. I'll be in Champaign, Illinois, for
a festival concert with The Chorale,
directed by Julie Beyler, with our favorite
guest, Dr. Craig Jessop. I'm dedicated this
week's edition to a look back at past
performances, and this blog is all about the
pictures that I took in May of 2015, two
festival performances ago.
The Chorale has been making music for nearly
40 years, well before I became their
accompanist, and for a few years after. This
is their final concert. Thanks to all of
you, including our dearly departed members.
I'll see you in Champaign later today!
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