Raggio-di-Sol on YouTube

The small vocal ensemble that I sing with here in Hannover, Germany (Raggio-di-Sol or "Ray of Sun") has several clips from concerts over the years up on YouTube. You can find the Raggio-di-Sol Channel here. There are a couple with me singing solo:

"Gott der Herr ist Sonn' und Schild" (Part 2) J. S. Bach

"Sfogava con le stelle" Claudio Monteverdi

Hopefully, more coming...

Concerts - report

When it rains, it pours! At least, that's what they say, and I have to admit it often seems true! This year when Easter rolled around I didn't have a whole lot planned for the next few months. But that changed drastically.

In the throes of one of the most horrible colds I've had in a while, my dear colleague Joachim Dreher in Dillenburg called and asked if I could jump in and sing in a concert in May. He'd had a soprano soloist all lined up (most likely a year in advance as is his wont), but she had called and said she was no longer able to do the gig. He remembered my offer in October that if he should ever find himself needing a soloist at short notice that he should turn to me. Not having a whole lot lined up for 2012 and being a quick study means that I could be what saves a concert if someone gets sick. Well, at least I had a few weeks notice for this concert. But more on that later.

But first the performance at the Herrenhäuser Chortage 2012 in Hannover by Raggio-di-Sol. That's the small vocal ensemble (10 singers), that I sing with. As per usual, we sang a few pieces during this choir festival. A whole weekend featuring  choirs from Hannover. We performed on Saturday afternoon. We did "Pastime with Good Company" by Henry VIII, "Pedro y bien te quiero" (anon.) "When David Heard" by Thomas Weelkes, "Luci seren e chiare" by Claudio Monteverdi and "Magnificat anima mea", by Alfredo Ihl (our director). We did adequately. I say adequately because Alfredo made everyone nervous about the Weelkes by harping on one small section way past the point of no return. A pity, because it would've been just fine. As it was, there was no complete breakdown, but at least one person lost their way. Oh well. The rest of the pieces went quite well! That took place at the end of April.

This past weekend, May 12-13, took me back to my old haunt Dillenburg again. This time to sing Bach cantatas. Joachim had stitched together a wonderful pastiche of pieces of various cantatas and organ pieces to create a program he called "Bach and in Honor of Bach" ("Bach und Bach zu Ehren"). The church choir, a small baroque orchestra (with a few members I know from previous performances), a bass soloist and me performed from 9 different cantatas and an organ soloist performed works by Liszt, Rinck and Karg-Elert on themes from Bach pieces. It was a wonderful program and the orchestra and choir were in fine form. I'm quite satisfied with my performance, although it wasn't perfect, when is it ever? And I don't think there was anything that anyone but a professional musician might have noticed. Maybe not even then...

17 May 2012 I flit off to Hong Kong! My dear friend Albert is (finally) getting married! I know Albert from choir at the Episcopal Church of Christ the King in Frankfurt. After he left Frankfurt he spent several years in the US and then returned to his home town Hong Kong where he met Natalie. I am so pleased for him (and her!). And he asked me to sing at his wedding, offering to pay for my flight! How could I say no?!? The wedding date being 20 May 2012 meant that it fit just perfectly between the concert in Dillenburg and Magnus' grandmother's 90th birthday celebration in Bussolengo on 27 May 2012! I'm flying to HK by myself. The boys will be alone for 5 days! Unfortunately, because travel time is so long to HK I'll only be there from midday Friday to midday Monday. But I'm sure it will be an amazing experience. One set of friends from Frankfurt (Jen and Patrick) will also be there participating, so I'll be able to hang out with them. Unfortunately, the one other person I know in HK (Solveig, from Voices Found) will be in Paris that weekend! Figures!

I will be singing The Lord's Prayer by Mallotte and Bist Du Bei Mir by Anna Magdalena Bach during the ceremony. At the reception Albert has hired a jazz band and requested I sing a few numbers. I've chosen At Last and Summertime and he requested Skylark. Oh, this will be so fun!

So that's what's been going on and what's in the works. 


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Catching you up

I've been too busy, or rather, I've been held captive by a little boy a lot over the past 3 - 4 weeks and haven't been able to blog about events! So, here's it all in brief:

The group I've been singing with, Raggio di Sol, performed at the Hannover Choir Festival, which took place in the Gallery Hall at the Herrenhäuser Gardens here in Hannover. We did 3 Monteverdi madrigals, Verleih uns Frieden by H. Schütz, and Riu, riu, chiu. We were mentioned in the general review of the festival as one of the highlights. Yay!

I was able to attend Carol's (Baggott-Forte) Masterclasses in Hamburg because someone cancelled with short-ish notice. Of course, the day I left, I woke up with the same throat ick that Dante had had for a week or so. It was ok for the first 3 lessons but the 4th was pretty useless. It was great to see Carol and also the other participants, most of whom I know from previous Masterclasses around Europe. We are a dedicated bunch.

Sang a wedding, near Hannover, filling in for my friend Andrea Doig, a dedicated wedding singer, who got sick. Kind of a new experience for me singing to Karaoke in a church wedding, but that's what they'd hired Andrea to do and so I did my best, singing Caro mio ben, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah and Widmung by Schumann (instead of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, which is impossible to find in a higher key as karaoke). This was also my first venture driving a car from Stadtmobil, the local CarSharing company. A bit nerve-wracking, but all went well enough. 

I recorded a Flash Fiction story for Tony Smith of StarShipSofa, very last-minute, rush-rush, hush-hush for a Sekrit Projekt he's working on. It's like to run in the feed of StarShipSofa as a bit of teasing. I hope I notice when it's up. For such a spontaneous thing, I'm quite proud of it. I recorded and edited it in less than an hour, the same day Tony asked! Yay me! I hope it's not awful! ;-)

Still working on the next Poetry Planet on the theme of Time Travel. I'm pretty sure I won't manage to finish before Christmas, so I apologize to all the poets whose poetry will be included. It will come out eventually!

Heading off to Italy for almost 3 weeks, where I'm going to become an Aunt again! Magnus' sister is due to have her first child on Dec. 19 and I'm looking forward to cuddling a tiny baby again.

So I wish all of you a beautiful holiday season, whichever holiday you celebrate. Enjoy your families, listen to good music and count your blessings - I'm blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life and to be able to pursue and do the things I love. Thank you for being a part of that!

See you in the New Year!

Alles was ihr tut - Benefit Concert

Saturday, 10 September 2011 marked the culmination of many hours of rehearsal and preparation, in the form of the benefit concert for Chile post Earthquake 2010. The director of Raggio-di-Sol, the vocal ensemble I've been singing with lately, comes from a German-Chilean family, so this was close to his heart. He went all out and managed to get extra singers to fill out the choir in tutti places; an excellent mini-orchestra of 2 violins, 2 violas, cello, organ and harpsichord, who all played for the benefit; instrument transportation and tuning at reduced rates or free and no rent on the concert space (a church). The church was pretty full. I'd say there were probably 130 - 140 people there. 12 of them were friends/colleagues/pupils of mine. I'm glad that some of my friends finally got to hear me sing solo! The church (Friedenskirche, Hanover, Germany) was an actually lovely little modern church with a wood interior. The acoustic was a bit weird empty, but warm and clear and lovely with an audience. The program: Alessandro Scarlatti - Quadro in A minor for recorder, strings and basso continuo Michael Praetorius - Kyrie à 6 XXII - Gloria à 4 XVII Thomas Tallis - Salvator Mundi Nos. 1 and 2 Claudio Monteverdi - Nisi Dominus Heinrich Schütz - Verleih uns Frieden Michael Praetorius - Kyrie à 6 XVIII Andreas Hammerschmidt - Wie lieblich sind Deine Wohnungen, Herr Zebaoth J. S. Bach - Arie "Wohlzutun und mitzuteilen" for Baritone from Cantata No. 39 G. Ph. Telemann - Sute in A minor for Alto recorder, strings and basso continuo Dietrich Buxtehude - Kantate "Alles was ihr tut" J. S. Bach - Recit. and Duet (Soprano and Baritone) and Chorale from Cantata No. 79 It was a lovely program with a LOT of wonderful rather unknown stuff. But WAY too long. Over 2 hours. But the audience was indulgent and gamely clapped while Alfredo passed out roses to each and every participant. -------

Report: Raggio di Sol - Concert "Colors of Life"/"Farben des Lebens"

Raggio di Sol gave a concert on Pentecost Monday (as it's called here). The first one since I joined the group. The concert went well but not without more than it's fair share of drama before-hand. One of our female singers, and alto, got into a fairly serious bicycle accident after our penultimate regular rehearsal. She spend several days in the hospital, underwent surgery on her arm and suffered from a mild concussion. It was clear that she wasn't going to be able to perform, so Alfredo asked one of the singers who's supplementing the ensemble in September's big benefit concert to fill in. As fate would have it, she came down with the flu and had no voice, so had to cancel at the last minute. Such it is with singers. You just can't sing if you have some infection in the upper airways!

So, what were we to do? Some of the pieces we couldn't shuffle the rest of us around to fill in the gab, so they got axed, others we could. This is the program we were left with:

Pierrre Attaignant (1530) - Tourdion
Thoinot Arbeau - Pavane
Michael Praetorius (1571 - 1621) - Kyrie XXII
- Gloria XVII
G. P. da Palestrina (1525 - 1594) - Sicut cervus
Orlando di Lasso (1532 - 1594) - Lebensregel
Mateo Flecha? (1481 - 1553) - Riu, riu chiu

Thomas Morley (1558 - 1603) - Hard by a Crystal Fountain
Heinrich Schütz (1585 - 1672) - Verleih' uns Frieden
Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643) - Sfogava con le stelle
- Anima mia perdona
- Che se tu se'il cor mio
- Luci serene e chiare

We had to leave off pieces by Thomas Tallis, Giovanni Gastoldi, Melchior Franck and Andreas Hammerschmidt. A real pity, but hopefully we be able to perform them at a later date.

I think despite the truncated offerings, that the concert was well received. The church was not full, by any stretch of the imagination, but neither was it empty which was positive, given that it was the end of a long holiday weekend when most people go away. Our hard work trying to memorize the Monteverdi paid off for the most part. They were emotive and pliant which is what they need. Even if we couldn't do them memorized because Ingo was stepping in for Irma.

I was especially pleased to see a couple of my voice students (and parents) there as well as a neighbor and some colleagues of Magnus'.

Upcoming singing events include 2 concerts in Poland singing Hildegard von Bingen with my good friend Allegra Silbiger's group, the benefit concert with Raggio di Sol and more Hildegard in Dillenburg. Hopefully, some more performances will be added before the end of the year.

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Report: Pop/Rock Concert

OK, I've been so busy lately that I completely forgot to blog about a recent concert I did. I mentioned it before - Me and two others covering pop and rock music.

Anyone who knows me, knows that this isn't really my thing. However, since meeting Janusz, who takes singing lessons from me and is an avid midi-file/keyboard player, I've been playing around with singing pop music. I find it awkward to sing (I'm a soprano after all), it sits all wrong in my voice, and if I sing it comfortably, it sounds all wrong. That's changed a little lately, since I started working with Carol Baggott Forte, actually. And our choice of repertoire and the keys we do it in have helped too. Here's the list of songs I sang:

Carole King, You've Got a Friend
ABBA, Mamma Mia and Money, Money, Money
Morris Albert, Feelings (yes...)
Mike Oldfield, Moonlight Shadow
Those Were the Days
Moody Blues, Nights in White Satin
BeeGees/Barbara Streisand, Woman in Love
Madonna, La Isla Bonita


The other two sang mostly Polish (they both are) and German pop. Renata and I sang back-up for each other on a few songs.

This was a sort of open rehearsal, since we've never performed this stuff outside of Janusz's living room. Oh, wait. Actually, Janusz and I did a gig for a Christmas party for a friend of his. But we only did 5 songs - 3 Christmas, Woman In Love and Hey, Jude. Anyway, Janusz has mountains of equipment to transport and set up and he wanted a chance to go through the motions, as it were. Ideally, we'd like to get gigs playing at weddings or receptions/parties, that sort of thing.

Well regardless, it went off quite well. I was rather pleased. I didn't manage to memorize anything though, which is not so great, but I didn't flub anything! W00t! I have issues with memorization. I grew up and went through college never realizing I had problems with texts and memorization. But that's worthy of another post!

There were quite a few people there - around 80 or so. Most were friends and clients of Janusz's but 8 or so were friends and pupils of mine. I've gotten feedback and except for the occassional "you can tell you're a trained singer", which in this case is not necessarily a compliment, all positive.

This coming weekend I have a wedding to sing, in which I'm to sing Schubert's Ave Maria (in Latin) and a pop song - Das Beste by Silbermond. I sure hope I have to sing the pop song first. I'm sure I can switch into classical singer mode easily, but it's my pop-singer mode I'm insecure about.

Also this "weekend" (it's "Pentecost Monday" which is a holiday here in Germany) the little 8-person choir I sing with ("Raggio di Sol") is giving a concert of Renaissance and Baroque music. Now THAT's my thing.

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Two performances

So, as fate would have it, I have 2 performances coming up end of May and mid June. Different (very different) music and types of concerts, so I have my work cut out for me.

On May 28 I will be singing a program of 70's and 80's pop (nearly wrote poop, there!) with a keyboardist and another singer. This is a private performance for "friends" only, so if you want to come then email me directly and I'll tell you where and when on that day it'll occur. Janusz (the keyboarder) has had the dream to perform as an entertainer for many years and is really keen on finally making it happen. This performance is basically practice for him with all his mountains of equipment and a bit of advertisement for us as a duo/trio. The two of us are singing among others covers of Carole Kind, Abba, the Beatles, Roberta Flack and Bob Denver (guessing which song, might get you a prize!). Janusz and the other singer will be singing mostly Polish pop music (which is very listenable, even if you don't understand the words). The 3 of us will do a couple of songs together.

On "Pentecost Monday" (as they call it here, because it's a holiday) the Vocal Ensemble "Raggio-di-Sol" will be performing a program of Monteverdi, Praetorius, Tallis, Palestrina, Hammerschmidt, Morley and others. It'll be wonderful! More info as the concert nears...

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Report: Raggio di Sol - Gottesdienst and rehearsal weekend

OK, so it's not such a big deal singing in a church service with a choir, but I did want to report that it went quite well. Unfortunately, the church was practically empty. Germany went to Daylight Savings time in the night and so it was pretty tough getting there myself especially since we had to be there an hour in advance to rehearse. I was very glad to see two of my dearest friends in Hannover, Isabel and Kristina, even an hour late. At any rate, I'm very pleased with our performance, which bodes well for more important concerts in June (Pentecost Monday) and in September (a big benefit concert).

Besides performing in the church service we rehearsed both Saturday and Sunday for upwards of 6 hours. Actually Saturday it was more like 8 with a long lunch break! We worked hard on the Monteverdi madrigals and other larger works we'll be singing. Alfredo has decreed we'll be singing lots of the program from memory. The Monterverdi madrigals will be easy enough to memorize, it's the stuff with multiple verses I have trouble with. I'm the queen of mix-and-match verses as my colleagues from Elysium can attest. I hope I manage!

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Raggio di Sol

Last Autumn I joined a vocal ensemble - Raggio di Sol. A choir if you will. There are 8 of us and a colleague, someone I sang with in a production of L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Alfredo Ihl, who directs and sings. I joined for two reasons: because Alfredo asked if I would, and because I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to begin singing again on a regular basis (even if it's not paid). I love singing choral music, especially in a small group, in which I mostly get to sing by myself on the soprano line. :-)

Anyway, we are preparing for a benefit concert (benefitting the earthquake victims in Chile - from last year) and will be singing absolutely wonderful music by Monteverdi, Tallis, Hammerschmidt, Gastoldi and many more. I'll tell you more about the concert when it gets nearer and report on it once it's happened.

This weekend we will be rehearsing all weekend and performing at the church we rehearse at, doing the music for their service Sunday morning at 10am. If you are in Hannover or anywhere near here, please feel free to drop in and listen! We're at the Lukaskirche, Dessauerstr. 2, Hannover. If you're not near here, well then, don't worry, perhaps I'll post a recording (if Alfredo and the others don't mind).

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