Last night was our last evening concert for the Three Choirs Festival—an all-Mozart concert including the Requiem and the Sinfonia Concertante in E flat for violin and viola, K 364—a most unusual concerto. However, don’t get me wrong—there’s still one more nighttime concert left in the Festival but by that time we will be on… Read More Magnificent Mozart!
Yesterday we took in one of the best events of the week — a concert by the critically-acclaimed Apollo5, an outstanding a cappella ensemble with two women and three men: Penelope Appleyard – SopranoLily Robson – Interim Mezzo-Soprano / AltoThomas Mottershead – TenorJoseph Taylor – TenorAugustus Perkins Ray – Bass It was not only that… Read More Bonkers, mad Madrigals!
Maybe you’ve heard of this term before … and maybe not. Here’s what I found about this phenomenon called “musical chills” in a paper written by Emily Nusbaum and Paul Silva. Have you ever had the experience of listening to a favourite piece of music and suddenly you get a little spikey feeling running down… Read More Frisson
Question: What’s the only word in the English language with four silent letters? Queue nouna line or sequence of people or vehicles awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed. verbtake one’s place in a queue.”in the war they had queued for food” At the Three Choirs Festival, they queue for daily Evensong, one of several… Read More Queue for Evensong
The outing on Monday to Berkeley Castle was only one of several non-music options at the Three Choirs Festival. This morning Joan Ishibashi and I attended a most interesting lecture by Dr Linda Porter, called “The Real Bloody Mary,” on Mary Tudor, the first child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Eclipsed by her… Read More Three Choirs Festival —more than just music
My flight to London was delayed nearly an hour and a half, but I still arrived in plenty of time to catch my train to Gloucester on Sunday morning at 10:30 am. I realized that this is my third time at Gloucester Cathedral, and a year ago to the day I was here listening to… Read More Back at Gloucester Cathedral
This afternoon I reconnected with Diane Amidon, who lives in nearby Raleigh, NC. She and I first became acquainted when we were both freshmen at USC School of Music—she was a soprano voice major, and I knew her then as Diane Rose. I lost track of her after sophomore year and didn’t find out that… Read More Reminiscing and reconnecting
Perhaps you saw the recent 60 Minutes segment about Alma Deutscher, the 12-year old musical prodigy, who was just bursting with music in her head. Just this afternoon, I decided to take a break from folding 300 napkins for my condo’s upcoming Christmas party, and turned on my Apple TV. I’m used to watching 60 Minutes… Read More How can music be so beautiful?
This afternoon’s concert at the Three Choirs Festival was by the world-famous Kings College Choir conducted by Stephen Cleobury. It was sponsored by the American Friends of the Three Choirs Festival to which I contributed. For decades my late husband Carl Crosier and I listened to the Kings College recordings and out of their concert… Read More The Gold Standard
It was only today, the next to last day of the Three Choirs Festival 2017, that the construction fencing came down around Cathedral Square and we were able to see the statue of Sir Edward Elgar! The plaque reads: Sir Edward Elgar, who rose from obscurity to become England’s greatest composer for 200 years, was… Read More On the next to last day…