Yesterday was the 10th Anniversary Evensong to celebrate the founding of The American Friends of the Three Choirs Festival. Here’s what Rich Arenschieldt, chair of the American Friends, wrote: This year’s festival is a special one for the American Friends, as we celebrate our tenth anniversary. We are offering something never before done at Three… Read More 10th Anniversary Evensong
Yesterday we had the rare opportunity to tour the Nicholson & Co. Ltd Factory, a British organ factory which was founded by John Nicholson (1815–1895) in 1841. One of their most important projects is the restoration of the Gloucester Cathedral organ, which is projected to be completed in 2026, the year of the next Three… Read More ‘Norman’ is keeping watch!
In last night’s post, I neglected to write about the concert we heard after Evensong, performed by the BBC Singers. On one hand, it is a human impossibility to attend every single event of the Festival because many events occur simultaneously. On the other hand, it’s impossible to write about every single concert and every… Read More Superstars
It was maybe only a year or two ago that I was made aware of the importance of the organ in the movie, Interstellar. A friend from my Spanish class sent me a link to a YouTube video, and I listened to a short clip. At the time, I liked it but pretty much forgot… Read More Other worldly Interstellar
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
Yesterday was a huge day here at the Three Choirs Festival, starting with a Festival Eucharist in Worcester Cathedral where Charles Marie Widor’s Messe à deux chœurs & deux orgues was the communion setting—set for two choirs and two organs. After lunch we attended a concert by the Corvus Consort, then rushed off to Choral… Read More Saxophone Brunch and Saxophone Byrd!
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
Yesterday was another travel day, another day of schlepping our luggage on and off trains, up and down elevators, and through the London Underground, to travel from Cambridge to Worcester. It meant returning to Kings Cross train station, navigating our way through the Underground to Paddington Station where we could take a train to Worcester.… Read More Three Choirs Festival, here we come!
For the first time ever in my professional career (that’s almost six decades!), I am working in a parish which will formally recognize the efforts of its choir. In this week’s parish newsletter at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, The Rev. Paul Lillie wrote: … at the High Mass Aloha Hour there will be a reception… Read More Choir Recognition
Today is the last day of the Three Choirs Festival and we have only scratched the surface on the number of events that are presented. I didn’t want to give you the impression that the only events I wrote about are the only ones that happened — quite to the contrary! I just counted up… Read More Last days in Gloucester