Today marked the opening service of the 289th Three Choirs Festival, and I could not help but think the Brits do it best—the pomp, the pageantry and the sheer grandeur of it all. In many ways it was like the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, with the entrance procession lasting 20 minutes! As we… Read More Who can match the Brits?
“I hate this piece!” That’s what one of my organ students told me at her lesson yesterday, not just once, but several times.”I hate this piece! It’s just so hard!” Yes, this is a difficult piece for an organist to play, but one of those “must learn, must do” pieces for organists, since so many… Read More “Hallelujah” Chorus
Today Vreni Griffith and I spent the day addressing the postcards for Carl Crosier’s Memorial Concert on November 1st — and for the fourth day in a row I didn’t read the morning paper until after dinner! In fact, as I write this post, it’s after 10:00 pm and I still haven’t gotten to today’s… Read More By the numbers
“No, no, NO!” When I woke up this morning, the first day of my “retirement,” I opened my eyes and looked at the clock. It read “3:51” (a.m.) I always thought retired people could throw away their alarm clocks — and I actually haven’t turned on my alarm clock since I came back from vacation… Read More Retired . . . NOT!
Last night’s performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 capped off a spectacular day and was for me the perfect end of the Boston Early Music Festival. (The Festival does not end until Sunday but it is the end for me because I am traveling to Germany today.) There were just 10 singers (of which there were only 3 women and… Read More Spectacular Vespers!
One if by land, two if by sea was the phrase coined by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his famous poem about the American revolutionaries. It described the signal Paul Revere was to give to indicate the means by which the British were coming. One lantern hanging in the Old North Church meant they were… Read More One if by land, two if by sea
Shivers of delight ran up and down my spine yesterday as I was listening to the concert by former student, Joey Fala, at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. I was in amazement at his musical maturity, and the ease with which he played extremely difficult passages — the music just oozed out! Here was Joey’s bio in… Read More Beautiful concert, beautiful playing
Last night we heard a concert of John Dowland songs, all by the great Dame Emma Kirkby, and it will go down in the annals of concerts we will never forget. This was our third time to hear her in person — the first time was in England, at the Stour Festival in Wye, where… Read More A great artist
We’re gearing up for our next concert, an all-Mozart program on October 1st and 2nd, and it reminded me of how much we rely upon volunteers in our program. At the beginning of this week, the classy Mozart postcards, which Miguel Felipe so quickly designed — arrived, setting in motion the next series of actions.… Read More Valuable volunteer
Every Tuesday, Carl Crosier walks to a downtown sandwich shop and orders the same tuna salad sandwich every week. But this week when he went to pay, they told him, “You’re a celebrity!” and refused to take any money! They apparently had seen the article in the newspaper. about Carl’s retirement concert. The next day… Read More “You’re a celebrity!”