Eli goes to ELIJAH

Last week, the Phoenix Symphony performed Mendelssohn's Elijah. We had rehearsals Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, with concerts Thursday, Saturday and Sunday! Whew! It was totally wonderful and exhausting.

I thought it would be appropriate to invite Eli to his first Symphony concert, considering the material. We prepped him with the Old Testament story of Elijah the Prophet, so he would know when to jeer at the prophets of Baal. Happily, we sang it in English and there were supertitles as well. They also featured artwork illustrating the music throughout the entire work. It was really a wonderful introduction to the Symphony!

If that wasn't enough to keep him entertained, there's always the seeing-eye dog who sits onstage at every concert, in the very front with its owner, a half-blind second violinist. Rumor has it that once the dog got up and walked around the stage during a concert. I never saw it myself. But I bet that dog is cultured! Too bad it can't write the reviews, he might do a better job than the guy who wrote ours last weekend.

Before the concert, Eli played on the strange downtown Arizona sculptures. That's my EliBug! :)

Cheers!

The latest Symphony project has been a concert version of an opera called "Nixon in China." It catalogs the historic event of 1972 when, yep, you guessed it, Pres. Nixon visited China. Strange topic for an opera, you say? Wait till you hear the music! It's written by the American composer John Adams, and they call his work "post- minimalist" music, meaning that there is a LOT of repetition, and steady rhythmic pulses. It's a little out there. But it's actually really fun to sing, and I think I might love it.

Click here for the Phoenix Symphony's Video preview of Nixon in China

I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair...

The final concert of the Phoenix Symphony season was "A Tribute to Rogers & Hammerstein" - what fun! They chose 8 men and 8 women from our big choir to sing some of the chorus parts from South Pacific and Sound of Music. We're all too old to be having this much fun!! Our music is memorized, and we, for once, get to stand in front of the orchestra! And, we didn't have to wear all black! This is as exciting as it gets for choir members! :) What HAMS we all turned out to be!
Here's one with Dr. Gentry and his wife Anna...

Lynn and I had a cameo during the men's number "There Ain't Nothin' Like a Dame." We strutted across the stage and blew kisses.

Carmina Burana

We had a rehearsal tonight for Carmina and I must warn you, if you are coming, do not, I repeat, do NOT wear your toupees. They will get blown right off your head. So please, just don't take any chances. It could be embarassing for all of us.

Get your tickets!

At rehearsal tonight for Phoenix Symphony Chorus, we sang through the entire score of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. You know the big piece that starts out "O! For-tu-na!!!" really loud and then goes quiet and intense: "semper crescis" etc, etc, etc. With lots and lots of banging percussion? It has been in many a movie -most people will recognize that part. Well, I'd only sung that beginning part before. But after singing through all 25 sections, I found out that it is a very wild and intense piece! It is seriously so much fun to sing. It is going to be an amazing concert!

The concert isn't till April 23rd and 25, but you can check out more about it here.

MESSIAH by the Numbers

1 Unforgettable (That's not a compliment in this case!) Countertenor singing all the Alto Solos with the Phoenix Symphony (!!!)

2 Full, separate performances on the 14th of December alone

2 Articles of Clothing that were worn repeatedly at every performance!

3 Total Rehearsals before our first performance with the Phoenix Symphony

3 Solos I sang this year - but only 1 was planned!

4 Minutes before the concert began to prepare for my first ever Tenor Solo. (Matt got sick, someone had to sing "Behold and See" for him! - Don't worry - I sang it up an octave!)

5 Stewarts singing the Hallelujah Chorus together in the Tempe Stake Messiah Singalong

6 Hours average of sleep per night I've had this month

7 Palmers (5 siblings + 2 parents) performing Messiah together for the very 1st time last night.

7 Separate Messiah Concerts in the last 11 Days in 2 different states

8 Healthy Sopranos only singing the Full Length Messiah at the Mesa Arts Center (usually we have 11-12!)

11 miles over the speed limit up on an empty road in Scottsdale on my way to a performance to garner my first speeding ticket in 8 years.

14 Days ago, I bought plane tickets to surprise my mom by showing up for her annual Messiah concert so we could all perform together as a family for the first time and the last time for at least two years! Erin wrapped me in a big red bow and we rang the doorbell a few hours before the concert. 23 Sopranos in my mom's Messiah choir who kept my arrival a secret and still managed to save me a seat in the process!

12 Months until I can commemorate Christmas by singing Messiah again

X10 - How good I feel when I can express my testimony of the Savior's life every Christmas through singing this glorious music.

Man Date

I get two comp tickets for each performance I'm in.

One goes to Adam, naturally.

Well, he can't take a female, now can he?

Thanks for being man enough to go on a Man Date, Ward.

When I told my girlfriends that Adam had a Man Date, they all thought it was a "mandate" ... so no, it is not mandatory. It's just for fun.

And they're just friends.

End of an Era

Lynn has been my faithful carpool companion for a year and a half, and now she is moving to a totally inconvenient carpool location!

Every Monday for almost 2 years, we've driven to choir together. Our carpool has lasted as others came and went, through two other moves, through the Navajo Oratorio, through job changes, and through Hot & Spicy Cheeze-its. On those long drives we've discussed everything from books to love to families to Red Pepper Hummus and Hot & Spicy Cheez-its.

I will miss our drives Lynn!! You've become a true friend.

Now go and get me some Hot & Spicy Cheez-its.

Colorado Pictures!

Here's a little photo journal of my awesome trip! Enjoy!Nicole and her darling boys, Henry and Jackson. What a sweet family!

Royal Arch - a 4 mile hike climbing 1500 vertical - and so worth every altitude wrenching breath! My friend Lynn Copes enjoying the view!
A peek through the arch of the Boulder Flatirons.
My crazed look with my crepe.
The Royal Arch Quartet: Soprano (me), Brian the Bass, Bruce the Tenor, and Lynn the Alto.
My sweet host and new friend, Pat

A delicious lunch in Boulder - organic, fresh - very typical Boulder style!
This is Banjo Billy with his Bus Tour
It was part tour, part stand-up comedy, and we all loved it. Except when he was holding his microphone in one hand, gesturing with the other, and turning back to look at our reactions. While he was driving the bus. Eeek! No, he was great.
A pretty little part of Boulder I saw.

Watching the sunset over the Rockies with Heather and her host family You had to be there - this picture doesn't do it justice!
Clementine, Pat's beloved Bassett Hound.

Simone, Ann, Leslie, Tia and me.
I spent an afternoon reading a book on a bench here - such a treat!
Dr. Gentry, our choir conducter in the music hall at Chautauqua in Boulder
My view

And finally, here's Lynn, recreating the yoga class we went to where she turned from an alto to a contortionist as Brian looks on! This kind of thing kept us entertained while we were at the airport for 6 hours before boarding our plane! Good times! :)

The Sassy Brassy Girls

Tonight was opening night of Ainadamar!

We had such an amazing time performing this music. I loved every second of it.

Dawn Upshaw, Kelly O'Conner, and Emily Albright were the three main characters in this opera, (Dawn and Kelly were in the original cast!), and they were incredible. The music is some of my favorite of all time. The more I hear it, the more I love it! To describe the sound, I would say it's a mixture of classical, jazz, rock, and flamenco, with a Latin and Arabic flavor. It's very percussive. It's gorgeous. I love it.

I've been inducted into the Eucher Group!

So, Phoenix Symphony Chorus had (another) concert this weekend: we did the Chichester Psalms by Bernstein (a first for me, and a joy to sing!), and we did Ravel's wordless "Daphnis et Chloe" (the music for a ballet). It was great.

(Sidenote: Adam and Lizzie came to the Friday concert, and I asked Lizzie what her favorite part was. She said, "I LOVED..." and here I thought she would say the piano soloist or the boy soprano soloist, but she said, "...the DOG!" There is a handicapped violinist who keeps her guide dog on stage, and apparently that was Lizzie's favorite part. But I digress...)

But what was ever better was that I was finally inducted into the Eucher group, even though I'm not a midwesterner. If you're asking yourself what "Eucher" is, you must not be from the midwest either. It's a card game that is played by midwesterners, in the midwest. And if they happen to leave the midwest, and they wanted to play, say in the southwest, they only play with other people who have lived in the midwest.

A group formed from our choir when we had some down time in between singing on concert nights back in November. This lady came over to a group of us and asked if any of us were from the midwest. My friend Lynn is from Michigan, and was swept away immediately! I was so confused! Nobody asked if anyone knew the game or if anyone wanted to play a card game, it was "Are you from the midwest?"

I was only invited to observe, which was a stretch since I have only driven through the midwest, or stopped there during layovers of flights.

But Saturday night, they were desperate for a fourth player, and with Lynn putting in a good word for me, they called me over! I made the disclaimer, "But I'm not from the midwest - are you sure?!!" and they cringed, but let me in anyway.

Having payed very close attention the last time they played, I caught on pretty quickly and held my own. That is, until the last hand when I called the trump to be "spades" when I actually meant to say "clubs." The game was confusing until I realized my mistake and laughed about it, but I'm pretty sure those midwesterners were thinking "Only someone not from the Midwest could make such a dumb mistake!"

So, it might have been the first, and perhaps the last time that a rogue player was allowed into the club!

Good news!

I have been chosen to sing with a small group (6 women) in an upcoming Phoenix Symphony Concert! It's a concert version of the opera Ainadamar by Golijov, an Argentinian composer. And the exciting part is that we're singing with Dawn Upshaw!

We get the music next week, and I think the idea is that we're Spanish singers in the tradition of "I Want to Be in America" from West Side Story.

Should be lots of fun!

The Navajo Oratorio

Last week I was busy with the Phoenix Symphony Chorus again. We did a "World Premiere" of a piece called "Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio." It was written by a native Arizonan, with the libretto by English Professor and Navajo, Laura Tohe. We sang parts of it in Navajo. It tells the story of a young Navajo man who serves in the Iraq war, and his internal struggle as he returns home. He struggles as he searches for the Navajo way of life, living with the demons of war. It is getting national attention, and a live recording CD will be made from the concerts (and our late night "patch session") to come out this summer.

There was an amazing baritone soloist, Scott Hendricks, a full symphony with full chorus, as well as photography of Navajo lands illustrating the music.
Here's the review from the Arizona Republic: [and for some reason, this link isn't working...]

The chorus acts as the Navajo ancients all working together to save this one soul. It was a really amazing work to be a part of. It wasn't great timing that I was so sick that week, but I was still able to go and experience the music, even if my voice wasn't contributing like it usually does!
On the Saturday night concert, the Dibbles, Ward and Adam all came to hear it, and it was a fun night.