We devoted a significant amount of our time in Arlington singing, or engaged in activities related to singing. So it was evident early on once we moved to Swampscott that we had a big gap in our lives without singing. Fortunately, the Boston area offers plenty of opportunities to sing and we are taking steps to fill that gap with song.
The first thing we did was to attend a couple of summer sings with Chorus Pro Musica, a choral group with a rich performing history in Boston, taking the commuter rail and T to Old South Church. Even though I’ve sung the Bach Magnificat several times, the Chorus Director Betsy Burleigh pointed out a number of things about the piece that I hadn’t heard before. The Spring concert is Britten’s War Requiem for which a cast of thousands is needed. Maybe I’ll have the guts to audition.
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lynn is right up the street from our house, and is blessed with a terrific music director, FrancesFitch, who teaches at several local universities and is a world renown harpsichordist . The choir is small, about a dozen singers, but appears really focused on making listenable music. Trudi and I sang for the first service of the Fall, an outdoor service under a crystal clear late summer sky.
Trudi has joined the Marblehead Little Theatre for its fall performance of the musical Oliver. She is both excited and relieved that her need to perform on stage has an outlet. I hope this will be an ongoing opportunity for her, as she sorely misses her beloved Chalice Theatre.
Recently, I joined the Concert Singers of Greater Lynn that rehearses at the UU church, a local group that required no audition. The group will be offering a Christmas concert of music by John Rutter and Stephen Paulus. The group does not charge admission to its concerts and apparently makes a lot of its income from fall and spring lobster roll sales. Now that is my type of fund raiser! Not to be outdone, Trudi attended an open rehearsal of a chorus based about a half hour from here called Cantemus, and is planning to audition with them.
What is it about choral singing that has so much appeal for me? It is a variety of things, including getting a sense of the structure and mechanics of the compositions we sing, and the reward of hearing from others that they enjoyed something I participated in creating. But most of all, I think it is the feeling of working as a team (albeit at times a large team) to cooperatively produce something beautiful.
We also hope to take advantage of the Boston as a place to hear music performed. The first week here we drove up to Newburyport to enjoy a sold out solo performance by Leo Kottke at the high school auditorium. And last week we saw the acclaimed performance of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, a revised production of the original starring Audra McDonald in Cambridge’s A.R.T. The performance was amazing and I was in tears at several points.
So happy that your musical tradition continues!! I saw Leo Kottke here in Athens, GA, and was blown away. I had never seen him live.
ReplyDeleteHe was great, and funny too!
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear that you are putting down some musical roots.
ReplyDeleteWe've not been taking advantage of opportunities to take in musical performances on this trip. A rather sad omission when I think our interest in opera was kindled at a performance of Aida in the Roman arena at Verona. Our first trip to Europe and our first opera were a great fit.
On the other hand, we are getting an unusual (for us) amount of music while driving. On past road trips we've often listened to books. On this one its been all music all the time. I'm using the iPod feature of my cell, satellite radio, and Pandora to keep it fresh. We do some rock, but mostly classical, opera and jazz.
Would love to catch another performance by the very talented Olivettis.