This is my last semester at the University of Maine, as I
will graduate in May with a BA in Music.
Spring Semester started on January 19.
I am taking 12 credits this semester:
·
- Senior Project. I am developing a lecture and recital on the topic of Organ Compositions for the Liturgical Year. My advisor is Professor Kevin Birch. This is open to the public.
Friday, April 29, 2016, 8:30 am
at St. John’s Catholic Church
207 York Street, Bangor
A Reception will follow in the Church Hall.
- Independent study composition class with Professor Beth Wiemann. I will write three pieces: one for solo instrument, an art song, and a chamber music piece.
- Piano Literature from Robert Schumann (1810-1856) to the present.
- Organ Lessons with Kevin Birch
- Piano Lessons with Phillip Silver
- Voice Lessons with Marcia Gronewold Sly.
In addition to my coursework at school, I am serving as
music intern at St. John’s and St. Teresa’s Catholic Churches, where, in
addition to service playing, I am gaining more experience in choir training and
program administration. I am playing the
organ for services at St. Teresa’s twice a month, and I am assisting Kevin
Birch with the St. John’s Youth (first through eighth grades) and Adult choirs.
I sing in the St. John’s Chamber Choir, the St. John’s Adult
Choir, the St. Teresa’s Schola, and the St. John’s Voices of Love (which sings
at funerals).
The St. John’s Chamber Choir will present:
Musica Sacra – Lent 2016
Saturday, March
12, 2016, at 7:30 pm
St. John’s Catholic Church
207 York Street, Bangor.
We will be performing Allegri’s Miserere (ca. 1630). Until 1770, the Pope forbade writing this
music down, so that it was exclusively performed in the Vatican. This piece was made famous because when
Mozart was 14, he heard it performed in the Sistene Chapel in the Vatican. He then wrote it down entirely from
memory. Because of Mozart’s fame,
instead of excommunicating him, the Pope praised Mozart’s musical genius.
Winter Break
During winter break I was joined by my daughter, Carletta,
in New York January 13-17. We visited
friends and had the opportunity to attend several music events.
On Thursday morning, January 14, I attended a rehearsal of
the New York Philharmonic in Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, under the
baton of Alan Gilbert.
A poster in the lobby
of David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center
The Program
Ottorino Respighi
Church Windows
(1926) based on Gregorian chant melodies
Magnus Lindberg
Violin Concerto No. 2
(U.S. Premiere—New York Philharmonic Co-Commission with the London Philharmonic
Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra) with
Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin
Stravinsky
The Rite of Spring
(1913)
This was written for the Ballet
Russes in Paris and the revolutionary nature of the music and the
choreography caused a near-riot when it was first performed.
Maestro Gilbert at the podium
Friday afternoon, Carletta and I visited the Museum of
Modern Art where they had a special exhibit of Picasso and his
contemporaries. I particularly admired
this Homage to J. S. Bach.
On Friday evening, Carletta and I attended a performance of
Puccini’s Turandot at the
Metropolitan Opera.
With Carletta in front of the orchestra area at the Met
during intermission
On Saturday morning, I had the good fortune to practice on
the Hellmuth Wolff, Opus 14 (1974), organ at St. John the Evangelist Catholic
Church.
This link shows the stop list of this mechanical-action
organ:
Saturday afternoon, I attended Bizet’s Pearl Fishers at the Metropolitan Opera.
With Carletta and Julia and Helen Levine in Lincoln Center
Plaza after the Pearl Fishers
performance
Sunday afternoon, I attended the Choral Evensong at St.
Thomas Episcopal Church. This was
followed by an organ concert by Australian Kurt Ison on the magnificent Taylor
and Boody Organ.
He played works of Heinrich Scheidemann (1595-1663), Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748), and Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).
