Thankful for Thanksgiving Break

It is good to have a few days off for Thanksgiving break.  Besides eating Thanksgiving food and relaxing, it is an opportunity for me to catch up on my homework, my practicing, and my sleep. 

After this weekend, there are two more weeks of classes, and then juries and final exams.  I will have three juries this semester because I am taking applied lessons in organ, piano, and voice.  A jury is a performance of selected music from the current semester for the faculty of that instrument.  This semester for organ I learned music by Balbastre, Vierne, Walther, and Buxtehude.  In piano, I studied music by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Moszkowski with a special focus on building the strength and dexterity of my left hand.  In voice lessons, I learned music of Faurè, Reger, and Handel.  To perform the vocal music for the jury, I memorized the Faurè “Pie Jesu” and the Reger “Mariä Wiegenlied.”

For my harmony class, we were assigned to write musical variations on a theme by either Mozart or Beethoven.  I chose Mozart’s theme, “Das Kinderspiel,” and I wrote two variations a few weeks ago, and one more yesterday.  All of these were written when it was snowing heavily here in Maine.  The professor, Dr. Beth Wieman, gave us an opportunity to send her drafts of the first variation so she could give us feedback.  This helped me a lot, and I made several improvements to my first draft.

For my Basic Conducting class, I am learning how to keep regular time with my right hand while cueing with both my left and right hands.  The final exam for that course will be conducting an excerpt of a Palestrina (1525-1594) motet.  The other class members will sing the music, and each of us will take a turn conducting our classmates.

My Performances

The Oratorio Society performed Handel’s “Dixit Dominus” and “Zadak the Priest” coronation anthem on November 16 and we will sing Christmas music, along with the other University of Maine choirs, at the Yuletide Concert, December 7, 2 pm, at the Collins Center for the Arts on the University of Maine campus.

The St. John's Chamber Choir, Kevin Birch, Director and Organist, will perform chants, motets, and organ works for Advent with music of H. Andriessen, J. Beicht, N. Bruhns, W. Byrd, and H. Strategier on Saturday evening, December 6, at 7:30 pm at St. John's Catholic Church, 207 York St., Bangor.  Admission is free, and donations are appreciated and will benefit food aid in the community.

The St. John's Adult and Youth Choirs will perform our Christmas Concert on Sunday, December 21 at 4 pm at St. John's Catholic Church.  The Adult Choir will sing for Christmas Midnight Mass, with the music prelude beginning about 11 pm on Christmas Eve.

Next Semester

I registered for the spring semester 2015.  I decided to take one less course and focus more on practicing and working with my applied lesson teachers.  To date, I have had 30-minute piano and voice lessons each week.  Next semester I will increase that to hour-long lessons.  My organ lessons have already been an hour and that will continue.

Classes for the spring semester begin on January 12.  I will be taking 13 credits:

Advanced Harmony II

Advanced Sight Singing/Ear Training II

Choral Conducting and Literature

Applied Music Lessons - Organ

Applied Music Lessons - Piano

Applied Music Lessons - Voice

Collegiate Chorale

I plan to graduate in May of 2016 and I plan to perform a senior recital as my senior project.  This organ recital will be sometime during the spring semester of 2016.

Attending Performances

One of the advantages of being a student is the student discounts on music performances, especially at the University of Maine.  All the faculty and student performances are free with my student ID and also some guest artist performances are free.  There are many student group performances this late in the semester.  I attend as many as I can fit into my schedule.  There are also faculty performances spread throughout each semester and I usually attend those.  All of these are opportunities to be exposed to and enjoy a wide variety of music. 

One example is that in September John and I attended a concert by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at the Collins Center.  We enjoyed their music that is reminiscent of the jazz swing music of the 1940s and 1950s.  We had previously heard this band play at the House of Blues in New Orleans several years ago.

As another example, just last week, we had the opportunity to hear duo pianists, Connie Scanlon and Lia de Bruyn, play a varied concert of music by Mozart, Brahms, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff composed for two pianos.  Their playing was confident, energetic, animated, precise, inspiring, and often playful.  Much of the music took a lot of physical energy to play, especially the Rachmaninoff.  They were facing each other, and they communicated frequently through sight.  The lid was removed from the piano on the right, so that the sound from that right piano bounced off of the lid of the piano on the left.

I attend the “Live in HD” broadcasts from the New York Metropolitan Opera whenever I can.  The tickets are $8 with the student discount at the Collins Center for the Arts.  So far this fall, I saw Verdi’s Macbeth and Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro.  These are magnificent productions and the “Live in HD” has the added attraction that you get to see the scene changes backstage and interviews with the major opera singers.

Half Way through the Fall Semester

The fall 2014 semester is in full swing and I just finished a week of midterm exams.  My classes are going well and I am learning a great deal.  In Theory we are studying counterpoint, modulation, and mode mixture.  In Sight Singing, we are learning to sing solfège using scale numbers instead of sol fa syllables.  In conducting we are learning to cue, show dynamic expression, and use the baton.  One of our conducting classes met in the swimming pool to demonstrate different resistances.  We are speeding through music history having already studied the Baroque (1685-1750) and Classical (1750-1821) periods and we are now studying the Romantic period.

In addition to music at school, I sing in three choral groups in St. Paul the Apostle Parish.  I sing alto in the St. John’s Adult Choir, which sings most Sunday mornings at the 10:30 am Masses and rehearses on Thursday evenings.  I sing with the schola choir and often cantor at St. Teresa’s Church at the Masses on Sunday evenings at 5:30 pm. 

I sing with the St. John’s Chamber Choir, which presents two concerts a year:  one in Advent in December and the other in Lent, usually in March.  The 2014 Advent concert will be Saturday evening, December 6, at 7:30 pm at St. John’s Catholic Church, 207 York St., Bangor.  We will be singing works of Hendrik Andriessen (1892-1981), William Byrd (1540-1623), Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612), Richard Lloyd (b. 1933), Robert Parsons (1530-1572), Leonhard Paminger (1495-1567), and Andrew Smith (b. 1970).  Some will be a cappella and some will be accompanied by pipe organ.  Admission is free, and donations are appreciated.

I sing with the Oratorio Society, a mixed choir of university students and community members led by Fran Vogt.  We are presenting G. F. Handel’s Dixit Dominus on Sunday, November 16, at 2 pm in Minsky Hall on the University of Maine campus.  Admission is $9 and is free for University of Maine students.

I continue to learn to play music for the catholic liturgy.  I will be playing the organ for the 5:30 pm Mass at St. Teresa’s on October 26.

Every Monday during each semester, music major students perform for each other and for faculty in Recital Lab.  I will be performing on Monday, November 3, at 2:10 pm in Minsky Hall.  I will play Johann Sebastian Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E Minor ("The Cathedral"), BWV 533, on the pipe organ in Minsky Hall.  Below are a couple of pictures of the small organ in Minsky Hall.  This organ was originally built by Hook and Hastings in 1908 and was rebuilt and tonally revised in 1968 by Fritz Noack and John Boody when Boody was a student at the University of Maine.  Boody is one of the founders of Taylor and Boody Organbuilders:

http://www.taylorandboody.com/

The Boody Noack Pipe Organ in Minsky Hall

The Organ Name Plate

Back to School

The past summer was filled with music, family and friends.  Some of this music was in other cities and some was right at home.  The last two weeks of August featured special duet organ concerts at St. John’s:

August 21 featured Jacques Boucher with Sophie Poulin de Courval, saxophone, from Montreal, Canada.

August 28 featured Kevin Birch with Anatole Wieck, violin, from Bangor, Maine.  We are so fortunate to have these wonderful organ concerts in Bangor on the historic E. & G. G. Hook organ, Opus 288.  The duets add another dimension to the concerts.

I took private voice lessons from Tina Burns this past summer and learned a lot from her.  I improved my breath control and singing posture.  I also realized that I have a lot more to learn, so I decided to register for voice lessons through school this semester.

To graduate, I need to pass the piano proficiency requirement.  I learned the material for this over the summer, and I passed the last requirement on September 11.  This requirement includes 12 parts:

Major scales

Minor scales

Sight reading of a four-part chorale

Sight reading of a simple piano solo

Playing a prepared piano solo

Playing a short excerpt using a C clef and an instrument transposition

A short figured bass realization

A vocal or instrumental accompaniment, performed with a soloist

I – IV6/4 – I – V6/5 – I in every major and minor key

Harmonization of a simple melody

Transposition of that melody and harmonization

Harmonization of a lead sheet.

Classes at the University of Maine started September 3.  This semester I am taking 14 credits:

Advanced Harmony I

Advanced Sight Singing/Ear Training I

The Art of Listening to Music

Basic Conducting

Applied Music Lessons - Organ

Applied Music Lessons - Piano

Applied Music Lessons - Voice

Oratorio Society, a choral group made up of both students and community members.  This semester, we are singing Handel’s “Dominus Dixit” and “Zadak the Priest” Coronation Anthem.  We will be accompanied by the University Orchestra.  The performance will be on Sunday, November 16, at 2 pm in Minsky Hall.  Mark your calendar!

I am learning something different from each of these courses.  I like the metaphor that learning music is like creating a sphere, and all the facets that I am learning help fill in that sphere.  There are many, many interconnections.

I continue learning to play for Catholic liturgy.  I led the music and played the organ for the Masses at St. John’s and St. Teresa’s the weekend of September 6 and 7, and I will be playing for two of the Masses the weekend of September 20 and 21. 

Organ Historical Society Convention in Syracuse, New York

I spent August 11-14 in Syracuse, New York at the 59^th annual Organ Historical Society convention along with over 300 other people who love organs.  It was a chance to connect and reconnect with good friends and to see and hear 19 organs played by skilled organists.  The mission of the Organ Historical Society is to celebrate, preserve, and study the pipe organ in America, in all its historic styles, through research, education, advocacy, and music.

We visited organs at two universities (University of Syracuse and Cornell University) twelve churches, and a Jewish Temple.  Each organist includes a hymn in her/his program, so the churches and auditoriums are filled not only with beautiful organ music, but also with robust singing.  The convention attendees ride busses to the various venues and bus rides are often a place to meet new friends and catch up with current friends.  We all received a book that lists the organists’ programs and the organ’s builders and stop lists.  The organs were created anywhere from 1748 to 2011.  Both the oldest and newest organs were at Cornell University.  The 1748 organ was built by Augustinus Vicedomini of Naples, Italy.  The 2011 organ was a collaboration between Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences and the Gothenburg Organ Art Center (GOArt) at the University of Göteborg, Sweden.  This organ recreates the tonal design of an Arp Schnitger organ (1706) in Charlottenburg Castle, Berlin, Germany.  Each of the nearly 2,000 pipes was handcrafted in Sweden under the direction of project designer Munetaka Yokota.  In addition, we heard three organs from the 19^th Century and 14 organs from the 20^th Century.

There was a wide variety of music from renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, and contemporary time periods, all played expertly.  We also heard two lectures.  One lecture was on the building of the GOArt organ and the other was on organist and composer, I.V. Flagler.

You can see some photos from the convention at:

https://www.facebook.com/OrganSociety

You can watch and hear the convention recital by Christopher Houlihan performing music of Johann Sebastian Bach and César Franck at Sage Chapel at Cornell University playing Aeolian-Skinner organ, Opus 1009 (1940):

http://www.organsociety.org/2014/webcast.html

This runs about an hour and twenty minutes.

The Syracuse convention handbook can be downloaded:

http://www.organsociety.org/html/convention/downloads/2014-Handbook.pdf

With Matthias Schmelmer, Sarah Johnson, and Fran Morton at Syracuse’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Shantz organ, Opus 1594 (1980) which is a rebuild of Frank Roosevelt organ, Opus 520 (1892)

Summer Music

Many people have asked me to record an organ piece.  I recorded J. S. Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E Minor (“The Cathedral”) in June on E. & G.G. Hook’s Opus 288 at St. John’s Catholic Church in Bangor.  Listen here:

https://soundcloud.com/catherine-bruno/prelude-and-fugue-in-e-minor

The St. John’s Organ Society Summer Concert series is off to a wonderful start featuring outstanding organ music performed by artists from Europe, Asia, and North America.  This summer four of our six concerts feature two performers.

On July 24, Rudolf Innig from Bielefeld, Germany started the series performing music of J.S. Bach, Horatio Parker, Felix Mendelssohn, and Josef Rheinberger.  My two daughters and two granddaughters were visiting us in Maine and they enjoyed the concert.

On July 31, we heard the husband and wife team of Naomi Shiga and Jonathan Wohlers from Tacoma Washington, play music of Adolph Friedrich Hesse, Johannes Brahms, J. S. Bach, Johann Christian Bach, and Jean Sibelius.  They played three duets and each of them played three individual pieces.  The audience particularly enjoyed a transcription for organ duet of Sibelius’ famous Finlandia, Opus 26, no.7.

For more information about the upcoming four St. John’s Organ Society concerts:  http://hookopus288.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/hookopus288.  St. John's Organ Society is a nonprofit organization committed to the preservation and appreciation of the historic E. & G. G. Hook pipe organ, Opus 288, located at St. John’s Catholic Church in Bangor.  I am the Secretary of the Board of the St. John's Organ Society, and I write the publicity materials for these organ concerts.

St. Saviour Episcopal Church in Bar Harbor, Maine, also has a summer organ concert series on their 1976 Visser-Rowland organ (Opus 6).  On August 1, I attended a concert performed by Dr. Kevin Birch, who is my teacher, the Director of Music at St. John’s, and the Director of the St. John’s Organ Society.  Kevin expertly played 16^th and 17^th-century organ music by Bernardo Pasquini, an anonymous English composer, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Nicolaus Bruhns.

Next week (August 11-15) I will be in Syracuse, New York attending the convention of the Organ Historical Society.  I look forward to spending time with many friends and to hearing historic organs played by skilled organists.

It is hard to believe that school starts in less than a month!  The fall semester at the University of Maine begins on September 2.