A Summer Filled with Music

I am excited to have several major musical activities planned this summer.

First, I plan to see the American Ballet Theater's performance of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty in New York on June 13.  I have a friend who is dancing in this ballet.

http://www.abt.org/performances/performance_display.asp?Event_ID=885&Date_ID=1731

While I am in New York, I will also attend a performance by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert of Arthur Honegger’s oratorio, Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake)

http://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1415/joan-of-arc-at-the-stake

Second, while Kevin Birch, the Music Director for St. John’s and St. Teresa’s churches, is concertizing in Europe this summer, I will play the organ for all the Masses at St. John’s Church the weekends of June 28/29, July 4/5, and July 12/13.  I will also play at St. Teresa’s on July 5 and 13.  I am excited about this and I am learning new hymns in preparation.  Some friends will play duets with me at some of the Masses. 

Third, I will attend the Organ Historical Society convention from June 30 through July 3 in western Massachusetts (Springfield).  I look forward to connecting with friends and hearing accomplished organists play on historic organs.  For more information:

www.organsociety.com

Fourth, from July 20 through 30 I will be in Montreal at the McGill University Summer Organ Institute.  I enrolled in courses in Continuo taught by Hank Knox and in French Classical music taught by John Grew.  In preparation, I am learning some French Classical music by Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1679-1749).  This institute is offered every two years and this is the first time I will attend.  

http://www.msoa.ca/content/msoa2015/courses-15/index.shtml

St. John’s Organ Society Summer Organ Concerts in Bangor

I am on the Board of the St. John’s Organ Society.  We have six wonderful organ concerts planned for this summer on Thursday evenings at 7:30 pm on the historic E. & G.G. Hook organ, Opus 288 (1860) at St. John’s Catholic Church, 207 York Street, Bangor.  The first concert on July 23 features George Bozeman of Deerfield, New Hampshire.  I am responsible for most of the publicity for these concerts.  For more information on these wonderful events visit our web page:

http://hookopus288.net/summer-concert-series/

At the console of the Visser-Rowland Organ, Opus 6 (1976), at St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church, Bar Harbor, Maine.  Practicing on May 27, 2015 for the American Guild of Organists Member Recital

University Rhythms

Upcoming Concerts

I will be one of the performers at the American Guild of Organists Member Recital on Sunday, May 31, at 4 pm, at St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church, at 41 Mt. Desert St., Bar Harbor, Maine.  I will play two trios from Ten Trios for Organ (Opus 49) by Josef Rheinberger (1839 – 1901):  Number 3 in A Minor and Number 7 in A Major.  Admission is free, and donations support the scholarship fund.

University Rhythms

The rhythm of university life is oriented toward each semester with the goal being graduation after degree requirements are met.  Each semester gets more intense in the middle for midterms, and then again for the final several weeks of each course as requirements are completed.  The spring semester is often more intense than the fall semester because the seniors are getting ready to graduate and thus performing in their senior recitals, the juniors are performing in their junior recitals, and the sophomores are completing their “junior standing” in their primary instrument.  Junior Standing is a jury that is performed for all the faculty that is required for most students to progress to the junior level in their major instrument.

Because I already have a Bachelor’s degree in another discipline (mathematics), I do not have to take any non-music courses to get my Bachelor of Arts in Music; I only need to complete the music department requirements.  This means that I am not in the same four-year rhythm as most of the other students because I will complete my degree in less than four years.  So I am in classes with sophomores, juniors, and seniors.  This is an advantage because I finish the degree requirements in less than four years, but it is also a disadvantage because music skills develop with practice, and I will only have two and a half years to practice, instead of four.   I plan to graduate in May 2016.

Finishing Spring Semester

I completed my juries and final exams for the Spring Semester on May 7.  During juries, multiple professors listen to me play or sing music that I have practiced during the past semester.  I performed in juries for organ, piano, and voice.

In addition to lessons in pipe organ, piano, and voice, I took classes in harmony, ear training, and choral conducting and participated in the Collegiate Chorale ensemble.  This completes most of my required coursework for my Bachelor of Arts degree.  Looking ahead, I am required to take four more courses over the next year.  I plan to use the entire academic year to take these courses and continue lessons in organ, piano, and voice.  I will be one of the five student conductors in the fall of the Collegiate Chorale, and I am excited to be the music intern at St. John’s Catholic Church.  As part of this internship, I will play the organ for some services, direct the choir for some selections, and I will likely do some special projects.  In addition to the St. John’s internship, I will focus the 2016 spring semester on my senior project, which will be an organ lecture/recital. 

My last blog post was on March 20.  Since then, besides completing my university coursework, I played the Rheinberger "Trio Number 7 in A Major" in Recital Lab on April 13.  Everyone who is taking music lessons at the university performs once each semester in recital lab for faculty and fellow students on their major instrument.  I sang in both church and school choir concerts.  I played the organ for Mass on Palm Sunday at St. Teresa’s Church.  I composed a 12-tone piece for flute and piano as an assignment for my harmony class.  For part of my choral conducting exam I conducted the University Singers in a rehearsal of the “Ave Maria” attributed to Tomás Luis de Victoria.

Right after final exams, my husband, John, and I flew to Denver, Colorado to visit our daughter, Carletta, and her husband, Aaron for two weeks.  While I was in Denver, I contacted the organist at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Kathleen MacLean, who graciously arranged for me to briefly play the cathedral organ.  This organ was originally built by W. W. Kimball in 1912.  It was rebuilt and expanded in 1996 by Morel and Associates.

http://database.organsociety.org/SingleOrganDetails.php?OrganID=9624

At the console of the Kimball organ at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Denver, Colorado

Looking Forward from Spring Break

Upcoming March 21 Choir Concert

You are cordially invited to join us for Musica Sacra - Lent 2015 presented by the St. John’s Chamber Choir.  We will sing music of J. S. Bach, L. v Beethoven, F. Mendelssohn, J. Brahms, and S. S. Wesley, including excerpts from Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, Op. 86.  The concert is Saturday, March 21, 2015 at 7:30 pm. at St. John’s Catholic Church, 207 York Street, Bangor.  Admission is free, and donations will support food assistance needs in the community.

First Week of Spring Break

Spring Break started February 28 after a week of midterm exams.  For the first part of Spring Break, I was privileged to meet and attend the March 4 concert given by Jacques Boucher, and his wife, Anne Robert, from Montreal, Canada.  I am on the board of the St. John’s Organ Society, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and appreciation of E. & G. G. Hook’s Opus 288 (1860) at St. John’s Roman Catholic Church in Bangor, Maine. Each winter we sponsor a concert featuring an internationally-known organist.  The 2015 concert featured Boucher and Robert.  Boucher played the historic E. and G. G. Hook organ and Robert played her 1738 Carlo Antonio Testore violin. They performed music of Corelli, Gounod, Rheinberger, and Bèdard in an inspiring concert.  I was privileged to turn pages and pull stops for Boucher while he played the concert.  You can see some press coverage from WABI TV with a small sample of their music:

http://wabi.tv/2015/03/04/music-of-centuries-gone-by-fills-st-johns-in-bangor/

Anne Robert and Jacques Boucher

I attended a March 3 concert by the Vancouver Chamber Choir, a 20-member world-renowned professional choral group.  They were brought to Bangor by the Collins Center for the Arts and they performed at St. John’s Episcopal Church.  They performed music from many time periods and the following composers: Britten, Brahms, Whitacre, Berkey, Allegri, Vaughan Williams, Washburn, and Chapman.

I spent the weekend of March 7-9 in Columbus, Ohio, visiting my grandchildren.  My flights to Ohio on Friday, March 6, were cancelled, so I flew on Saturday morning, March 7.  My granddaughter, Lesley, and I attended a special Lenten choral concert on March 8 at St. Joseph Catholic Cathedral in Columbus.  The St. Joseph Cathedral Choir invited the Christ Episcopal Cathedral Choir from Cincinnati to join them for a concert of music by Slater, Farrant, Purcell, Morley, Byrd, Guerrero, Wesley, Thompson, Helvey, Chilcott, Lloyd, Mendelssohn, and Pärt.  The highlight of the evening was Thomas Tallis’ 40-voice polyphonic motet, Spem in alium.  The combined choirs surrounded the audience and the music was heavenly.

With Lesley in St. Joseph Cathedral.  You can see part of the beautiful Fritts organ, Opus 25 (2006) in the background.

Second Week of Spring Break

The second week of Spring Break, I visited New York with my daughter, Carletta.  We stayed with our dear friends, Helen and Julia Levine.  We attended two operas at the Metropolitan Opera.  Both operas were inspiring and very well done.

1.     Rossini’s La Donna del Lago with Joyce DiDonato as the Lady of the Lake and Juan Diego Flòres as King James was conducted by Michele Mariotti.  Daniela Barcellona sang the role of Malcolm and John Osborne sang Rodrigo.

2.     Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffman conducted by James Levine.  Matthew Polenzani played Hoffman, and Audrey Luna, Susanna Phillips, and Elena Maximova played the three heroines.  Laurent Naouri sang the four villains.

With Carletta inside the Metropolitan Opera

I attended a New York Philharmonic performance conducted by Thomas Adès featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, Berioz’ Les Francs-juges Overture and Andès Totentanz.

We attended the spring recital of the American Ballet Theater Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School.  Our good friend Julia Levine is a student at the JKO school and she performed in this recital.

We enjoyed great food at several restaurants and Carletta’s husband, Aaron, joined us for the weekend.

While in New York, I practiced most mornings on the Johannes Klais Orgelbau organ (1977), at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church.  Thomas Schmidt, the Music Director, generously allows me to play the organ at St. Peter’s if it is available when I visit New York.

 Klais organ at St. Peter's Lutheran Church

I was happy to return home to my husband, John, who supports me in so many ways as I explore my love of music.  Now back to classes for the second half of the semester!

Beginning Spring Semester!

The Spring semester started January 12.  In addition to taking classes in harmony, ear training, and choral conducting, I am taking lessons in pipe organ, piano, and voice, and participating in the Collegiate Chorale ensemble.  I am taking one less classroom course this semester, and will spend more time practicing organ, piano, and singing. 

I am also involved in music ministry at church.  I sing in three choral groups in St. Paul the Apostle Catholic parish:  St. John’s Adult and Chamber choirs and the St. Teresa’s schola. 

I sometimes play the organ for Masses, especially when the Music Director, Kevin Birch, is out of town.  I played for three Masses at St. John’s and St. Teresa’s churches January 17 and 18 and for the All Saint’s School Mass on January 21.  This is the first time I have played the organ with the St. John’s Adult choir.  What a privilege that was!  I prepared for this for about six weeks to make sure I knew the music well.

The weekend after Christmas, I sang “Maria Wiegenlied” by Max Reger at two of the Masses.  This translates as “Mary’s Lullaby” and is one of the pieces that I learned in my voice lessons in the fall semester.  I sang it in the original German, and then in an English translation.  I also played the organ prelude for both of those Masses.

I played “Joseph est bien Marié” from Noels by Claude Balbastre in a Program of Winter Music and Readings  sponsored by the Bangor Chapter of the American Guild of Organists on January 11 at the Brewer Second Congregational Church.  We played the Hook & Hastings Opus 2196 (1906) organ that was rebuilt and tonally revised by Berkshire in 1997.  Claude Balbastre (1724-1799) was born in Dijon, France.  He studied organ and composition in Dijon and Paris.  Balbastre was organist at St. Roch and at Notre-Dame.  He was employed at the French court, where he played organ for the chapel and taught harpsichord to Marie Antoinette.  After the French Revolution he lived the rest of his life in poverty.  He composed chiefly keyboard works.  Balbastre’s “Joseph est bien Marié” is based on a French Christmas carol.  The English translation is “Joseph has married well.”  This is a theme and four variations.

At the console of the Hook & Hastings/Berkshire organ at the Second Congregational Church, Brewer, Maine preparing for the AGO Winter Readings and Carols

Over the break between semesters, I spent some time learning how to use the Sibelius music notation software that my sweet husband gave me for Christmas.  Besides using some of the Sibelius tutorials, I spent several hours with a good friend, Lorna Russell, who showed me how she uses Sibelius efficiently, and answered all my questions.  She recommended that I purchase a midi keyboard to improve the ease of note entry.  Lorna is a church musician so she uses Sibelius for the same types of tasks that I will be using it for.  PhotoScore, which works with Sibelius, is a very powerful tool.  I can scan a music score into PhotoScore, which enters the notes into Sibelius.  I can then transpose the music, add extra verses, or make any other modifications that would be useful.

At my desk with my computer and new midi keyboard