Schubert's Mass in G - A Choral Classic

We are performing the choral staple, Schubert's Mass No. 2 in G major, conducted by former Artistic Director, William Noll at our next concert on November 16 at 4 pm at Northside Drive Baptist Church in Atlanta. In case you didn't know about the context of this piece:

• The Mass No. 2 in G major by Franz Schubert is the best known of his three "shorter" masses composed between the more substantial first and fifth, and eventually sixth, mass settings. Fresh off the success of the performance of the first mass at Schubert's home parish, he wrote this more modest arrangement for strings and organ. His style seeks to create an overall devotional mood of the religious text of each movement, and he does so without much musical drama and romanticism. This Mass has become one of Schubert's most popular and often performed works for chorus.

New Year of possibilities

So far so good this new year. New music, new language, new ideas for this year and our upcoming anniversary. I am getting excited, and I hope you are too. Briefly, I will continue to update the pronunciation tracks as I receive them. I'd like to delve into the language of each piece once we have a way for everyone to practice the words on their own. Right now, practice "Salvation is Created" and "Bogoroditse Devo." More to come!
AUDITIONS - To make this process more efficient in the middle of the season, I would like to hold group auditions prior to our rehearsals on Monday, January 27 and February 3 and 10. We will sing as a group and briefly individually. We will also discuss plans for the anniversary season.We will sing as a group and briefly individually. We will also discuss plans for the anniversary season. Sopranos - you are up first! Please plan to arrive at 7:00 pm on the 27th for your group audition.
This Monday, I will be out of town - my apologies! Duhi Schneider has agreed to lead the rehearsal in my absence. You will enjoy her, I'm sure! See you all soon.

Kudos and Happy Holidays!

Well done everyone! Great audience, good music and lots of joy and excitement. It was a pleasure to present our Christmas concert this year, and I hope it was rewarding for you all as well. Whatever your holiday plans, I hope you have a blessed and peaceful holiday season and New Year. See you at the party on January 5 and our first rehearsal on January 6, 2014! Take care and enjoy!

Carols and such

Hi there -
A busy season means not so many postings to the blog apparently! Anyway, I am excited about our upcoming weekend of concerts. Here are the guidelines for the carols with the audience:

Angels from the Realms - Edward/Sheila
1. All unison (unison means on the melody)
2. Four parts (SATB)
3. Men unison
4. Women in parts
5. All unison
SATB on the refrain for all stanzas.
Piano on 1, 3, 4 and 5.

Song of the Crib - Jerry/Marie
1. Women
2. Men
3. Judy/Kate
4. Charlie/John
5. Danielle
6. Sally/Dale
7. Sheila
8. All
Unison throughout.
Piano throughout.

God Rest You Merry - Danielle/Jorge
1. All unison
2. SATB
3. Women unison
4. Men unison
5. SATB
6. Men unison
7. Women unison
8. All unison/SATB for refrain
Piano on 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8.

Let's leave it at that for Saturday as there will be plenty to put together with the other chorus. See you at St. John's promptly at 2:30 on Saturday!
Thank you for your singing :)

'Tis the Season....already!!

We had a long and busy weekend, but I really enjoyed the music! We really challenged ourselves to sing with presence and poise what we may have thought at first was too modern or prohibitively difficult for us. Thanks to you all, our soloists, and Wooyoung for bringing your best musicianship to the concert as well as some new audience members. :) Christmas will be fun with the familiar music and the middle school energy. See you all next week!

Time and Concord

We'd like more of both of those, please and thank you! Not much rehearsal time left for our concert. It's our first of the season, so let's put forth our very best effort to make it all come together over the next couple of weeks. Use rehearsal tracks and recordings ad libitum! Section leaders, if you think it at all possible to gather most of your section together for a rehearsal between now and the concert, please do so. Soloists, let's plan on a time to go over your solo prior to the dress rehearsal on Friday night. Wooyoung would like the opportunity on that Friday to rehearse with the soloists immediately before the dress rehearsal between 6:30 and 7:30. Let me know when you could make it. ENJOY this music, singing with each other, and being a part of this unique and festive celebration!

Good rehearsal! Really!!

I know. We sang a lot of music last night, some of which we had not sung in a little while, and some of which is among the most difficult on our program. You may be feeling a little lost in the shuffle of all that busyness, harmony and eclectic text. What we are beginning to do is move away from our comfort zone of the rehearsal setting into the reality of how the music will sound and how we will experience the music in performance. With that in mind, I think we accomplished a LOT during our rehearsal last night. One additional thing was also accomplished...that being a sense of what we still need to work on. Along that line, there are some simple things you can do between now and next Monday.
1. Read over the words at least a few times. At the very least, be familiar with the texts so that the English itself (our native language!) is not a stumbling block.
2. Speak those words in the rhythm of the music. Remind yourself of the timing of the words, feel the beat of the music and sense the rhythms in which you will need to sing the words in real time.
3. Sing the notes - with and/or without the words, with and/or without listening to the rehearsal tracks. Know how your part sounds and how it feels and sounds to sing your part on your own.
I can't emphasize enough the importance of spending at least SOME time with the music between now and next Monday. You and everyone else will enjoy the rehearsal so much more!
Thanks for your work and dedication in making these concerts a success. See you Monday!