Month: June 2015

If you’re going to be in New Haven tomorrow, I’m going to be speaking at the Yale International Choral Festival on a panel titled, What happens in rehearsal and performance, at 10:45am. It’s part of a day long symposium titled Choirs Transforming Lives.

And they do. The trick is finding a way of communicating that to people who don’t already know.

As per usual, I’m stressing about doing a good job. It would help if my audience showed up and blew thousands of bubbles my way.

Last night people descended on Union Square to blow bubbles. I took tons of pictures but I made myself edit them down to a reasonable selection of seven. As you can see it was a blast. Try and watch hundreds of people blowing bubbles without smiling. Can’t be done. If only you could push a button and order a crowd blowing bubbles whenever you’re depressed or had a terrible day.

And I made a very short video.

Lots of high points! If there are still tickets available you should go.

Yesterday I posted about singing at Carnegie Hall and about the People’s Choral Union, a 19th century choir of middle and low income singers started by Frank Damrosch. The People’s Choral Union sang in the same spot we did and so I was mulling that over while we waited to sing. What was it like for them, singing in such a sparkly, brand new concert hall, considering the hard lives they led during the day?

I also mentioned that I didn’t take pictures. Well, the daughter of the woman standing next to me did! Here is a picture of us and one of the People’s Choral Union. The angle is different and the shot of us is taken much closer, but you can see the same archway on the left. There was also close to a thousand singers in the People’s Choral Union. They spilled off of the stage and onto the floor, taking up space where there’d normally be orchestra seating.

After Frank Damrosch died, one of his students wrote, “the door to great things in music was not really opened for me until that year, when Frank Damrosch opened it wide for thousands, of which fortunately, I chanced to be one … Dr. Frank is our own hero. He was our friend.”

Shameless self-pr alert: the Kindle edition of my book about the history & science of singing on sale all June for $1.99. It’s also going to be a Kindle Big Deal between June 12 and June 28!! So if you’ve been on the fence about buying a copy, now is the time. $1.99!!

In the category of I live a charmed life, I sang on the stage at Carnegie Hall over the weekend and at the New York Choral Consortium‘s Big Sing on Monday. The picture below is from the Big Sing. I didn’t take a picture at Carnegie Hall because they don’t allow picture taking. Normally I would sneak a shot or two in anyway, but I really didn’t want to get kicked out—how often do you get to sing on the stage at Carnegie Hall?—so I followed the rules.

While I was on the stage I tried to imagine what it was like for this group I researched called The People’s Choral Union. They were a 19th century choir of middle and low income singers started by Frank Damrosch. At the time, while wealthy people in New York City had endless opportunities for music, poorer people had few. I tried to put myself back in the 19th century, when life was certainly more challenging than it is now, and so much harder for the people in Damrosch’s choir.

I thought they might be feeling something close to what I felt the first time I took the stage for a choir performance. It was in Grace Church. The place was so beautiful, and I was so excited and nervous I thought my head might explode. I couldn’t wait to sing. Carnegie Hall was absolutely brand new when the People’s Choral Union sang there, it must have been glorious.