Stacy Horn

I think I slept two hours, and that was this morning, between 5:30 and 7:30. Ugh. I feel like a total zombie, and I want to cancel everything I had planned for the day but I think I should push through it.

Anyway, I think I did okay at Yale! Not great, but okay. But I met some of the loveliest people. Thank you so much Jeffrey Douma for inviting me to participate, I had the best time. I guess it comes as no surprise that conductors have a lot of good qualities, it makes sense. They spend so much time immersed in great music and facilitating the experience of that music for other people. It does something to them. Something really good.

I found this picture from the Yale International Choral Festival on Facebook. That’s Donald Nally, Lone Larsen, Jean-Baptiste, and Francisco J. Nunez at the podium. Francisco Nunez is in New York, and is something of a big deal here. He’s the founder and director of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City (and he got a MacArthur fellowship in 2011). I spoke to him briefly and he was the sweetest guy. I wish he was my next door neighbor.

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.”