Friday, September 30, 2011

Carol Baggott-Forte teaching in Germany again

My teacher, Carol Baggott-Forte is returning to Germany and France to do 7 weeks of master classes. Yippee!!

Here are the details:

The Liberated Voice
Master Class Season 2011-2012
with
Carol Baggott-Forte



cours individuels de technique vocale  / Formation de Formateurs (Lyon)
individual singing technique lessons  / Teacher's Training (Lyon)
Einzelunterricht in Gesangstechnik / Lehrerausbildung (Lyon)


  • Week 1, Hamburg: 8 - 12 November 2011
  • Week 2, Hamburg: 15 - 19 November 2011
Place: Studio Almut Stäglich
Address: Stresemannstr. 140a/Courtyard, 22765 Hamburg

  • Week 3, Iserlohn: 29 November - 03 December 2011
Place: Studio VokalForum
Address: Sporenstr. 38, 58644 Iserlohn

  •   Week 4, Bremen: 17 - 21 January 2012
Place: Sophie Drinker Institut http://www.sophie-drinker-institut.de
Address: Außer der Schleifmühle 28, 28203 Bremen 

  •   Week 5, Wiesbaden: 24 - 28 January 2012
Place: Wiesbadener Musikakademie
 Address: Schillerplatz 1 – 2, 65185 Wiesbaden
  •   Week 6, Lyon: 8 - 12 February 2012
  •   Week 7, Lyon: 15 - 19 February 2012
Place: Centre de la Voix Rhône-Alpes
Address: Les Passerelles – Parc d’activités de Gorge du Loup, 24 Av Joannès Masset, 69009 Lyon.

Infos et Inscriptions / Details and Application / Auskunft und Anmeldung

The Liberated Voice


I'm hoping to go to Bremen at the very least and hopefully a few days of Hamburg as well.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Alles was ihr tut - Benefit Concert

Saturday, 10 September 2011 marked the culmination of many hours of rehearsal and preparation, in the form of the benefit concert for Chile post Earthquake 2010. The director of Raggio-di-Sol, the vocal ensemble I've been singing with lately, comes from a German-Chilean family, so this was close to his heart. He went all out and managed to get extra singers to fill out the choir in tutti places; an excellent mini-orchestra of 2 violins, 2 violas, cello, organ and harpsichord, who all played for the benefit; instrument transportation and tuning at reduced rates or free and no rent on the concert space (a church). The church was pretty full. I'd say there were probably 130 - 140 people there. 12 of them were friends/colleagues/pupils of mine. I'm glad that some of my friends finally got to hear me sing solo! The church (Friedenskirche, Hanover, Germany) was an actually lovely little modern church with a wood interior. The acoustic was a bit weird empty, but warm and clear and lovely with an audience. The program: Alessandro Scarlatti - Quadro in A minor for recorder, strings and basso continuo Michael Praetorius - Kyrie à 6 XXII - Gloria à 4 XVII Thomas Tallis - Salvator Mundi Nos. 1 and 2 Claudio Monteverdi - Nisi Dominus Heinrich Schütz - Verleih uns Frieden Michael Praetorius - Kyrie à 6 XVIII Andreas Hammerschmidt - Wie lieblich sind Deine Wohnungen, Herr Zebaoth J. S. Bach - Arie "Wohlzutun und mitzuteilen" for Baritone from Cantata No. 39 G. Ph. Telemann - Sute in A minor for Alto recorder, strings and basso continuo Dietrich Buxtehude - Kantate "Alles was ihr tut" J. S. Bach - Recit. and Duet (Soprano and Baritone) and Chorale from Cantata No. 79 It was a lovely program with a LOT of wonderful rather unknown stuff. But WAY too long. Over 2 hours. But the audience was indulgent and gamely clapped while Alfredo passed out roses to each and every participant. -------

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Poetry Planet No. 3 "Rhysling Award Showcase"

I've done it. I've finally managed to finish another Poetry Planet! I pre-empted the planned theme for this edition because I lost the complete recording and didn't want too much time to pass before I podcast the Rhysling Award winning (and placing) poems.

Poetry you'll hear:

CSE Cooney, Dogstar Men (3rd place, short form)
Robert Frazier, Wreck-diving the Starship (3rd place, long form)

Karen A. Romanko, Binary Creation Myth (2nd place, short form)
Bruce Boston, Dark Rains Here and There (2nd place, long form)

Amal El-Mohtar, Peach-Creamed Honey (winner, short form)
CSE Cooney, The Sea King's Second Bride (winner, long form)

They are all wonderful poems - wonderous, whimsical, erotic, funny, wry, sentimental. Those are some of the words I'd use to describe these poems. Go listen to them. You can find them at StarShipSofa Show No. 202.

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Monday, September 05, 2011

Singing Hildegard in Poland

This is really seriously after the fact, and I apologize, but no one ever accused me of being timely, so there you have it!

My good friend and colleague, Allegra Silbiger (a member of my girl-group Elysium), asked me to fill in for a singer in her ensemble for medieval vocal music, "Diadema", for a pair of concerts near Krakow, Poland. I thought about it for about 2 seconds, said yes, and then wondered how I was going to manage with the Boy.

As it turned out, it was even more difficult to find someone to babysit than originally anticipated because the concerts were in the middle of the school summer vacation in Lower Saxony and all my regular girls were away. However, one had a friend who was still in town and we were able to have her babysit on a teaching day before I left, so that Dante could get to know her a bit.

So, at about noon on Thursday I left home first for Berlin to meet up with the other women in the ensemble and fly onward to Krakow. Magnus was traveling until I don't remember when that day. The train and air travel all went off without a hitch and we arrived at the Tyniec Abbey (full of Benedictine Monks), where we were staying and singing on Sunday, 25 July 2011, at dinner time, albeit a bit late.

We were shown our rooms and advised that the doors to the guest house are locked at 9:30pm and that if we were going to leave the building that we should be sure to return closer to 9:00pm. Silence was to be observed after 10pm. Morning bells would ring at 5:45 and breakfast would be from 7:30 to 8:30. Phew! It was going to be a restful weekend! And I wondered if I would be able to spend even a couple of hours visiting Krakow, "Poland's most beautiful city"? More on that later.

The rooms were small but clean and serviceable. I did, in fact, go to sleep around 10:30 every night and slept until 7:30 (with a brief interruption for the bells) so I did come home pretty rested! Woot! We were fed in the refectory, but women were not allowed to eat with the Monks. They were somewhere else. Unfortunately, 2 of 3 meals consisted of bread (pasty white stuff mostly), cheese, cold cuts, tomatoes and cucumbers. Lunches were hot and quite tasty, but it took me merely a day and a half to realize that I wasn't going to see a fresh fruit for 5 days and so I went into the village and bought some. Which was delicious. Fresh and regional peaches! Mmmmmh!

We rehearsed most of the day on Friday, in the concert hall in the beautifully renovated/remodelled building where the guest house was as well. Considering we had only rehearsed together the one time in Berlin, it went very well. To our credit, the others in the group have sung together numerous times, Allegra and I are like a two-headed, Hildegard-singing monster, and I'd done the Benefit concert in Barbara Thornton's honor a couple of years ago with them and other add-ons as well. I guess it shouldn't have been such a surprise. Nevertheless, I did feel a bit like I didn't know a couple of the pieces well enough, but that soon passed.

The weather sucked. Except for Saturday, which was at least sunny, if not exactly warm. After the concert on Saturday we sat out on the patio of the cafe on the premises (closed by that time) and watched the sun set spectacularly.

The Saturday concert was at the Benedictine Convent about a half hour's drive from Tyniec. The tiny church had a very interesting acoustic, which was a bit hard to suss. The place was filled pretty much and the audience included about 10 children under the age of 8, who were unbelievably well-behaved. I guess all that church-going trains them pretty well. The performance went very well and we were satisfied. We got a standing ovation. A Consul from the German Consulate in Krakow and her family were in attendance and we spoke to them at length. They were pleasantly surprised and taken with the music, which they'd never heard.

Sunday's concert was at Tyniec in this beautiful hall. The acoustic was wonderful for Hildegard and vocal music. It was a pleasure to sing there.

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