Keep Singing!

Another musically packed quarter marks the completion of my first year working on my masters. Here are the musical highlights.

UCSB Opera Production Cosi fan tutte. Hilarious! And I was so proud of all the voice students. What a great job they did. It was a little unclear why the double cast was needed. I saw both casts and the students did just as well as the professionals in my mind.

UCSB ECM (Ensemble for Contemporary Music) performed the piece I'd been working on for two quarters at the Primavera concert series. On Questions of Travel by Leslie Hogan is a song cycle setting of the poems of Elizabeth Bishop. You can read the Independent's review at http://independent.com/events/2010/apr/28/15183/

The Quire of Voyces were invited once again to sing in the Santa Barbara Art Museum as part of the First Thursday series. We sang selections that we will sing in Italy.

The Spring quarter holds the most student recitals and this held true for the voice department. I was able to attend Savannah Greene and Claire Danielson's Junior recitals and Rebecca Monroe's senior recital.

The UCSB Chamber Choir was invited to Pepperdine (in Malibu) to participate in the Ascending Voice choral Festival. The conductor for the festival was the established Robert Page. The festival also hosted workshops and a concert by Chantaclier. After our concert Robert page told Prof. Gervais he would love to work with such a talented choir.

UCSB Chamber Choir concert was titled Amazing Grace after one of the pieces we learned for the festival. It was a nice arrangement though a piece I would have never thought Prof. Gervais would select for us.

The Quire of Voyces concert was very exciting as it marked the beginning of our tour. We sang Michael Eglin's Mass. (We nicknamed it Missa Mikey.) There were some other works mixed in including Angele Dei by Giuseppe di Bianco. He's one of the composers we'll be meeting on our tour.

For the UCSB voice convocation I sang my biggest piece ever. Santuzza's Aria from Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni. It's not me, but here's an example of the aria. http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJIZGthwWLc

For voice juries I sang Charles Ives' My Native Land. I love the simple melody that Ives exhibits in this piece.

UCSB University Singers concert. The University Singers (men's and women's choruses) were combining to sing Mozart's Missa Brevis. I was asked to sing the alto solo. This work highlights the soprano part but it was fun to sing and an honor to be asked.