Advent Concert Repertoire and Next Week's Rehearsal

This past Wednesday at rehearsal we reviewed the following things:

1. The first and second antiphons by Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev. I hope to include these two compositions (as well as others by Alfeyev) in our upcoming recording in March.

2. Shepherds of Bethlehem by Alexander Kastalsky. If you would like to know more about the history of this piece and missed the blog entry from September 27, please go back and read it. Here is a nice video of the composition in the original language. Unfortunately there is a time lag between the video and audio.

3. Me Thinks I See an Heavenly Host by William Billings. This Christmas carol I found in a stack of repertory Resa prepared for the 2009 Christmas concert. When I initially came across it about five or six years ago, I thought nothing of the composition and dismissed it quickly. This past summer while rummaging through music in the office I spotted it again and actually took a moment to sing through it. I was intrigued. It has a very "colonial" (if I can call it that) sound to it and keeps the singers on their toes, changing back and forth from duple to triple meter. Also, and probably most importantly, the text is quite theologically deep and goes to the heart of the Christian message. The more I sang through it and listened to recordings of it the more I liked it. I'll admit I knew nothing about William Billings before seeing this composition. After a quick google search, I found out that he was born in Boston in the 18th century and is considered the first American composer. Here is a nice short exposition of his life and works on encyclopedia.com. Here is a video of the piece (this video is a different video than the one I sent out in the October 9 blog. The previous video - as nice a quality as it is - is not the same arrangement we are singing).

Please remember that this coming Wednesday's rehearsal is moved to Tuesday, October 30. Same time, same place.

Last but not least, this Sunday at liturgy we will sing Resa's cherubikon. Initially when I found the music on the office's computer, I sent a copy of it to Resa's parents and asked them for permission to include it in ISOCM's festschrift in honor of Fr. Sergei Glagolev's 90th birthday. So, her parents have a copy of the music, but have never heard it. The plan is to record it this Sunday and send it to them.

Wedding, Rehearsals, and a Banquet

This coming weekend I'll be away. I'm sorry to say that I have to travel to California. On Saturday Miho is giving a presentation at a Greek Church in San Jose about the history of the Orthodox Church in Japan. We decided it would be best to all go as a family.

Having said that, please don't forget the wedding this coming Saturday at 3 pm. Mark Wesche will be standing on the podium in my place. Singers in Group 2 (and whoever else is singing for the wedding) should arrive at 2:45 and be ready to sing.

I'm sorry that rehearsal was cancelled this past Wednesday, but I was just not feeling well. It wouldn't have been good for me to hack my way through rehearsal I thought. Better to just rest and get over this nasty cold. Next Wednesday we will continue rehearsing for the Advent concert on Saturday, December 8 (at 7 PM, not 7:30).

Please make note that rehearsal on Wednesday, October 31 has been moved to Tuesday, October 30. Same time, same place.

Last but not least, our choir banquet is Sunday, November 4 from 12-3 PM at Elsie's. Please RSVP with Sarah Erickson (serickson618@gmail.com). Guests are $30 per person.
 

Annual Choir Meeting this Wednesday

Congratulations on a job well-done!

This past Sunday's performance at the Byzantine Festival was exquisite in many ways. Nazzo's piece, Today is the Beginning, was executed well on so many levels: dynamics, intensity, enunciation, spirit. What a wonderful debut of this piece in the Twin Cities! What can I say about Fr. Sergei's composition? It's an oldie but goodie, and from the first down beat I knew it would go well. Thank you to all who sang!

This Wednesday will be the choir's annual meeting. We'll begin with rehearsal in the loft and then shortly before 8 PM transition to the parish center for the meeting. At the meeting we'll elect new officers, talk about the upcoming schedule for the choir, and update the choir on other important information.

Just a reminder about the schedule this fall and moving into December:

1. Choir Banquet at Elsie's, Sunday November 4 from 12-3 pm.
2. Advent Concert is on Saturday, December 8 at 7:30 pm.
3. Bishop Paul visit Saturday and Sunday, December 8-9. 
4. TMORA (Museum of Russian Art) Concert, Friday December 14 at 7 pm.

I should also mention that this year St. Mary's Cathedral will have two liturgies on Christmas. The first liturgy will be served on the 24th, starting at 10 PM with Matins and segueing in to Divine Liturgy (similar to Pascha). The second liturgy will be on the 25th at 10 AM just as in past years. In order to gauge how many singers will be at which liturgy I will put up a signup sheet.

Here is a video of the Christmas carol Me Thinks I See An Heavenly Host by William Billings.

See you all Wednesday!

Byzantine Festival Concert this Weekend

This weekend, October 6-7, is the Byzantine Festival at St. Constantine's Ukrainian Catholic Church. Out of the seven choirs that will perform at Sunday's 5 pm concert, two will be from St. Mary's Cathedral: our very own Cathedral Choir and the Male Choir.

Those of you singing with the cathedral choir, please note the following things:

Repertoire: 1) Nazo Zakkak's Annunciation Troparion and 2) Fr. Sergei Glagolev's Psalm 103.
Meeting Time: 3:20 PM in St. Constantine's church (sound check and rehearsal)
Dress: All black (black blouse/shirt - not t-shirts please, slacks/skirt, stockings/socks, shoes etc.)

Those of you singing with the Male Choir the above applies as well except for the repertoire of course.

At Sunday's sound check at 3:20 we'll also review getting on stage and off. Out of the seven choirs, the Male Choir will sing second and the Cathedral Choir third.

Also, please remember that next Wednesday we will have our annual choir meeting with elections. The meeting will approximately start at 8 pm in the Parish Center (rehearsal will start as usual at 7 pm in the cathedral loft). 

Survey Results and Choir Banquet

This past Sunday was the deadline to complete the surveys for recording repertoire and the results are in! I'm extremely happy to report that out of the 34 surveys received 19 people responded that we should record music for our cathedral's feast (Protection of the Theotokos, October 1). Twelve people responded that we should record Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev's Divine Liturgy and three responded that we should record the parastas service. I think since there is a large minority that wants to record the Alfeyev liturgy we can definitely work some of his pieces into a festal Protection recording.

I think making a recording of feastal music for our cathedral's feast really opens us up to a potentially wide repertory. We have much to chose from. And, we can add an subtract things as needed.

I envision recording selections from both Vigil and Liturgy: Bless the Lord O My Soul, Blessed is the Man, Lord I Call (and stichera for which there are special melodies - we can even sing the stichera for St. Romanos whose feast is the same day and quite appropriate I might add for a recording), Gladsome Light, St. Simeon's Prayer, Magnification, the Canon (Kurt Sander composition), Magnificat, Polyeleos, etc. etc. etc. We'll also include Alfeyev pieces too as I mentioned. Probably or possibly the antiphons, Beatitudes, Trisagion, Cherubikon, Anaphora etc. There's quite a lot that we can work with to make it a marketable recording for the cathedral and other Orthodox churches/institutions, and also one that is representative St. Mary's Choir's high standards of liturgical singing. I'm excited just thinking about all the possibilities and I hope you are too.

I've contacted our recording engineer, Doug Geston, who worked for us for the 2016 recording and he's more than happy to work with us again. According the survey results, the majority would like to record in February. Unfortunately, Doug is completely booked in February, but he does have dates open the first week of March. This will actually work out fine for us since Great Lent does not begin till March 11 this year (yes, Pascha is late this coming year - April 28). So tentatively, I've reserved the following recording dates with Doug:

Saturday, March 2 (starting at 1 PM)
Wednesday, March 6 (starting at 7 PM)
Saturday, March 9 (starting at 9 AM)

These dates are tentative at the moment. If there are major conflicts with other scheduled events at St. Mary's, or for some reason more than half the choir will be at a timeshare in Mexico that week, we'll make adjustments. So, stay tuned.

Choir Banquet details have been ironed out and we are scheduled to have our banquet on Sunday, November 4 from 12-3 pm at Elsie's (729 Marshall St NE Minneapolis).

For the Byzantine Festival concert on Sunday, I'm sorry to say that we will only have time in our concert slot to sing two pieces and not three like originally planned. So, we will sing the Nazo Zakkak's piece (Today is the beginning of our salvation), Fr. Sergei's piece (Bless the Lord, O My Soul), and omit the Petrovich Troparion. The concert organizers apologize for this late notice.

Look forward to seeing you tomorrow evening at rehearsal.