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.
