kamegoro and I were on a bus along a river in some foreign city. The city itself was made of very tall gray buildings, but between them, we'd see bits of the wide river bathed in vibrant red and gold light from the setting sun. And in the river... whales! BIG whales, breaching out of the water, being gilded by the sunlight. I think they may even have been floating a bit above the surface, like in Fantasia 2000's The Pines of Rome. We went down to the water to get in a boat and cross to the other side. I think this part involved navigating through rooms indoors that were full of water. And then we got out onto the churning river, and were surrounded by dark waves and foam and spray, and I remember wrapping my camera cord around my wrist so that I wouldn't drop it in but would be ready when a whale breached nearby.

Then we somehow reached the opposite bank and ate some pizza because we were hungry. The previous part had the really memorable images. Gray city, dark water, golden whales. It was so beautiful in my head, but, well, you know how dreams work...

Little-known fact: in Handel's day, all disputes between Chinese empresses and crusaders were resolved by staring contests.





Y and K, two of our Dorinde. Both of them make adorable shepherdesses.

The theater we're in for Orlando is awesome.

My brother in China would like a proxy server set up. I don't know anything about computers. What should I do?

I don't anticipate posting to lj substantially in the next month or so, as I'm extremely busy. However, I am keeping my notes on BASOTI in fruitcakedreams. I'll try to update it nearly every day, because I think it's important to document and remember the things I learn here.

An iPod is a really good tool for studying music, particularly when you spend an hour on BART a few times a week.

Jogging helps my breathing a lot. I just hope my knees don't start whining again.

At the risk of raising expectations, I am very optimistic about this year's Mathcamp puzzle hunt.

Striggio was a big adventure. The piece is perhaps less of a masterwork of counterpoint than Tallis' Spem in alium, but it really does have early shades of Baroque music; in fact, according to Davitt, it was the first piece ever written with basso continuo! The singers and instrumentalists were first-rate, and we made a fairly massive sound. There were lots of moments of extreme dynamic and textural variation, where I think we had an emotional impact that a smaller choir simply wouldn't be able to evoke. The music was simply written by necessity, but the quality of the singers made even straightforward chordal stuff quite expressive. My very favorite part was an extremely juicy false relation: a G minor chord with a B natural thrown in there. That's hot.

It was also a nice chance for me to reconnect with a large majority of the early music singers I've worked with for the last few years, since pretty much everyone in town was doing it! I'm going to miss the scene here a lot.

I also got to hang out with kwokj and her husband yesterday, since they're in town visiting family. They definitely picked the right time to be in town. (Though last weekend's Monteverdi Vespers [review] was also excellent. And the Volti concert in May. Oh, who am I kidding; I love pretty much every concert I sing in.)

Now, I sure could use a weekend to recover from the last few days...

Our apartment had a layout that might generously be described as "unconventional". In particular, easwaran's room had no closet, which meant that we both kept our formal clothes in mine. While packing things up the other day, I encountered some nice khaki slacks that I didn't recognize. easwaran was fairly sure that he'd already gotten all his stuff out, so I took them off the hanger... and saw that they had a 38 waist. Buh? Where did those come from?

The Goodwill took them off our hands, but the mystery will linger forever.

SFCV liked our concert.

Sunday before last was Pentecost, which meant baptisms aplenty. Twenty-one of them, to be precise. Some found it a bit tedious to stand through, but not me, and here's why:

One of the first few children start screaming bloody murder as soon as the holy water touched her. The shrieking continued throughout the process, which sounded something like this:

priest: In the name of the-
child: AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
priest: Father, and of the-
child: AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
priest: Son, and of the-
child: AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
priest: Holy Ghost-
child: AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
priest: I baptize you-
child: AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!

It was pretty hilarious. Poor kid.

This weekend's Volti concert is not, in fact, the end of the season for me. I am also singing with AVE once again for a fringe concert during the Berkeley Festival & Exhibition. The piece is the Monteverdi Vespers, one of the big masterpieces of polyphony, and I've never sung it before. This group consists of top-notch professionals, plus a handful of neophytes such as myself, and it should be hella tight.

After that, I'm going to be singing the Striggio Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno, a recently unearthed Mass setting for 40 and 60 voices. This is not only the American premiere of this piece, but also its second performance in the last several centuries. There is some evidence that Tallis' celebrated Spem in alium was composed in response to this piece:

In Queene Elizabeths time there was a songe sent into England of 30 parts (whence the Italians obteyned the name to be called the Apices of the world) which beeinge songe mad[e] a heavenly Harmony. The Duke of — bearing a great love to Musicke asked whether none of our English men could sett as good a songe, & Tallice beinge very skillfull was felt to try whether he would undertake the Matter, which he did and mad[e] one of 40 p[ar]ts which was songe in the longe gallery at Arundell house which so farre surpassed the other th[a]t the Duke hearinge of the songe tooke his chayne of gold from of his necke & putt yt about Tallice his necke & gave yt him.

At any rate, the lengthy roster for this extravaganza includes singers from Magnificat, Philharmonia Chorale, American Bach Soloists, Schola Cantorum San Francisco, and also Perfect Fifth! Which is how I got invited to sing it. Booyah!

Monteverdi:

Monday June 2nd at 8 p.m.

St. Mark's Episcopal Church
2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley CA 94704

Striggio:

Saturday June 7th at 8 p.m.
Sunday June 8th at 7 p.m.

First Congregational Church of Berkeley
2345 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA 94704

P.S. The "I sing high!" icon is in fact completely inappropriate for this post, as I have been recruited as a bass for both concerts.

I'm moving soon, and it's about time I joined the twenty-first century Does anyone have any particular advice on buying a laptop? I'm a PC user, but might jump ship to avoid Vista; so many people I know are happy with Macs. Are they worth the price tag?

order





chaos

I was just kneeling to take a nice flower macro, and then I saw bees all around. Woohoo!

past, present, future adventures

From the cradle to the grave, life's journey is celebrated in words and music by composers Stucky, Moe, Kernis, Caltabiano and Hawley. Also premiering at this concert will be a composition by George Lam, who was the winner of Volti's 2008 Choral Arts Laboratory, – a commissioning program hailed by SF Classical Voice as an “invaluable opportunity for young composers”

“[Volti] may well be the finest collection of chamber singers in the country… I have yet to encounter its equal. They’re miraculous, a treasure of the local scene.” -- Heuwell Tircuit, SFCV


George Lam (CAL composer) [new work] (2008 Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Eric Moe O the Flesh Is Hot (2005 Volti Commission) <--- THIS PIECE TOTALLY ROCKS
Steven Stucky Cradle Songs (1996)
Aaron Jay Kernis from Estatic Meditations (1998)
Ronald Caltabiano Metaphor (1993)
William Hawley Two Motets (1981)

Saturday, May 17, 8:00 PM

San Francisco – St. Gregory of Nyssa Church
500 DeHaro Street

Sunday, May 18, 4:00 PM

Berkeley – St. Mark's Episcopal Church
2300 Bancroft Way

Tickets are $20 general; $15 seniors (over 60); $8 students (under 18 or with I.D.)

The real-world examples incorporated more and more by educators in recent years can impede math learning, an experiment found.

In my opinion, one of the biggest failures of the mathematics reform movement has been the reduced emphasis on symbolic manipulation. Show me a college freshman who's struggling with calculus, and I'll show you a kid who's weak on basic algebra.

This is the big one.

I am moving to Boston this fall to attend Longy School of Music, where I will be working towards a graduate performance diploma in early music.

I'm going to miss so many things about the Bay Area that I hardly know where to start. Actually, that's a lie; I can start listing them right now. I'm going to miss my friends, my family (nearby in Portland), my voice teacher, the choral scene, my musical colleagues, my church job, the Berkeley Bowl, the Cheeseboard, the sunny weather, the flowers and bees, the restaurants, the bookstores, the public library...

But I'm going anyway. You gotta follow your dreams while you're still young and stupid.

MIT/Harvard people, I look forward to hanging out with you! Anyone looking for a roommate this fall?

For the first time since 1995, I will not be attending the majority of Mathcamp this summer.

Instead, I will be at the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute. I have been cast as Medoro in Handel's Orlando, and I'll also be singing something in Dido and Aeneas. This is hugely exciting for me, because I have never been in an opera before, not even as chorus. In addition to singing a significant chunk of Handel, I'll also be taking classes in acting, Alexander technique, and auditioning; all topics I'm very eager to learn more about!

I'm a little weirded out by the notion of missing most of camp. I've missed the first two weeks in '04 and '06, and that kinda sucked both times. However, right now, there's so much more that I can (and should) learn at opera boot camp. I will make it to Reed for the last ten days or so, which will hopefully include the Puzzle Hunt.

I recently left NDV for Grace Cathedral. I am now a Choirman! This place is seriously hardcore. An excerpt from the Choirmen's Handbook, under "Vestments":

An academic hood is a desirable, though not mandatory, part of our regalia for all singers with any academic degree.

I was under the impression that my decision to leave academia meant I wouldn't need the fancy costume, but apparently I was wrong. Too bad I only rented one.

If you want to hear what I'm up to sometime, there are both live webcasts and recently recorded services available on the website.