Busy Weekend!

Friday night was the tech rehearsal for the Sunnyvale Prebyterian Church's "Thesbyterian Players" production of "The Silent Bells". 3 members of the Choir of Bells, plus a ringer's SO, plus me were "The Belfry" for the show (I also had another job - I got to turn pages for the pianist!). In addition to the tech rehearsal on Friday night, we had 2 performances on Saturday and one today.

Of course, all the performances were great, thanks in large part to the very capable direction of Martha Groves Perry!

I took a few pictures when I wasn't otherwise occupied & you can see them here. I'll post more pics when I get them from the other people with cameras. :-)

Meanwhile, here's a pic of Brian in the belfry:

(I think he wants me to stop taking pics already!)

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This morning was also the Lessons & Carols service at Holy Trinity Episcopal (Menlo Park). The service started at 10:30 & I was sure it would last until noon - which was the start time for today's performance of "The Silent Bells"! Fortunately, it ended at about 11:40, so Brian & I had plenty of time to make it to SVPC from Trinity. *whew*

I got a few pics & uploaded them to Flickr, too.

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Brian & I also attended the Velocity concert in Castro Valley on Saturday night. Unfortunately, I left my camera at home, so no pics. :-(

Velocity is operating as a trio now since one of their members dropped out. They played some of the standard "quartet" literature, but with only 3 people! Since I've played some of those, too, I mostly just sat there with my mouth open wondering how the heck they managed to do it with three!

Totally awesome!

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I spent a couple of hours on Thursday practicing on the church's piano for my piano final on Friday. The time was well spent because I got an A!

(That makes straight A's this quarter YAY!)

My piano teacher said that next quarter, we'll do about 3 more pieces from our book, then move on to another book, the Eckstein Book 6.

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Next quarter, in addition to piano, I'll also be continuing in Music Theory, plus singing in the College Chorale. I'm hoping that being in the singing group will help with my ear training.

I will also be taking "Fitness for Life" - even though I don't need any more PhysEd classes, I figure it's a good idea to keep taking them, just for my own health benefit.

Plus, I'll be taking American History. It's a California State University General Education requirement - you get a choice of taking one of 3 AmHis courses: Colonial era - 1816; 1816-1914; and 1914-present. I figure that we got up to WWI in High School, so it'll be interesting to take 20th century history.

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Since I'm done with my finals now, I have a week "off". Tuesday night, I'll be playing with Bay Bells at the Quadre concert. I hope to take some pics there & blog about it. (Larry Sue will be sub directing for me at Sunnyvale Pres that night.)

Wednesday night is the regular weekly rehearsal for the Trinity Ringers & we'll spend the time getting ready to play at Etz Chayim on Friday night.

Saturday & Sunday are Sonos rehearsals to prepare for Dec 23rd's concert with the SF Girls Chorus, plus our February concerts with the SF Chamber Orchestra.

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A few things from the Miscellaneous Musical Musings department:

Classical Music after the CD
Contains the dire prediction:

The remaining 3 "major" labels – Universal, Sony and EMI - will be out of the classical business within 2 years.

Favorite quotes from the 'Lexicon of Musical Invective'
My favorite is the one for Wagner:

the diabolical din of this pig-headed man, stuffed with brass and sawdust, inflated, in an insanely destructive self-aggrandizement, by Mephistopheles' mephitic and most venomous hellish miasma, into Beelzebub's Court Composer and General Director of Hell's Music

The Classical Music Homepage
My new favorite page on the internet! Especially their News page!

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