MAY

May 1
Performance at 4pm by the Womens' Voices choir and orchestra in Duke Chapel. Went very well and large audience.
http://cvnc.org/article.cfm?articleId=3782

Rush on over to UNC for the Viol Consort and Baroque Orchestra Concert at 7:30pm.
Brent was really into pieces that reflected Susanna. Here's the text.

Susannah solicited one day by two old men desiring her beauty
Was sad at this attempt on her chastity. She said:
"If by this you enjoy my body,I am lost; but if I struggle
You will put me to death. But I prefer to perish innocent,
Rather than offend the Lord".

Many composers wrote pieces about her. Tonight's composers featuring Susannah are Didier Lupi Second (16th c.), Orlandi di Lasso (16th c), Francesco Rognoni (16th c), John Dowland (16th c.).
The group was made up of treble, tenor and bass viols, lute and soprano. A lovely concert.
That was the last concert of the University year, so we are off until late August.

May 7
Now starts the wedding and graduation season.
Wedding #1 with a string quartet in my favorite location - Fearrington Inn, 8 miles south of Chapel Hill. The wife of the owner, Jenny Fitch, created beautiful English gardens and it is the place for a picture perfect wedding. http://www.fearrington.com/house/?gclid=CLvvtqzwz6kCFZJb7Aod8jc38Q
We have played there for over 30 years and watched the house and gardens grow more beautiful each season.

Wedding #2 at the Governors' Club a few miles south of Chapel Hill, was with a string trio. In a beautiful location also, it was a Southern outdoor ceremony overlooking a lake. The lead violinist said it was especially moving when two swans floated past the couple.  http://www.governorsclub.com/clubhouse.php 
May 8
Graduation Day at the UNC. I only prove music for the individual school graduations which are smaller, not for the huge event early in the day. This year I provided two Brass Quintets for the Schools of Journalism and Dentistry.
I had a wedding featuring the violin and guitar duo for the ceremony and jazz piano for the reception, held at the Doris Duke Center, part of the Duke University Gardens, another exqusite location where we play often. See April 10th event  thttp://www.hr.duke.edu/dukegardens/doris_duke_center.htm

May 9
Final group rehearsal for the students' cello recital.

May 13
Started rehearsals for the Early Music concert with Mary Fran, violin playing the Handel Sonata op1 #11, I the Bach Gamba sonata #1, with Simon Zaleski, harpsichord. Simon is a whiz on the harpsichord and agreed to play a Suite by William Croft in the concert.

In the evening was my students' end-of-year cello recital at Carol Woods. The Assembly Hall there is  excellent, especially for cellos. Beautiful wooden floors and great acoustics. The Intermediate/Advanced group played the Beethoven Rondo which went extremely well. Everyone had really made an effort to be together and we made it through the fugue without a spill! The beginning ensemble and solos went well and everyone seemed happy with their contribution. The audience was not only parents, siblings and friends, but residents from the retirement community so we had a good crowd.

May 14
The graduation of Duke University's Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS). This unique program allows adults to pursue a degree in any subject they wish, while still having a "day job". Therefore there are fascinating topics described in the program. We were a string quartet and free to choose whatever music for the Prelude we wanted, so we had fun. http://liberalstudies.duke.edu/

May 20
Rehearsal for the Early Music concert

May 21

Wedding in a lovely private home in Chapel Hill. One of the older homes close to the university, with beautifully landscaped grounds and established bushes and trees. We were on a lawn which overlooked the stone-laid patio where the ceremony was held, and continued playing there when the wedding party and guests came up the steps to the reception. It was a perfect afternoon and early evening, not too hot. The best North Carolina can have.

May 22

Rescheduled Durham Symphony Pops concert (the first time it was cancelled because of the tornadoes). Last one of the season, it was terrbly hot and no shade for the cello/bass side of the orchestra. We were really sweating. It had been a while since we had played together, and strange not to have a rehearsal or warm-up, but soon it all came together and it was a good performance.

It was sooo hot!!

May 26 - The 5th grade strings - violin, viola and cello, gave a short concert at school. After each group played a few pieces, they joined together to play in an ensemble - Chorus from Judas Maccabeus, the Brahms' Waltz and Turkey in the Straw. This is the last year they have separate classes, next year they play together in a string ensemble with the 7th and 8th graders. They really have not had enough technique classes to manage the orchestra parts.  For some of them, practice is not a priority, and so we start seeing a divide between the ones who are progressing well and the ones who are progress at a slower pace. Quite often we get new students who come in to 5th grade with no strings experience at all, and then it is so hard for them to catch up. Over the years I have noticed that many of the Asian students who are here for only a couple of years make a big effort to catch up by taking private lessons, sometimes twice a week. They seem to value musical eduation very much, along with their regular education. 

May 27 - Rehearsal of the Bach Gamba Sonata with Simon. The trick is to find the right tempo that works for both of us. Once the movements get going, and we are together, everything ticks along nicely. It's the together part that is tricky on the fast movements. We both like to play them fast, but it takes quite a bit doing, especially for me.

May 28 - Today is one of those days that exemplify the joy of doing what we do. We played late afternoon/early evening for a retired Duke doctor who had spent months planning an elegant garden party. He has an exquisite garden, not overly large, backing up to to a green of the Chapel Hill Country Club. The weather was perfect, not too hot. The poor man had been in agonies the day before as there had been a huge thunderstorm and part of the golf course (not near him, fortunately) had flooded. In fact I had trouble getting Kate home that day, as the road to her house, not far from the Doctor's, was flooded in sections. Fortunately the sun came out and dried up all the rain. The garden looked gorgeous. We were set up on the veranda in the shade, overlooking the garden and played  baroque, classical and light classical for a couple of hours. It was a perfect setting, and the guests seemed to be enjoying it very much. Afterwards we were invited to partake of the food (delicious heavy hors d'oevres from a superb caterer) and I spent a pleasant half-hour with an English friend, a retired doctor, and a good pianist. She had been to Dartington the summer before, so we chatted about my forthcoming trip. A lovely ending to a perfect afternoon!

May 29. I played in one of two weddings we had, as they overlapped.  Mine was an orthodox Jewish wedding in a Durham synagogue. All the family had gathered together to prepare the wedding, the groom had designed and decorated the marriage contract (ketubah) with cutouts of birds on a blue background bordering the beautifully done calligraphy of the contract.  I love the way the two families and wedding party gather together under the huppah to support the bride and groom. The service however, was quite short, the cantor did not make the 7 blessings overlong. It was a very happy service, not formal at all in spite of being orthodox. Our trio was well received and I was glad to be a part of such a meaningful event in that couple's life. 

The other wedding was totally different, a Southern outdoor ceremony overlooking a lake at a hotel in Cary. Another beautiful venue.  www.theumstead.com

May 30. After the group class with my students to rehearse "Home on the Range" I had the first rehearsal of the Vivaldi concerto for 2 cellos with Dorothy. We set the tempos and had a good run-through. 

APRIL

April 1
Izabela and Xi Yang came over to Carol Woods to rehearse the Martinu. This retirement community has a marvellous assembly hall with great acoustics and they are very generous in allowing musicians from the community to use it. They have a very busy concert schedule with a Summer Music Festival, a Winter Concert Series and miriads of teachers' student recital, mine included! It is the only hall around that will accommodate 18 or so cellists.
It gave us a good opportunity to get the feel of a larger hall and we had a good rehearsal - several people wandered in to listen and asked us when we were performing it. I had hoped we could play it there at my students' recital in May, but unfortunately as it turned out, Izabela was quite ill on the day.

April 2
Dress rehearsal at the Museum with the singers as well. The hall had good acoustics and felt comfortable. I was glad we had been able to play at Carol Woods. I was excited to play the Arvo Part, I love the Stabat Mater, and my friend Rogers Covey Crump had given me some last minute tips on performing it. It is a taxing work for singers having to sustain the long notes and keep up the pitch. We spent quite a long time working on the ensemble and all in all it went well, but us string players felt we could have had more time going through the Martinu. The Museum closed at 5pm and we had to be out.

April 3rd
Concert day! We warmed up on stage with the singers and then the Martinu and felt good. The auditorium was full. Each piece on the program was paired with a tryptic from the museum. We didn't get to hear much of the William Byrd Mass for the three singers as we were in a room behind the stage, but by the audience's clapping response, it had gone well.  Then it was our turn with the Martinu and it went like a dream, just flew by, like a good ride on a safe roller coaster. I felt so happy that it went so well and the audience loved it. The Stabat Mater had its moments, but may have been too much for the singers after singing the 25 minute Byrd Mass. It lost its flow momentarily in the middle and intonation was not always impeccable. However, it was well received by the audience, and we all were given many compliments at the reception that followed. Due to some miscommunication in the arrangements, there was no recording. I was disappointed as I hoped to put a clip and the review on this blog. The organiser had told Maggie " It is such a shame there will not be a review".  For whatever reasons, this series of concerts are not given reviews.

with Xi Yang -viola, Izabela Spiewak -violin after the Museum concert.

April 5
Rehearsals start for the Durham Symphony Pops Concerts. The Program is Arensky -Overture from Egyptian Nights, Mozart Eine Kleine Nachtmusik 1st mvt., Strauss Blude Danube Waltz, Shostakovich-Festive Overture, Vaughan Williams English Folk Songs 1st movement, Coleridge Taylor Danse Negre, Herbert American Fantasy, Lloyd Webber Evita

April 8
The Emerson Waldorf All-School Orchestra and Band Spring concert on the Southern Village green. A big undertaking, starting with all levels together playing an arrangement of Wagner's Die Meistersinger.  The middle school orchestra played an arrangement of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony and the Purcell Chacony. The High School orchestra is still very small, but they did play the Telemann Viola concerto with Matt (the violin/viola teacher) playing a movement and two students playing the other 2 movements.  The HS Jazz band was fun to listen to.
Certainly the music department has come a long way since Jason became the music/choral director.

The cello section

April 10

One of Musica's favorite gigs, the annual Duke Reunion Brunch in Duke Gardens. The gardens are in spectacular bloom and the music of 10 strings wafts over the gardens courtesy of the Duke sound sytem experts.  Duke alums wander around drinking mimosas and enjoying the upmarket box lunches (we get them them too, but the mimosas have to wait until we are finished playing!) Wisteria covers the Pergola at the top of the gardens, beds of tulips going down to the Fishpond which has had a revamp, and where we sit close to. Sadly a tree that used to give us shade was taken down to provide room for a patio. Better for us to play but we missed the tree. Fortunately it wasn't too hot this year. We play for 3 hours with a break in the middle. The program is varied, something for everyone - light classics, Rhosymedre is an annual favorite, Handel's Entrance of the Queen of Sheba, Vivaldi Summer, Stamitz orchestra Quartet, pop - Beatles, Joplin rags, Moon River, La Vie en Rose, and we always end with Orange Blossom Special

                  

The Musica String Ensemble

Later that afternoon, after popping in to Kate's 7th birthday party, I went on to the monthly meeting of the Carolina Chapter of the Viola da Gamba Society of America. We played from Book 4 of the Jacobean Consort music, Orlando Gibbons, Five part in Nomines and Coperario Fantasias in 4 parts. All good practice for Dartington!

April 11

Group cello rehearsal of the Beethoven Rondo.

April 15

Rehearsal for the UNC Consort of Viols concert on May 1st. Last time we will all be together before the dress rehearsal, as people will be away for Easter.

April 16

A wedding ceremony at the Carolina Inn. The bride had luck on her side, North Carolina was hit by a huge number of tornados that ripped throught Raleigh and south eastern parts of the state, killing many people and huge amounts of damage. Trailer parks and neighborhoods were decimated. In Chapel Hill we had a tremendous downpour, I thought it would come my bathroom skylight, but fortunately didn't. It blew over after about 20 minutes so I was able to make to the Carolina Inn. Although the ceremony was moved inside, the bride got her wish of having her wedding photos taken outside, and it turned out to be a gorgeous evening.

April 17

The Durham Symphony Pops concert in Hillsborough went ahead, and it was a beautiful day. I love to play outdoors, there's nothing like it on a good day. The house of our conductor who lives in Raleigh was in the neighborhood that sustained so much damage and he went rushing back after the concert to see if his house was still standing. It was.

April 19 & 20

Rehearsals for the Easter program at Muir's Chapel, Greensboro.  We were a string quartet - Suzanne, Laura, Kitty and me, and Suzanne drives us the 50 miles each way, so we have good conversations and catch up time.  The work is a contemporary Christian cantata "Who do you say I am?" by Larson and we ended with the Halleluia Chorus. The Choir Director, Chuck  , did an excellent job of  training the choir and putting it all together. We have played there on many occasions. Chuck's wife Susan was the choir director of St. Matthews Church in Hillsborough before they married. We have also played there many times over the years. It's a tiny Episcopal church over 175 years old, built when the British were there.

April 22

UNC Viols rehearsal

April 23

The Durham Symphony Pops concert at the Central Park Pavillion in Durham. A very stormy morning, but cleared up by 3pm. Enthusiastic and large crowd.

April 24

Easter Service at Muir's Chapel in Greensboro. The church was packed and the music was very well received.

April 25

Cello group rehearsal. The Rondo is coming on well.

April 28 

Rehearsal in Duke Chapel for the Womens' Voice choir concert. Directed by Allen Friedman we are playing the Stabat Mater by Pergolesi and  the "Cradle of Fire". We are a small string orchestra with harpsichord and harp. The Cradle of Fire has lush instrumention and the         movement has a beautiful duet for the two cellos.

April 29

Final UNC Viol rehearsal before the concert.