Fall Choir Concert 2006

On December 7 we had our choir concert. Either the night before or at the warm-up practice just prior to the performance we changed the unofficial "HC/HC Chorale" to the "Deacon's Singers."

Program(me)s of the concert include quite a bit of background information and translations, and are available upon request. Mugur took a DVD of the concert itself, which is pretty nice except for the zooming into giant heads, and, of course, any footage of me.

A brief synopsis of our concert:

• Iată, vin colindători! (arr. Tiberiu Brediceanu)
  
• Contrapunto Bestiale Alla Mente (Adriano Banchieri)
  
• L’Ultimo Dì de Maggio (Sebastian Festa)
  
• Der Abend (Johannes Brahms)
  
• Georgian Wedding Hymn (Psalm 44:8-10)
  
• Heavenly Light (Alexander Kopylov, arr. Peter J. Wilhousky, English text by Alice Mattullath)
  
• Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree (Elizabeth Poston )
  
• Lullay My Liking (Gustav Holst)
  
• Pastime with Good Company (King Henry VIII of England)
  
• My Lord, What a Mornin’! (Negro Spiritual, arr. 1924 Henry Thacker Burleigh)

Diana Eynon provided accompaniment for Der Abend, and when she was attending rehearsals, we stole her as an alto and as a conductor. Mari conducted the rest of the pieces, and is purely responsible for my smiling the entire way through the concert. (Her idea of making sure people's eyes are watching her conduct is to make faces.)

I had my first choral-related vocal solo (that is, first vocal solo aside from recitals from voice lessons), which was both exciting and terrifying, especially in consideration of the fact that I never managed to practice the solo outside of rehearsals.

It went well enough that we were invited to attend the campus Christmas party the next evening and perform some of our Christmas-y selections there. While we were up, it was decided that we would lead the general carolling. Which was unfair. We had a giant group of screaming children right in front of us, only to be appeased if we started singing the song they wanted (Rudolph and, ironically, Silent Night are all I remember). Also, since Vickie couldn't make it for this encore performance, Virgil sung her solo and had his first solo.