Tonight and Sunday evening I'll be performing Mahler's 2nd Symphony with the Apollo Chorus and the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, University Chorale, and Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble.
If you've never heard this piece, you have to come to one of the performances. Tonight's 7:30 p.m. performance, at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall on the Northwestern University campus, will have the best sound. But Sunday's 6:30 pm performance, at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park in downtown Chicago will be free. Also, the weather forecast for Sunday night looks great.
Based on Wednesday's orchestra rehearsal at Pick-Staiger, I think this will be one of the most exciting performances of my career. Here's a performance with Claudio Abbado; skip to 1:09:18 to hear the choral portion:
With two performances and two rehearsals over the weekend, I didn't have any time to post. I also didn't have as much time as I wanted to walk, though I did manage 20,249 steps for the weekend. (That was a little disappointing, especially because yesterday's weather was perfect for being outside.)
Meanwhile, the chorus have finally put up videos of our April fundraiser. So, yeah, we did this:
I'll leave finding videos of me holding a puppet as an exercise for the reader.
Yesterday, some of us from the Apollo Chorus were on WGN-TV in Chicago promoting our upcoming spring concert. Take a look.
Our concerts will be next Friday, May 6th, at 7:30pm at the 4th Presbyterian Church in Chicago, and Sunday May 8th, 3pm, at the First United Church in Oak Park.
Friday went long, so yesterday was pretty quiet. The Apollo Chorus had its annual fund-raiser on Friday. As one of the volunteers, I tagged along to the official after-party, which turned into two subsequent unofficial after-parties, and a completely lazy day yesterday.
We should get preliminary results on the total fundraising take by tomorrow's rehearsal. We did get a pretty good haul at the door, and during our "Money Song," which included a challenge grant that got completely used. So, in all, great event, fun weekend, slept like a dog last night.
Regular blogging resumes tomorrow.
Again, the post Friday was not an April Fool's joke. And since then I've had non-stop things going on, including today going over the silent auction donations for our coming Apollo After Hours fundraiser.
Tomorrow should be a little calmer.
This weekend I've had a lot going on, resulting in yet another blog miss on Saturday.
Friday was C2E2; Friday night was Whiskyfest; yesterday was a pair of rehearsals for Apollo After Hours.
Today? Errands, mainly. And catching up on stuff—like the news.
Sometimes my life is just this exciting.
First, 7am Friday:
Yeah, thanks guy. Wet nose in the ear before my alarm clock goes off.
And 7pm Saturday, at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, just before we sang "Elijah:"
Too many things showed up in my RSS feeds this morning. Fortunately, I've got a few days off this weekend and next.
And now, a conference call.
The Apollo Chorus performed Händel's Messiah yesterday and Saturday both, which explains the radio silence here. This is my second year with the Chorus. Though last year's performances were really good, this year's were better.
Here's the view from the stage to our sold-out crowd yesterday afternoon:
And those who have followed The Daily Parker for a while know that I have had a troubled relationship with bow ties. For this weekend's performances, I might have gotten it right:
We have a crystal-clear, crisp October morning, perfect for spending three hours in a rehearsal for the Apollo Chorus...sigh.
It's also a good morning to test the new blog engine and posting from my friend's car.