Back to Where I Was

 

Oh well HELLOOOO there ladies and gents!  A little over three years ago I set up this site as a kind of half journal / half repository for the myriad of interests which I find intriguing, enlightening and entertaining (you know, as opposed to all those other blogs out there that are nothing like that at all).  At times I feel as though I was quite successful and others, well, let’s just forget about those, shall we?

One of the greatest gifts the blog has given me is a detailed memory of my many summers working at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and touring internationally as a soloist for their oratorios.  For those tens upon tens of readers who used to regularly check in, you’ve probably noticed I have been an abysmal failure at updating for nearly a year.  Well weep no longer, faithful followers: I am thrilled to once again be returning to BLFAC for another European tour and reviving the blog in the process!

With a little more than gentle prodding from friends and fellow soloists, Sabrina Laney Warren (returning this year as blonde) and Zach Vanderburg (promoted to soloist from his previous years as section leader for our Elijah and Brahm’s Requiem tours), I have decided to once again take up the mantle of mediocre travel blogger. Selfishly, it’s so I can have another great account of my travels, but I don’t have any problem fudging the truth and saying I’m doing it for you, the people.  YOU’RE WELCOME! :)

This year the orchestra, choir and soloists will be busing all throughout Germany performing Joseph Haydn’s masterpiece, Die Schoepfung (The Creation), which, as you clever people might have surmised, follows the Biblical story—with a little bit of John Milton’s Paradise Lost thrown in for good measure—of God’s creating light and darkness and heaven and earth and plants and animals and Adam and Eve and everything and everything.  Well, I say everything, but we all know that caffeine, carbs and chocolate are the Devil’s work, okaaaaaay!

Just sayin’

 

During the holidays of last year I had the pleasure of going up to Dallas and spending some good, quality time with my brother, sister-in-law, nephews and the whole Friess family clan, taking an excursion to the Fort Worth zoo in the process. I snapped the following picture and immediately sent it to Leah, my boss (and good friend) at the international program, joking that it should be used for the promotional poster for the Creation tour ‘cause it looks just so darned creationy.  *Shock and awe* they decided to go in a “different direction,” but I excuse it by telling myself that they couldn’t afford my royalty fees.  At any rate, here it is for posterity’s sake so that future generations can revel in it’s Instagramed glory.

Seriously, though… that zebra is rockin’ some creation realness

 

And for those of you inclined to hear a bit of the piece itself, here’s the prelude to the oratorio, entitled “The Representation of Chaos.”  This is, like, music history 101 right here for you peeps.

Also… puh-LEASE notice the zebras and rainbow at 4:40!

 

Artist: Eric Hutchinson / Album: Sounds Like This