A Sort of Homecoming

 

One of the parts of the whole tour I was looking forward to the most was the return to Ann Arbor for a series of concerts appropriately entitled “Experience Blue Lake.”  An overwhelming swath of campers for the program comes from a 100 mile radius of Ann Arbor and one of the feathers in the tour’s cap are the performances at gorgeous Hill Auditorium. This was my first time being back in my home for four years since I moved last August and it was a treat to be back.

 

Just like last year (LINK), the Brahm’s Requiem was broadcast live on Blue Lake’s very own public radio station (LINK) for the entire WORLD to hear. 

The back of Hill with the satellite and equipment trucks parked in full view (with a bit of bell tower in the background thrown in for good measure)

 

Joining us once again to conduct the Requiem was Carole Dr. MaestrA Ott.  She had the thankless task of preparing the choir and orchestra for the European tour without the benefit of actually getting to conduct us while overseas.  Needless to say it was an immense pleasure to get to work under her baton again, not only because her musicality and expression were unrivaled by any of the guest conductors in Europe but because I consider her a dear friend as well.  Even though she conducts and teaches in North Carolina I am dependent upon the very small musical world that we live in to bring us back together collaboratively in the future. 

Three very content divas

 

Sabrina and I were also joined by a very special guest in the audience in the form of John Nevergall, who long time blog readers will remember was the tenor soloist in last years Elijah (broken glass during his aria, anyone?!).  Though he lives in Ohio he drove up for the concert and I am so grateful to have gotten to see him, if only for a short time after the performance.

“Bist du’s Elias?!?!?!”

 

I also must give a special shout out to my host “moms” for this portion of the tour.  Mom of course being in quotation marks because they were actually my friends Kristin (who, though a mom in her own right, is absolutely nowhere near near near old enough to claim that title over me) and then later Cynthian. 

Like John before, some of you may remember Kristin from our sharing the stage in Le nozze di Figaro, Armide, and Albert Herring as well as, you know, being kind of a kick ass friend.  Unnnnnfortunately I was stupid and failed to get a picture with her and her darling Alyssa before getting away so I leave you with a picture I pilfered off of her facebook profile. 

 

Cynthian and I have also had the pleasure of performing together in Albert Herring and Eugene Onegin and is also a member of that wundermusical family the Brundages—as in, Julia of the Singing Seargeant’s fame and Mary Anne and David of my utterly fabulous vacation weekend to Washington D.C. this past February.  Cynthian actually commented that I had basically seen everyone in her family more recently than I had seen her, so I’m glad we could rectify that situation!

Enjoying sangria at Ann Arbor’s popular summer drinking destination, Dominick’s

 

Artist: U2/ Album: The Unforgettable Fire

Lazy Bones

 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this leg of the tour was host to two different performances of the Brahms’ Requiem (perhaps to make up for the fact that we didn’t do one when in France).  I failed to get any pictures from the first concert, however there was a nice review in the paper about it:

With a warm timbre, he [Joseph Roberts] sang the humble selection ("Lord, teach me yet"), he was powerful in proclaiming ("Behold, I unfold to you a mystery"). Sabrina Laney Warren's soprano solo was a soft-lined, expressive consolation song full of vocal grace.

~from the Augsburger Allgemeine (full article here)

The second one, in the nearby town of Donauworth, was held in a very beautiful baroque Catholic church—it’s certainly been a while since you’ve seen any pictures of a church so here’s your last installment for Europe!

 

Exterior and interior shots

 

Apparently it is a Bavarian tradition to display the bones of long passed saints in the church proper with the notion that, while one is good, two is certainly more saintly.

 

Saints Stephanus et Benedictus (I think?)  Stephanus has quite the sassy pose going on— I mean, if you’re going to rest for eternity for all the world to see you might as well be photo-ready, right?!?!

 

CEILING!

 

As this was the last evar performance in Europe I had the luxury of actually going home and enjoying a couple “one glass of wine/beer” with dinner… and Sarah and Mamma D. didn’t disappoint! There is a type of beer sold in Bavaria (only during the weekdays according to Sarah) called stark beer that is very very strong and they managed to procured some for us! Apparently it is so strong that before we were allowed to drink it our host mother told us we would need to eat a lot of protein in order to counteract some of the effects—HUZZAH!!

DE-LECKER!!! (to be fair, one of the beers is Carole’s!)

Artist: Harry Connick, Jr./ Album: Oh, My Nola

The New Traffic Signs

Eberbach was home to our fourth Brahms performance in Europe and everything went off without a hitch. There was even a special guest star who came from Landau to visit me and see the performance! 

IT’S LENA!!!!!

For those of you who are new to the blog since the last tour, Lena was my host sister for our stop in Landau last year and we have kept in touch throughout the year, so when I knew I was coming back this year I sent her the schedule and she was relatively close to this stop and came to the performance.

With Mason from last year

Lena’s most noticeable talent— besides being a fabulous host—was putting up with the schoolboy immaturity that Mason and I unloaded on her.  Immaturity like this:

*giggle giggle* FAHRT!

So I was buh-thrilled when, for an early birthday present, she pulled this out of her bag and gave it to me:

YYYYEEEESSSS!!!!!

After the Brahms performance our group went back to the house for some post performance dessert and was joined by Zach, Zack, Josh, their host parents and the maestro from the Requiem!

 

Carole, Zack, Kate, Sabrina, Seth, Jessie, Zach, Josh, Maestro Achim and our host mom, Ute!

Sabrina and I decided to mix it up a little bit this time with our flower picture from this performance.  Ute had her own set of Ebers at her house… so what better way to remember our Requiem from Eberbach!!

Get it little Eber!

Artist: The Advisory Circle/ Album: As the Crow Flies

Dear Mr. Music Critic

 

Unlike the (basically) sports hall in which we performed the Brahm’s in the last city, Minden pulled out all the stops—and almost 1,000 concert goers—for their leg of the tour. 

Get it Johannes!!

 

   

Exterior shot of the Dom and interior shot of a rehearsal (100 piece orchestra and 250 in the choir!)

 

Sabrina and I with maestro’s Carole Ott and Thomas Wirtz

 

Unfortunately, the Brahms soloists are given only a thankless task. Only two movements take part for the baritone, and the soprano comes in even just one movement.  Joseph Roberts baritone sang an expressively and sensitively balanced "Lord, teach me yet" and "For here have we no continuing city" with an excellent understanding of the text and diction. With compassion and yet comforting heard "You now have sorrow" from the mouth of the lyric soprano Sabrina Laney Warren.

Both were, despite the brevity of their performances, a great pleasure and thus contributed significantly to the quality of a musical experience; they will be long spoken of even outside the borders of Minden and rank therefore as pearls in the track records of both the cathedral music and the Christ Church and Thomas Wirtz, one of its cantors.

~Review from the Minden newspaper (for the full link in German with pictures, click here)

 

As is apt to happen after a concert of this magnitude, a very lovely reception was held in the courtyard area of the dome!

Perfect end to a perfect evening :)

 

Artist: Murderer’s Row/ Album: Beer Fueled Mayhem

How Marvin Eats His Breakfast

 

Last night we had our first performance of Brahm’s Requiem at the Stewart Shell on the campus of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.  The orchestra and choir have been rehearsing all week (it’s not called “intensive week” for nothin’) and this was our first opportunity to publicly present the piece before we head out on our European tour.

In honor of the event I thought I’d post a (relative) oldy but goody.  Sure, I could put up a movement from the Requiem but let’s be honest, y’all probably wouldn’t watch it.  Instead, here is AmericansForTheArts.org’s PSA about arts education featuring BRAHMS HIMSELF!!!

 

Artist: William Finn/ Album: Infinite Joy

Somewhere That’s Green (Reprise)

 

By the time you are reading this I will have already spent TWO nights in a cabin at the hallowed grounds of the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. *pause for shock and awe*  That’s right, folks, this summer I’m headed on another European tour and will be singing the baritone solo in Johannes Brahm’s German Requiem—with the return of Sabrina Laney Warren as the soprano soloist!  I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before on the blog so… there ya go.

My previous post on the first time I went to the camp grounds can be found here, but I thought it would be fun to put up a couple of pictures to remind everyone about how beautiful (and rustic) the setting for this weekend and then intensive week in June will be.

The mystical Blue Lake

 

 

My cabin (That would be the Beaux cabin of the Sienna unit for those of you who care to know)

 

The Stuart outdoor performance shell

 

My sanity will be lost somewhere amongst these trees next month

 

It’s definitely going to be a surreal experience going back, but very different this year as well.  For one thing, last year I was able to throw whatever I needed into the back of the General and drive—I don’t have that luxury living in Houston and have had to be a veeeerrrryyy careful packer.  I’m also sad that some of the other staff members won’t be returning (that means YOU Mason, Ellen, Emily, John and Zach !!) but you’ll also be seeing some familiar faces on the blog in posts to come.

 

Artist: Alan Menken/ Album: Little Shop of Horrors