The Fullness of Fall

It's September and vacation is over. I had another awesomely beautiful backpacking trip in the Sierras hiking out of Mineral King. This year we based camped at Little Five Lakes overlooking the magnificent Kaweah Mountain range. I literally spent hours watching the change of color on these mountains as it went from a clear gold in the early morning to an intense rose by the end of the day at sunset. Still... I'm glad to be back doing the work I love: music. Too much time alone and I crave human interaction and I miss being the center of attention once again - performing and leading my flock of singers & students. Arranging, composing, rehearsing, teaching, directing, planning, emailing, returning phone calls, booking gigs, multi tasking and generally just being a musician again. New choral arrangements have been chosen for the six (six!?) groups I regularly direct. And in addition to the usual six, I have also taken on two more new groups this fall. Yes, I know...I am completely nuts. 

#1 The Berkeley Broadway Singers, a mixed community chorus of 70 singers (while Ellen Hoffman takes a well deserved sabbatical). I will teach the music, prep the singers for their four concerts, and conduct them in the November shows. 
#2 Stagebridge, a senior theater company. I will be teaching songs from "Guys and Dolls" and collaborating with the drama and dance instructors. This 12 week workshop will culminate in a performance for the public of several scenes from the musical.  

So, copies of all the music have been made and organized. Piles of music are all over and everywhere in my studio. Voice parts have been reviewed, tricky spots noted, piano accompaniment practiced...and I am ready to go.

In between all this, I am excited to have a new venue in Sacramento called Savanna's where I will be performing and then in December I will be back at Anna's Jazz island in Berkeley.

What a life! I have a full fall.

Another year...another miracle!

In 1980 I started The Anything Goes Chorus, a community chorus for men and women that was open to anyone who showed up. Over time singers have come and gone, but many have stayed...and for years. As they've kept coming back, their skills have improved and the music I introduce to the group now is more challenging and the level of the singing has developed way beyond where many of the singers started. These days they can sing jazz chords and do some fancy scat sections. They can move together in sync as they perform and also sing in different languages. They can touch people's hearts and move their audiences with the beauty of the sound they create and the emotion they bring to a song. The Anything Goes Chorus is no longer a singing group for just anyone. 

Every year in the spring we put on a 90 minute concert at a major venue in the Bay Area. These are not professional singers by the way, and in a matter of months I teach them all their parts, motivate them to memorize ALL their music, clean up their diction, drill the rhythms till they are precise, work on vocal technique until everyone (mostly) is singing in tune, shape the dynamics so they are fluid, help them to get inside the lyrics until the words feel like their own, add a sprinkling of props and choreography...and on top of that, they learn to do all these things AND have a great time and many of them experience what may be one of the peak moments of their year. Whew! Do you have any idea what a HUGE undertaking that it?

And so, when I tell you that this year was yet another amazingly success show (the 27th Annual Concert) combining the San Francisco and Oakland Choruses to create a group of 40 confident singers performing with obvious glee for an enthusiastic audience of nearly 400---well, I hope you will understand how oh-so-very-pleased-and-proud I am.

Another year...another miracle!