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Singing Hinbarra in Gaelic in Ireland

I recently had the pleasure of singing in quartet within a larger group for the Los Robles Master Chorale's tour of Ireland.   What fun!

Singing in the Netherlands

While I was on my temporary assignment last year in the Netherlands, I wangled an invitation to sing with Toonkunstkoor Breda, a group of about 50 members that practices in the lovely Ginneken district of the city.  The rehearsals are conducted entirely in Dutch.  Since the musical context was quite clear, this helped with my Dutch vocabulary.  It's a nice group - and quite hospitable to a homesick American.  Just before I returned to the US, the group performed a concert of Russian compositions, fortunately transliterated into the Latin alphabet.

California

We had lived in California during the late 1980's and early 1990's, where I'd sung with a parish choir in Walnut Creek.  In 2003, prior to our move back to California, I contacted the Oaks Chamber Singers, a by-audition group in Newbury Park, near Thousand Oaks.  Annette Murphy, the group's director, was kind enough to recommend finding a home in the mild Newbury Park climate, which we now enjoy.  Not so coincidentally, this put me within easy walking range of OCS's rehearsals.  In addition to roles in the occasional Gilbert & Sullivan operettas we perform, I've recently sung more solo work, including the Baritone duets and solos in Rutter's lovely Mass of the Children.  Our repertoire ranges from Bach, Gabrielli, Vivaldi, Mozart, Boccharini, Billings, and Wm. Byrd to Brahms, Schubert, Villa-Lobos, Faure and Rutter.  I left the group after six seasons, seeking the opportunity to perform more contemporary music.

I sang with the Village Voices Chorale (Westlake Village, California) for four years, developing my solo and ensemble performance skills (under the capable tutelage of Dana Rouse), culminating in the group's tour of France during the summer of 2011, during which I sang a number of the solos, including the lovely "The Lord is My Shepherd" setting from a BBC television series. 

From 2011 through 2022, I sang with Los Robles Master Chorale, one of the most stimulating and challenging groups (for a performer) in the area. Unfortunately, the group didn't survive Covid (all the expenses, none of the concert revenue). With LRMC, I've performed in quartet within a larger group for the Los Robles Master Chorale's tour of Ireland, in a small ensemble at a Green Door concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Disney Hall (check that bucket list item!), and as the Baritone soloist in a performance of Rutter's lovely Mass of the Children. We performed regularly with the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra and the New West Symphony. Look up the group on YouTube ("LRMasterChorale") and on SoundCloud.

Since 2022, I've been singing with the Arete Symphonic Chorus, sponsored by California Lutheran University. This group has had some performances on its own, but the large ensemble (of which I'm one of 60 or so singers) is now regularlly performing with the New West Symphony, directed by the Grammy award-winning conductor Michael Christie.

• participate in the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra conductor search process in 1998
• through the auspices of the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, conduct workshops to help community arts organizations do effective marketing
• work with foundations in the area through grant-writing to fund initiatives for the Kalamazoo Singers
• sing in opera choruses in semi-staged performances with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra
• sing with some of the world's best keyboard artists at the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, including David Owen Norris, Ralf Gothoni, and Leif Ones Andsnes
• sing with one of the best choral directors, and two of the best accompanists I've ever met

Origins

Where does all of this come from?  Ensemble performance is deeply fulfilling to me - the result is always better than that achievable by any one person, and it takes collaboration and balance to achieve the desired result.  I cannot imagine a life without music and music performance.  I've tried to instill this love of music in my kids; I'm delighted that they have both played string instruments, and appreciate a very broad range of musical styles.

My parents had me take piano lessons from the age of 5 onward, and by the time I graduated from high school, I had played woodwinds for band as well as in the pit for numerous theatrical productions at school, including "Hello, Dolly," "Mame," "Damn Yankees," and "Fiddler on the Roof."  In college, I was the only Physics major taking courses from the Music curriculum, and continued my instrumental work less through grad school. 

As a high school student, one Sunday morning after church, I visited the choir loft to compliment the director on the beautiful music they had just sung, and was drafted on the spot.   While still in Chicago as a college student, I also became a member of the "Chicago Semi-Pro Musica", a tongue-in-cheek name for a serious madrigal and motet group that practiced in Rogers Park and performed wherever people didn't throw us out :-)   In grad school, I also sang with a church choir in Upper Arlington, Ohio, near the Ohio State University campus. 

Repertoire

Here's a partial list of the repertoire we've sung in these groups over the years:

Last Updated January 07, 2024

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