Tuesday the 16th was my 56th birthday, and there were all kinds of things that made it a great day. One way in which it was a not-so-great day is that I kissed Kathy goodbye at 6:15 that morning and did not see her again until after midnight. That’s not exactly my idea of an ideal birthday, but that’s the hand we were dealt – or maybe it’s better to say that this is the hand I dealt myself. At any rate, she has managed to be very understanding about the craziness that this particular February is serving up in heaping helpings.
At least it was a birthday filled to the brim with music, one way or another- and it began with my Morning Show that day. Part One was with my faculty colleague, Jane Livingston, who is going to delivering what promises to be a wonderful and entertaining piano recital tomorrow night. Jane is retiring at the end of this year (at least from her full time position at Carthage) and in honor of that, she is crossing something off of her personal bucket list by playing a recital devoted to some of the best piano music written for classic films in the 40s and 50s. The audience will not only hear wonderful pieces like Richard Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto or Gershwin’s An American in Paris (all in arrangements for two pianos) but will also get to view brief excerpts from each of the films for which these pieces were either composed or which drew on these pieces as part of their scores. It’s going to be a blast- and it was so fun to talk with Jane about this intriguing recital. I am going to be her second pianist on this program, and it has been tremendous fun to collaborate again. Jane and I became officially full time here at Carthage the same year- 1995- so we sort of feel like classmates, and I am happy and honored to join her for this special occasion.
Part two of the same Morning Show was spent with my former student Nick Barootian, who has resettled in the area and- among many other things- has created a wonderful new group called the Belle Ensemble that has already presented several wonderfully received programs to the community. He came on my show to talk about their concert this Saturday night called “Northern Lights,” which will be primarily devoted to great choral music by some of Scandinavia’s finest composers. It was great to talk with Nick – as it always is when I get to talk about music with someone who is bright and energized and full of passion.
From there, I ran to Tremper High School for a rehearsal with Polly’s top choir there- in anticipation of this weekend’s Choral Festival in Kenosha – and the visit ended up including my first birthday serenade of the day ….. plus colorful cupcakes as a special (if terribly naughty) treat. And I got back to the Carthage campus just in time for chapel- which, quite surprisingly, included my second birthday serenade of the day. (Pastor Kara must have known it was my birthday because of Facebook.) And by the way, the service was distinguished by a spectacular bit of musical improvisation by my colleague Dimitri Shapovalov on the American hymn “What Wondrous Love.” That was a wonderful treat! The third serenade was quite a surprise…. because it occurred at the Pre-Recital Jury for Matt Burton and Austin Merschdorf, which was a fairly serious and somewhat formal affair. But that didn’t stop Dr. Eduardo Garcia-Novelli, one of the jurists, from running up to the stage, sitting down at the piano, and leading the guys in a rousing (and quite jazzy rendition of Happy Birthday. And amidst all of that fun, I also had the pleasure of teaching several voice lessons, and each and every student was nice enough to wish me Happy Birthday.
I had to pay $$$ for Serenade #4 …. but I’m glad I did because it was worth every penny. I’m talking about Tuesday night’s performance at the Lyric Opera of Chicago of Richard Strauss’s exquisite masterpiece Der Rosenkavalier, one of my favorite operas. The reason it felt a bit like a birthday serenade is because one of the main characters in the story, the Feldmarschallin, sings an exquisite aria in the first act about time. “Die Zeit ist ein sonderbar Ding” – “Time is such a strange thing.” This is a character who is by no means old …. maybe in her early thirties …. yet she finds herself acutely aware of time passing every more quickly. At one point, she sings that when one is young, one passes through time without having any awareness of it whatsoever. But then one reaches a certain age and suddenly ‘time’ is all you can think of. It was a young American soprano, Amanda Majeski, who sang this scene with such tenderness and deep feeling- and it gave me shivers. Happy Birthday to me!
Serenades #5 and 6 came the next day, but that was great: I am all for extending birthday celebrations for as long as they can be extended within the constraints of politeness. First was at Carthage Choir (I wasn’t there for Tuesday’s rehearsal) – and for some reason, Dr. Garcia-Novelli insisted that it be sung softly and gently …. which was actually pretty nice. And Serenade #6 came that night at the end of Senior Choir rehearsal at church, when the choir serenaded both me and bass Steve Smith, who share a birthday.
Needless to say, I am feeling ridiculously spoiled and lavishly loved on this 56th birthday.