I recently recorded a series of interviews with five local choral directors- at both the high school and collegiate levels- to find out how they have been coping with the restrictions and complications of the COVID-19 pandemic. I came away with a new and profound understanding of how this pandemic, while a frightening and maddening
When I heard that the theme for the 2020 Carthage Christmas Festival was "Come, with Healing in Thy Wings" I set about to compose a song for the Lincoln Chamber Singers that would fold into that intriguing and timely theme. I knew that my singers had agreed to record their portion of the concert by
This is only the second time I have blogged since the dark curtain of COVID-19 descended on this corner of the world in mid-March. It's not that I haven't had the time; thanks to the pandemic, almost everything 'extracurricular' in my life came to a screeching halt - and Free Time has been remarkably abundant.
It was 17th of March, and life-as-we-know-it was grinding to a halt and the fearsome specter of COVID-19 was looming over all of us. It felt like this new threat was lurking everywhere, and it was really only within the four walls of one's own home that you truly felt safe - or at least
It is difficult to fathom that Kathy Fischer has left us. It scarcely seems possible - and yet it's true. For those of you not blessed to have known her, Kathy was a long-time member of Holy Communion, wife of long-time organist Randy Fischer, a deeply-admired and much-loved public school teacher until her retirement some
This is the story of the hatching of a little one-act opera called Birds of a Feather: a Magic Flute Sequel .... as well as the story of a talented student who is no longer with us who nevertheless served as its central inspiration. First, let me say that the notion of fashioning some kind
Yesterday was a very challenging day. In the morning, I sang for the funeral of the father of a very good friend - and ten minutes after the end of the service, I learned that a dear friend from Holy Communion had died earlier that morning after a long, valiant fight with cancer (the second
Last weekend, I had two operatic experiences that were poles apart from each other . . . and that jarring juxtaposition was a perfect way to underscore just how extraordinarily broad the expressive scope of opera really is. One was one of the sweetest, most tender operas ever composed- the other was one of the
This is "The Winter's Rose," which is a new musical setting of a text I wrote some years ago for a piece titled "The Winter and the Rose." It springs from one of my favorite images of Christmas- that of Jesus as a beautiful rose blooming in the midst of the winter. The melody for
This is an arrangement I made of the Catalan carol "Salten y Ballen" - "Shepherds and Lasses." I have been told that the original song is not really associated with Christmas at all - but was adapted as a Christmas carol by Elizabeth Posten (most famous for "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.") I shuffled the
