It was party time at the Bergs tonight- and this time it was a gathering of Carthage buddies over a couple of generations This is the weekend of the farewell gala concert for Dr. Richard Sjoerdsma, and one of the honored guests for the concert – a friend of Kathy’s named Jeannie (Moerke) Mazzano – is here all the way from Florida and staying with us. So we invited a bunch of friends over who would enjoy seeing her- – – and Leslie and Bob, Al and Liz, Polly and Mark, Paula and Sam, Ted R, Brian S, and Kathy’s dad all joined us for the fun. (Lorelai, too.) A last minute surprise – and a very welcome surprise – was when Jeannie invited two of her fellow guest soloists to come by. . . Roberta Mulder (whose married name escapes me) – and Dean Peterson, an amazing bass who has sung lead roles with the Metropolitan Opera. It was Ted Repsholdt, God bless him, who came up to me at one point to say that it would be foolish to have so many singers and musicians under one roof and not do at least a little bit of singing. So that’s what we did- almost every party guest piled into our studio, and we ended up raising the roof with a rendition of “Shall we gather at the River.” Someone said “we are being SO Lutheran, doing this!” And I suppose it’s true. But what a tremendous pleasure to have such musical friends with whom we can create these kind of wonderful musical moments. In a big weekend which included Solo and Ensemble all day today and the big Sjoerdsma Blow Out Bash tomorrow afternoon and evening, I think that spontaneous rendition of “Shall we gather at the River” may end up being my favorite moment of all!
