It’s been basically three months since Weston Noble began his work at Carthage, and yet I still find myself rather startled and stunned when he appears in my office doorway to talk from time to time. Yes, it’s really him - one of the preeminent choral conductors of all time - a legend -standing in
Today was our last voice studio class of the semester, because next week will be departmental recital and the week after that will be juries. The last studio always makes me sad because it’s just about my favorite hour of the entire week- especially this semester because I have such a great group of guys
Tuesdays are my busiest days and I basically go from morning to night without a single break - and today was busier than normal because I had to stir into the mix a dress rehearsal for the Tremper H.S. Choir Concert and then whip back to Carthage to catch the last hour of the Christmas
Pictured is the Holy Communion Bell Choir, under the capable direction of Dianne Johnson. They played two pieces today for church and what a pleasure it was to hear them. There’s nothing lovelier and more impressive than a well- prepared bell choir- and by the same token, there’s nothing more unfortunate than a bell choir
Tonight was a special added rehearsal for the Carthage Choir, in anticipation of the upcoming Christmas Festival. Once we get into this next week, the afternoon rehearsals are largely devoted to logistics and there’s really very little time available for extensive musical rehearsal. (The mass rehearsals are during Carthage Choir’s regular rehearsal time- other ensembles
It’s been a big weekend of partying for Kathy and me. My dad and Sonja came over Friday for some relaxed shopping in downtown Racine -followed by a fun supper with Lynn and Walter at one of Racine’s coolest new restaurants, the Douglas Avenue Diner. Tonight was a night of fun with the Barrows, Conners,
One thing I have talked about very little in my blog is Opera- and I can’t say that I’ve been inundated with cards and letters from people who regret this. In fact, I’m pretty sure that if I did full-length opera reviews in this blog, my hits would go from 2017 to minus 412 in
We’re nearing the end of a terrific Thanksgiving Day. It started out divinely because I got to sleep in this morning for the first time all week. (I signed on at the radio station Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings, which meant leaping out of bed at about 4:40 am. Well, maybe I didn’t manage to
Monday, which was the first day of Carthage’s Thanksgiving break, I headed down to Lombard, Illinois to work with the top choir of a former student of mine at Carthage, Paul Marchese. Paul was my voice student for his first two and a half years (we then decided to switch him over to Dr. Sjoerdsma
So Kathy was gone for most of the weekend, and it fell to my entirely amateur shoulders to be attentive to our two dogs, one of which was getting over the fllu. That meant serving Ellie (the sickie) chicken and rice, which kathy had prepared for me and put in little baggies. And all that
