4:15 a.m.- The alarm goes off. Not by accident but by design.
5:10 a.m.- I begin a two-and-a-half-hour composing session in the Recital Hall at Carthage. It’s my favorite place to work when I either have to refine musical ideas or generate brand new ones. There’s something about that particular piano (a beautiful Yamaha) and the lack of visual distractions (it’s a very dull room to look at) that works really well for me. That’s where I wrote this year’s “O Lumine,” last year’s “The Gift,” as well as “Blessing- for Lee” for the Master Singers. What was out of ordinary for me was doing it at the crack of dawn (literally.) But I’m glad I did- some really good things took shape with two different projects I’m working on.
7:55 a.m.- I get to WGTD in time to greet my guest for that day’s Morning Show, Gary Stamm- a wonderful local actor who has been on the program a number of times before. The very very first time was probably 25 years ago when he came on to talk about an effort he and some other parents were making to help save an event in danger of winking out of existence- Ye Olde English Christmas Feaste. (They succeeded- the event is alive and well to this very day.) After that, he would come on to talk about various community theater productions he was is (such as the RTG’s production of Scrooge, in which he had the title character.) Most recently, he came to talk about his spot-on impersonation of FDR, which he was invited to do at Hyde Park! This time around, he is my guest to talk about being a contestant on the Food Network program “Chopped.” He was one of four contestants on a special Grandfather edition of the program- and although he didn’t win, he acquitted himself quite admirably …. not only with his fine cooking, but also with his good humor and graciousness. Gary is one of my favorite people and it is so fun to talk with him about this exciting experience. (The episode in question was taped way back in April, but it only aired the night before our interview- and Gary was contractually obligated not to tell anyone anything about what transpired or the results until the episode aired.) Gary’s brother-in-law came with him to the interview. He’s visiting from St. Louis, where he has done work for an NPR affiliate there. Great guy; it was fun to chat with him, and it meant a lot for him to be so complimentary afterwards.
10:30 a.m.- I run to Common Grounds, order a Chai Latte, and settle down for a long and helpful conversation with Scott Plank, the Fine Arts Coordinator for the Kenosha Unified School District. He has asked to meet with me about one of the most exciting commissions that has ever come my way- to write a piece of music to be used in the next Kenosha Unified Choral Festival in mid-February …. which involves roughly one thousand elementary, middle school and high school singers. This will be the 50th annual festival, which is what has prompted this special gesture. I’ve been to Choral Fest a number of times over the years to play for Polly’s choirs – and once in a while have played for other groups as well – but this will be the first time I have been involved in such a central way. I was quite nervous about this meeting because I worried that Scott was expecting me to present him with a finish piece today- or at least a rough draft- which I really wasn’t prepared to do. But no, he just wants to touch base – see how it was going- and talk through some important matters. We have a terrific time and he is excited about the direction I’m going with the piece. (I share some of the lyrics with him.) Giant WHEW!
11:40 a.m.- I run by Pacetti’s Music in downtown Kenosha to purchase a couple of copies of the Schirmer edition of Messiah. (My own score has gone missing- what a shock.) The dad of one of my former voice students, Sydney Rovik, is working behind the counter and it’s fun to catch up with him. Of course, me in a music store (pardon the terrible grammar) is like a kid in a candy store, and I end up spending around $90. Right before Christmas. Dumb.
12:00 p.m.- Former voice student Nick Huff and I have lunch at the Soup Depot. He is back in town after his first semester at Eastman and it feels great to catch up with him. In retrospect, I only regret that I did so much of the talking- but I’m excited to share with him some of our plans for the J-Term Opera, which he’s interested in hearing about, but it crowds out what would have been a nice chance to hear a million-and-one details about what he’s been doing at Eastman. Fortunately, he and I have kept in close contact so I know most of the big things that have gone on. Still, it’s so nice to be face to face again and I wish I had done a little less talking and a little more listening in our conversation.
1:10 p.m.- I’m back in the Recital Hall to coach Nick in the two arias he’ll sing Sunday night for Kenosha’s Sing Along Messiah. He is in glorious form. The biggest adjustment we make from last year is to take the recitative “Comfort ye, My People” a tad slower than last year. It will give us a few more moments to savor Nick’s beautiful tone and allow him to be still more expressive. I can tell already that he will be delivering a stunning performance. I could not be more excited.
3:00 p.m.- I give a voice lesson to Matt Burton. He’s one of a tiny handful of my voice students still around so late in the week because he’s an RA and has to help close up the dorms – so we delayed his lesson (he gets two a week) until now. He and his classmate Austin Merschdorf will be singing a sophomore recital (a relatively rare occurrence at Carthage) in mid-February, and it feels good to work our way through several of the Songs of Travel by Vaughan Williams that will be part of their program.
4:00 p.m. – As soon as I’m done with Matt, I welcome a brand new high school voice student and his mom to his first voice lesson. Curtis is a freshman at Westosha High School and singing there under Rob Clark, whose son Ryan was a voice student of mine many years ago. Curtis is talented and eager- what more could a voice teacher want?- and we spend almost all of our time working on improving Curtis’s breathing. This is something I often don’t take the time to address so thoroughly – I tend to get right into the singing- but for once I’m not rushing through these fundamentals and it feels great. As we get to the end, he seems excited to continue working with me. Yay.
5:50 p.m. – I swing by WGTD because of a nagging suspicion that I left that morning without recording my Morning Show promo for Monday. And it turns out that I’m right – an absent- minded professor moment if there ever was one. The trouble is that if the Monday promo doesn’t get newly recorded, then the old one for the previous Monday replays … and that’s bad. I’m glad I stopped by- and several people, unexpectedly are around- including my boss, Dave Cole, who I have barely seen all week. So it’s good to catch up.
6:20 p.m. – A supper of Ferraro’s Pizza with Kathy – the first time we have really conversed since she sleepily mumbled a couple of words to me 14 hours earlier as I first got out of bed.
8:00 p.m. – I take in a good portion of a concert called “Christmas in the Court of the Danish King,” presented by a brand new group in Racine called Belle Ensemble. It’s the brain child of a former voice student of mine, Nick Barootian – and he calls it a Musical Collective because different musicians will be involved in each of their concerts according to availability and interest- a little like my group of Chamber Singer alums which I call Musici Amici (“Musical Friends.”) The concert is ambitious but quite interesting- and I’m delighted to see such a large crowd there, and at the end they give Nick and his musicians a standing ovation. It’s thrilling to see Nick score such a resounding success.
9:15 p.m. – I get to the RTG to watch the last few minutes of our production of “Mary Poppins” – and it’s great to see the cast and crew getting stronger and stronger with each performance. And the sold-out audience goes absolutely crazy at the end! They love this show and this production. I connect with as many cast members as I can afterwards. When I ask young Christopher – our Michael Banks – how many more performances there are (I honestly don’t know for sure) he replies glumly “three shows in two days.” He has really loved doing this and he will be so sad to see this end …. although he adds cheerfully that now it will be a little easier for him to get his homework done.
10:30 p.m. – We head off to a small gathering with a few friends in a home that has been spectacularly decorated for Christmas. Lots of laughter. Lots of good stories. But I am running on fumes and spend a good portion of the time just quietly admiring the many Christmas trees in their home. There is something very settling and calming about doing that.
12:15 a.m. – Crawling into bed 20 hours after I climbed out of it. The movie “White Christmas” is playing quietly on the TV in the background. I am out like a light ….. tired but happy and grateful.