Today was filled with cupcakes and music as we jam-packed the entire purpose of this trip into roughly 8 hours of performance and rehearsal!
Having the entire morning free, small groups of us spent the time doing a variety of things. The two most popular were sight-seeing and venturing to Georgetown for cupcakes! (Half of WoCho made it into the White House while the other half hoped to get on TLC's "D.C. Cupcakes" by visiting the famous shop!) We were all back in time for our noon departure for the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, where the rehearsal and the concert were both being held.
Rehearsal went as smoothly as we could have hoped! Gwyneth Walker came near the beginning in order to run I Thank You God with us. She absolutely loved it, knowing it had been "perfectly interpreted" by Dr. Menk, since she had worked with her on the piece before. Her only wish for us was to get our heads out of our binders and really look up at the God we were thanking in the song. It was an interesting bit of advice, and definitely served to help our other pieces, as well. Even though we use binders while singing, they're more of a reinforcement at this stage of the game - we know our parts, and we know them well. We just strive for perfection, and using our music gives us the confidence in order to do that. That afternoon, we also rehearsed with the hired violinists for Mabel Daniel's The Voice of My Beloved. Dr. Menk spent a little extra time making sure they were spot on, since it was our first time practicing altogether. In the end, we barely had a two-hour rehearsal, feeling more than prepared for the evening's concert.
Most took advantage of the free afternoon in order to cool off in our air-conditioned hotel rooms and nap. (Temperatures were 100+ degrees every day of the trip!) After dressing and making sure we had eye patches and precious jewels, we loaded up the bus to head back over to the church. Our bus driver, Dave, wanted to be sure he got us there in plenty of time, so we were quite a bit early. It was nice to have some warmups and catch up with the people we hadn't been sitting near on the bus. Several family members, friends, and Saint Mary's alumnae were also able to attend the concert, so we were able to greet them, as well.
Our portion of the concert was absolutely beautiful. It was a pretty full crowd, and we knew we were in the presence of some very talented and gifted musicians and educators. (Which, of course, makes us all the more nervous!) However, we delivered a fine performance with few technical errors. Zae's Lyrical Limericks earned us plenty of laughter, while there were cheers for our pirate poses and choreography in Carol Barnett's Song of Perfect Propriety. We also enjoyed listening to the Washington D.C. Men's Camerata, who had an impressive program of 15 pieces!
As Dr. Menk had pointed out to us during rehearsal, we were doing not only an entirely American program, but we were also doing an entirely woman-run program. The choir, director, pianist, soloist, and even the violinists were all women. Although the symposium was focused on finding the "American sound", it was interesting for us to take that idea and look at it from the perspective of the woman composer and musician here in America.
For example, let's take the first half of our concert - the pieces from the turn of the 20th century. All of these women were born into musical families and started studying piano, voice, and other instruments at an early age. Some continued their studies abroad in Munich, or were taught in the U.S. by prominent musicians who had studied in Europe or with Europeans. As a result, these pieces do sound distinctly romantic or classical. While they are somewhat impressive for the time and context in which they were written in, there is a certain air of European influence about them. Patty Stair's Minuet follows a distinct form, while Margaret Lang's The Lonely Rose is thought to have been edited by her father, who studied piano under Franz Lizst. These women were also composing in a time where their gender worked against them. (Women didn't even have the right to vote at this time.) Lang, in particular, was so critical of her work, she destroyed many of her pieces, thus leaving them lost forever. They were forever trying to keep up with the men, held back by something completely out of their control. However, this would all change with the pieces from the turn of the 21st century.
Certainly, the pieces from the 21st century have a different feel and sound to them. Most obviously, working with Gwyneth Walker on her piece made for a truly powerful performance of one of our favorites. Libby Larson's Today, This Spring, is also powerful testament to the use of modern texts, as it contains words from the funeral of a commissioner's sister. Although simple at first sight, Larson's 2-part piece is actually fairly difficult thanks to plenty of irregular 7/8 rhythms and articulation challenges. (Certainly not something we saw in our formulated 20th century counterparts!) Using Zae's original limericks were also a real treat - when else would we ever get to sing about Harry Potter in a song?! If anything, it definitely marks the passage of time between the pieces. Joan Szymko's The Beauty of Your Dreams may be a "cheesier" text to Dr. Menk, but Eleanor Roosevelt's words speak strongly to all of us. It was a nice tie-in to our American theme by using words from a truly inspiring American woman. The Song of Perfect Propriety by Carol Barnett was another favorite of ours. Wearing pirate patches and getting to goof off is definitely not a usual thing we get to do, but it's also a bit ironic; here we are, performing a piece in the 21st century about breaking out of the "norms" women fell under in the 20th century. It must have been how the composers of our earlier pieces felt, with the restrictions they faced as musicians because of their gender. It definitely brought our program full-circle, and was a "perfect" ending to the year we've spent with this music. As we discovered, while the music has of course changed throughout the years, so has the subject material. The American ideal of "freedom" has helped evolve and shape its music today.
We had the pleasure of listening to the Washington D.C. Men's Camerata after our portion of the concert. Hearing the men's choir reminded us very much of our favorite Glee Club guys across the street at the University of Notre Dame! Before we performed, one of them came up to our group and said, "Oh, you're from Saint Mary's? Tell your president she still has some of my clothes!" We were all shocked and very confused after this statement, but he cleared it up for us afterward - apparently, he went to ND Law with SMC President Carol Ann Mooney, and she borrowed a Japanese robe and slippers from him for a class project. She never returned them, and as they were a gift from the Japanese military, he was a little attached to them. We laughed at the whole situation, and enjoyed the random connection we shared with this group! Once their program was over, we met with several audience members, including two Saint Mary's alumnae who attended the concert. It was great to know we had the support of our school, as well as family and friends who made it out to see us!
After leaving the church, the choir decided to head out to a restaurant to celebrate our success and enjoy one another's company. However, a terrible storm, (now being called the equivalent of a category 1 hurricane,) delayed us for quite awhile. The D.C. area was hit hard, and unfortunately there were several deaths and much destruction as a result. Feeling confident because of their umbrellas, Dr. T and Dr. Menk led the way during a lull in the storm. Fortunately, none of us were affected by it, and our hotel maintained power. All of us celebrated the end of our long musical journey with food and drink, but had an early night in order to be up for our D.C. tour the next day!
If you made it this far, thanks for reading this exceptionally long post! We hope it puts into light the purpose of this seemingly random journey we've been taking!
Having the entire morning free, small groups of us spent the time doing a variety of things. The two most popular were sight-seeing and venturing to Georgetown for cupcakes! (Half of WoCho made it into the White House while the other half hoped to get on TLC's "D.C. Cupcakes" by visiting the famous shop!) We were all back in time for our noon departure for the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, where the rehearsal and the concert were both being held.
Rehearsal went as smoothly as we could have hoped! Gwyneth Walker came near the beginning in order to run I Thank You God with us. She absolutely loved it, knowing it had been "perfectly interpreted" by Dr. Menk, since she had worked with her on the piece before. Her only wish for us was to get our heads out of our binders and really look up at the God we were thanking in the song. It was an interesting bit of advice, and definitely served to help our other pieces, as well. Even though we use binders while singing, they're more of a reinforcement at this stage of the game - we know our parts, and we know them well. We just strive for perfection, and using our music gives us the confidence in order to do that. That afternoon, we also rehearsed with the hired violinists for Mabel Daniel's The Voice of My Beloved. Dr. Menk spent a little extra time making sure they were spot on, since it was our first time practicing altogether. In the end, we barely had a two-hour rehearsal, feeling more than prepared for the evening's concert.
Most took advantage of the free afternoon in order to cool off in our air-conditioned hotel rooms and nap. (Temperatures were 100+ degrees every day of the trip!) After dressing and making sure we had eye patches and precious jewels, we loaded up the bus to head back over to the church. Our bus driver, Dave, wanted to be sure he got us there in plenty of time, so we were quite a bit early. It was nice to have some warmups and catch up with the people we hadn't been sitting near on the bus. Several family members, friends, and Saint Mary's alumnae were also able to attend the concert, so we were able to greet them, as well.
Our portion of the concert was absolutely beautiful. It was a pretty full crowd, and we knew we were in the presence of some very talented and gifted musicians and educators. (Which, of course, makes us all the more nervous!) However, we delivered a fine performance with few technical errors. Zae's Lyrical Limericks earned us plenty of laughter, while there were cheers for our pirate poses and choreography in Carol Barnett's Song of Perfect Propriety. We also enjoyed listening to the Washington D.C. Men's Camerata, who had an impressive program of 15 pieces!
As Dr. Menk had pointed out to us during rehearsal, we were doing not only an entirely American program, but we were also doing an entirely woman-run program. The choir, director, pianist, soloist, and even the violinists were all women. Although the symposium was focused on finding the "American sound", it was interesting for us to take that idea and look at it from the perspective of the woman composer and musician here in America.
For example, let's take the first half of our concert - the pieces from the turn of the 20th century. All of these women were born into musical families and started studying piano, voice, and other instruments at an early age. Some continued their studies abroad in Munich, or were taught in the U.S. by prominent musicians who had studied in Europe or with Europeans. As a result, these pieces do sound distinctly romantic or classical. While they are somewhat impressive for the time and context in which they were written in, there is a certain air of European influence about them. Patty Stair's Minuet follows a distinct form, while Margaret Lang's The Lonely Rose is thought to have been edited by her father, who studied piano under Franz Lizst. These women were also composing in a time where their gender worked against them. (Women didn't even have the right to vote at this time.) Lang, in particular, was so critical of her work, she destroyed many of her pieces, thus leaving them lost forever. They were forever trying to keep up with the men, held back by something completely out of their control. However, this would all change with the pieces from the turn of the 21st century.
Certainly, the pieces from the 21st century have a different feel and sound to them. Most obviously, working with Gwyneth Walker on her piece made for a truly powerful performance of one of our favorites. Libby Larson's Today, This Spring, is also powerful testament to the use of modern texts, as it contains words from the funeral of a commissioner's sister. Although simple at first sight, Larson's 2-part piece is actually fairly difficult thanks to plenty of irregular 7/8 rhythms and articulation challenges. (Certainly not something we saw in our formulated 20th century counterparts!) Using Zae's original limericks were also a real treat - when else would we ever get to sing about Harry Potter in a song?! If anything, it definitely marks the passage of time between the pieces. Joan Szymko's The Beauty of Your Dreams may be a "cheesier" text to Dr. Menk, but Eleanor Roosevelt's words speak strongly to all of us. It was a nice tie-in to our American theme by using words from a truly inspiring American woman. The Song of Perfect Propriety by Carol Barnett was another favorite of ours. Wearing pirate patches and getting to goof off is definitely not a usual thing we get to do, but it's also a bit ironic; here we are, performing a piece in the 21st century about breaking out of the "norms" women fell under in the 20th century. It must have been how the composers of our earlier pieces felt, with the restrictions they faced as musicians because of their gender. It definitely brought our program full-circle, and was a "perfect" ending to the year we've spent with this music. As we discovered, while the music has of course changed throughout the years, so has the subject material. The American ideal of "freedom" has helped evolve and shape its music today.
We had the pleasure of listening to the Washington D.C. Men's Camerata after our portion of the concert. Hearing the men's choir reminded us very much of our favorite Glee Club guys across the street at the University of Notre Dame! Before we performed, one of them came up to our group and said, "Oh, you're from Saint Mary's? Tell your president she still has some of my clothes!" We were all shocked and very confused after this statement, but he cleared it up for us afterward - apparently, he went to ND Law with SMC President Carol Ann Mooney, and she borrowed a Japanese robe and slippers from him for a class project. She never returned them, and as they were a gift from the Japanese military, he was a little attached to them. We laughed at the whole situation, and enjoyed the random connection we shared with this group! Once their program was over, we met with several audience members, including two Saint Mary's alumnae who attended the concert. It was great to know we had the support of our school, as well as family and friends who made it out to see us!
After leaving the church, the choir decided to head out to a restaurant to celebrate our success and enjoy one another's company. However, a terrible storm, (now being called the equivalent of a category 1 hurricane,) delayed us for quite awhile. The D.C. area was hit hard, and unfortunately there were several deaths and much destruction as a result. Feeling confident because of their umbrellas, Dr. T and Dr. Menk led the way during a lull in the storm. Fortunately, none of us were affected by it, and our hotel maintained power. All of us celebrated the end of our long musical journey with food and drink, but had an early night in order to be up for our D.C. tour the next day!
If you made it this far, thanks for reading this exceptionally long post! We hope it puts into light the purpose of this seemingly random journey we've been taking!
Good evening, one and all!
After an 11-hour bus ride, we have all arrived safe and sound in Washington D.C.! The drive was terribly uneventful, but we found plenty of ways to keep ourselves interested owing to the fact that our (6 day old!) bus had outlets and free wifi! Here are some of our favorites:
1. SLEEPING. (It was an 8am departure, after all!)
2. Watching movies. We saw Up, The Princess Bride, and Legally Blonde.
3. Playing "DrawSomething!" between each other on our smartphones.
4. Surfing Youtube and updating Facebook.
5. Buying Dairy Queen at the Pennsylvania rest stop to help beat the 100+ degree weather.
Once we were in the city, the bus driver pointed out some sights to us, including the Kennedy Center, the Washington Monument, and even the White House!
Our hotel is right off of DuPont Circle, which gave us plenty of great options for dinner tonight. Dr. Menk warned us to stay in large groups, which was no problem for us! Each group did their own thing, but most of us were back and just hanging out in our rooms for the night - it was a long ride, and we have another long day of rehearsing and performing tomorrow!
As a side note, we're also interested to see how the area is going to be affected by the Supreme Court ruling issued today upholding "Obamacare". Riots in the city, anyone? Perhaps, but we're not worried; there are more important things to be done! At this time tomorrow, our concert will be over - how crazy is that?!
Here's to a good night's sleep and beautiful singing for the 'morrow!
After an 11-hour bus ride, we have all arrived safe and sound in Washington D.C.! The drive was terribly uneventful, but we found plenty of ways to keep ourselves interested owing to the fact that our (6 day old!) bus had outlets and free wifi! Here are some of our favorites:
1. SLEEPING. (It was an 8am departure, after all!)
2. Watching movies. We saw Up, The Princess Bride, and Legally Blonde.
3. Playing "DrawSomething!" between each other on our smartphones.
4. Surfing Youtube and updating Facebook.
5. Buying Dairy Queen at the Pennsylvania rest stop to help beat the 100+ degree weather.
Once we were in the city, the bus driver pointed out some sights to us, including the Kennedy Center, the Washington Monument, and even the White House!
Our hotel is right off of DuPont Circle, which gave us plenty of great options for dinner tonight. Dr. Menk warned us to stay in large groups, which was no problem for us! Each group did their own thing, but most of us were back and just hanging out in our rooms for the night - it was a long ride, and we have another long day of rehearsing and performing tomorrow!
As a side note, we're also interested to see how the area is going to be affected by the Supreme Court ruling issued today upholding "Obamacare". Riots in the city, anyone? Perhaps, but we're not worried; there are more important things to be done! At this time tomorrow, our concert will be over - how crazy is that?!
Here's to a good night's sleep and beautiful singing for the 'morrow!
What's that you hear? WoCho girls in the dorms? Singing in the Music Seminar Room...IN JUNE?!
Yes, you heard right! We're back in full volume! It's been over a year since our China trip, and while it will always live on in our hearts, we've had a new school year with a new, larger choir. (And we're better than ever!)
At the end of last school year, Dr. Menk announced that we were chosen to sing for the ACDA National Symposium on American Choral Music being held in Washington D.C. Only one Women's Choir was invited from the entire country, and we were it! This conference is promoting the "Search for an American Sound". To highlight this, we've chosen to do five pieces by women composers from the turn of the 20th century, and five pieces by women composers from the turn of the 21st century. It's incredible the difference 100 years can make, and we're hoping our concert will spark some discussion and debate as to what it took to discover this "American sound"!
We came back to Saint Mary's today to rehearse, and are leaving bright and early at 8am tomorrow for our 12 hour bus ride! (If we can survive 13 hours on an airplane to China, we can survive this!) The concert, free and open to the public, is this Friday evening at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. One of our "contemporary" composers, Gwyneth Walker, will help us rehearse our piece and will also attend the concert!
Here is the list of our repertoire:
Women of the turn of the 20th Century
The Voice of My Beloved (1911) - Mabel Wheeler Daniels
The Lonely Rose (1906) - Margaret Ruthven Lang (Featuring soloist, Dr. T!)
Minuet (1903) - Patty Stair
Ojalá (1907) - Patty Stair
Ol' Marse Winter (1914) - Gena Branscombe
Women of the turn of the 21st Century
I Thank You God (1998) - Gwyneth Walker
Today, This Spring (1995) - Libby Larsen (Who will be at the conference the following day.)
Lyrical Limericks (2010) - Zae Munn (SMC's very own Theory and Composition professor!)
The Beauty of Your Dreams (2004) - Joan Szymko
Song of Perfect Propriety (2006) - Carol Barnett
Needless to say, we're all very excited to perform these pieces, and also to welcome accompanist Sherry Klinedinst along for the ride!
4th Floor Regina's buzzing with the sound of restless WoCho girls - time for some catching up and to harass people for our bed linens...
Goodnight!
Yes, you heard right! We're back in full volume! It's been over a year since our China trip, and while it will always live on in our hearts, we've had a new school year with a new, larger choir. (And we're better than ever!)
At the end of last school year, Dr. Menk announced that we were chosen to sing for the ACDA National Symposium on American Choral Music being held in Washington D.C. Only one Women's Choir was invited from the entire country, and we were it! This conference is promoting the "Search for an American Sound". To highlight this, we've chosen to do five pieces by women composers from the turn of the 20th century, and five pieces by women composers from the turn of the 21st century. It's incredible the difference 100 years can make, and we're hoping our concert will spark some discussion and debate as to what it took to discover this "American sound"!
We came back to Saint Mary's today to rehearse, and are leaving bright and early at 8am tomorrow for our 12 hour bus ride! (If we can survive 13 hours on an airplane to China, we can survive this!) The concert, free and open to the public, is this Friday evening at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. One of our "contemporary" composers, Gwyneth Walker, will help us rehearse our piece and will also attend the concert!
Here is the list of our repertoire:
The Voice of My Beloved (1911) - Mabel Wheeler Daniels
The Lonely Rose (1906) - Margaret Ruthven Lang (Featuring soloist, Dr. T!)
Minuet (1903) - Patty Stair
Ojalá (1907) - Patty Stair
Ol' Marse Winter (1914) - Gena Branscombe
Women of the turn of the 21st Century
I Thank You God (1998) - Gwyneth Walker
Today, This Spring (1995) - Libby Larsen (Who will be at the conference the following day.)
Lyrical Limericks (2010) - Zae Munn (SMC's very own Theory and Composition professor!)
The Beauty of Your Dreams (2004) - Joan Szymko
Song of Perfect Propriety (2006) - Carol Barnett
Needless to say, we're all very excited to perform these pieces, and also to welcome accompanist Sherry Klinedinst along for the ride!
4th Floor Regina's buzzing with the sound of restless WoCho girls - time for some catching up and to harass people for our bed linens...
Goodnight!
