Royal Fireworks

Crossley Hawn, soprano

Before any royal wedding was announced for Spring 2011, the Spring Concert - Sunday, May 1 at 4:00pm - on the St. Louis Church Concert Series was designated, Royal Fireworks. The performance will feature Music of England, soprano Crossley Hawn, and pianist Su-Young Nam with myself as the conductor of the St. Louis Concert Orchestra.

Su-Young Nam, piano

What's in a name?
The title of the concert comes from the 1749 piece Music for the Royal Fireworks of George Frederic Handel which includes the now-famous movement, La Réjouissance, played here with actual fireworks.


Concerto Competition
On February 20, 2011 we held the first-ever High School Concerto Competition. It was open to all high school students able to be at St. Louis on the day of competition. Four students from four different area high schools took part in the event - each with stellar performances on piano (two), flute, and double-bass. In the end, the judges unanimously chose pianist Su-Young Nam as the winner, so she will play her concerto, the first movement (Allegro) of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17 in G-Major (K.453) at the concert.

Lovely limpid colors with good harmony and musical intelligence
So writes a reviewer here after soprano Crossley Hawn's performances in Umbria, Italy. I look forward to welcoming her to St. Louis for the first time for this performance.

As always, the concert is free and no tickets are required. Please bring your family and friends to this performance and stay for the reception that will follow in the Social Hall.

Milwaukee bound

It was great to come home to Maryland to this Baltimore Sun article about the Baltimore Symphony, reaching new audiences, and about interacting with current audiences in new ways. I returned from a few days in Milwaukee (March 27-30) at the MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) National Conference. At first it may seem an odd choice of conference as I do not currently teach private music students in the traditional sense and I am no longer teaching regularly in high school. Instead, it was the perfect place to go for two reasons. First, MTNA has named this past year the Year of Collaborative Music - an opportunity for all of us to take a new look at possible musical or other music-inclusive collaborations. Second, there was a distinct theme at the conference - ideas for working with and communicating among non-musicians. As a church musician I constantly have opportunities to assemble a variety of people - singers/instrumentalists, musicians/non-musicians - together to make music.

In addition to concerts and masterclasses - of special note, a great concert featuring Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano and Warren Jones, piano - I'm listing some topics of interest below.

Music Transcends Middle East Conflict - Presentation highlighting current efforts to promote cultural understanding through music, specifically US relations in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Palestinian Territories.

Performance Medicine - New technology combining neuroscience with music pedagogy to fix and prevent performance related injury.

Recreational Music Making - Movement toward opening musical possibilities for all. This series of sessions has particular importance to me as I constantly hear from people that "someone told me I shouldn't sing" or "this person said I'm no good at piano, so I stopped when I was 8 years old". The Recreational Music Making sessions at the conference showed many great examples of adults regaining a love of music through playing or singing that they thought was previously unavailable to them.

Sight-Reading - Developing visual skills (peripheral vision, tracking, pattern recognition, and short-term memory as a means of better sight-reading.

Ultimate Music Theory - A new and extremely well-designed source for learning rudiments of music theory whether your goal is to read better for a choir or instrumental setting or whether you intend to pursue music as your career (Advanced Placement Music Theory Exam, College Entrance Exam, etc).

In the weeks ahead, I look forward to developing and incorporating some of the ideas of the conference - into daily use at St. Louis. Did someone tell you not to sing or play? Please tell me the story.

Koinonia Academy Choir visits St. Louis

On Saturday, April 2 the 80-member Concert Choir of Koinonia Academy (Plainfield, New Jersey) will visit St. Louis as part of their Spring Tour. They will sing for Mass at 5:30pm. A choral concert will follow at 7:30pm.

Koinonia Academy Concert Choir
Thomas J. Appert - Choir Director
Susan A. Minogue - Pianist

Singing in the Summer 2011

Saxony-Anhalt Brass Quintet

On Saturday, January 8, 2011 the Saxony-Anhalt Brass Quintet presented a wonderful evening performance at St. Louis. The quintet started their US tour at St. Louis, continued through churches in Howard County, and ended their tour at the Kennedy Center in Washington. The group consisted of Zsolt Nagy-Major, trumpet (Nordharzer Städtebundtheater); Bernd Scheide, trumpet (Nordharzer Städtebundtheater); Ralf Ludwig, horn (Staatskapelle Weimar); Edgar Meinke, trombone (Nordharzer Städtebundtheater); and Bruno Uetz, tuba (Nordharzer Städtebundtheater).

At St. Louis the group premiered a piece composed by parishioner Vincent Gover, a 2010 River Hill High School graduate and current student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. His piece, Childhood Scenes, has been published in Germany. View the SMU article here.

Germany.info article

Ellicott City Patch article

Special thanks to Richard McCready - local musician and teacher at River Hill High School - for coordinating the brass performances during the tour.

Taizé Ensemble

On the first Wednesday of each month - in addition to the regular weekly Sunday Eucharistic Adoration in the chapel - there is Eucharistic Adoration with Taizé Music in the church. The group contains several singers plus a few different instruments each month such as flute and cello. This ensemble at St. Louis is unique because - though small - it has members representing both the St. Louis Choir and Contemporary Group as well as those who sing solely with the Taizé Ensemble. New singers and instrumentalists are always welcome! The only monthly rehearsal occurs one hour before adoration.

First Reconciliation

With the festivities of the Advent and Christmas seasons behind us, I hope to catch up a bit on blog postings this week. On November 30, 2010 St. Louis Parish celebrated First Reconciliation. The singing was led by three 7th grade students from St. Louis School - each of whom has a sibling in the 2nd grade class.