My host, Stella, took me out to an amazing sushi restaurant in the upper east side called Oki Sushi. We started with this awesome miso soup.
I had this enormous plate of eel, salmon and tuna that was over-the-top good. Words seriously can't describe...
Stella opted for a similar plate but got the "Jekyll & Hyde Rolls" instead. That's mango draped over the top on the left. As 2 devoted food-swappers we traded and I can say for sure that these were crazy-delicious as well.
After dinner we headed down to 80th & Lexington for the rehearsal. Here's the YNYC with music director Michael Kerschner conducting at the podium.
After rehearsal we hit the local barbecue joint, Jimmy's. Due to the fact that I was still really full on sushi all I had was this bowl of mac and cheese. As a connoisseur of this dish (I love everything from the eponymous Easy Mac to the gourmet-style mac and cheese from Axel's Bonfire Grill) I will just say that this was less-than-perfect. But it still looks good.
Stella and her boyfriend, Dave, have a Nintendo Wii. For those of you who don't know anything about these things, you have NO idea what you're missing. I'm not a fan of video games but this was the most fun I've had since the old-school Nintendo from back-in-the-day. The thing that makes the Wii different from any other gaming system out there is that it is a physical workout to play. You hold the controller in one hand and, during a game of bowling, you hold the button down and swing your arm just like in an actual game. Dave and I played against each other in an epic one-sided match (he kicked the living crap out of me: see picture below).
The other cool thing about the Wii is that you create your own character (your "Mii") to play in the Wii Sports game. Here's mine:
That's right, folks. I knocked over 86 pins in one throw! It's SERIOUSLY addictive. Stella and Dave may have just cost me $250...
Speaking of Stella and Dave: here they are. She sings alto in the choir and works at a downtown ad agency for pharmaceutical drugs. She's also a mean crossword enthusiast and has had one of hers published in the New York Times. Dave works for a hedge-fund in Connecticut and plays a ruthless game of Wii Sports.
The other 2 composers in the competition both just got their doctorates from UNT. From left to right are Dan Nass, Jonathan Kolm and some bald dude from Minnesota.
Dan wrote a great work in the Anishinabe language called Inaabid. The whole piece was fearlessly made up of a 1-sentence statement: "You will never destroy the dream that I have dreamed." It was awesome...really great. Since he was celebrating his upcoming 10th anniversary I got a chance to meet his super-fun wife, Gina, as well. Jonathan took this great Walt Whitman text and crafted an impeccable vocal tone poem called On the Beach at Night around it. They are both really great guys and their future is going to be bright. They made me feel totally stupid with their intellect and knowledge of our craft (my choices of the ubiquitous top 5 favorite pieces were SIGNIFICANTLY less smart than theirs).
After the concert we had the honor of drawing raffle tickets for the audience. Here's Jonathan's turn.
Now he makes a point.
With conductor Michael Kerschner.
I seriously can't say enough how impressive the sound of the choir was. For the Young New Yorkers' Chorus they sounded pretty mature to me. It was one of the few times that, as a member of an audience, I have been struck by the freedom of tone the choir had. The performance of each piece was spot-on perfect with first-rate tone. Michael's sensitivity to phrasing is a rare talent, I think. His reading of Frank Ticheli's There Will Be Rest made it into a seamless, Renaissance motet. Just breathtaking...
During the after-concert celebration this little dog walked by. His name was Lewis. Huh? Oh, that's Cynthia's dog. I think it's a Pomeranian. I can't leave him home alone or he eats the furniture. I'm watching him while Cynthia and Marty Ackerman are in Hawaii.
No comments:
Post a Comment