Color Madrigals, Vol. 2

I had a blast last night at the world premiere of Color Madrigals, vol. 2 with Vicki Peters and the Summer Singers. The 2-movement work is the second in a series of 3 "volumes" of madrigals that use texts by John Keats. The final pair will be premiered by The Singers: MN Choral Artists next January and you can read about the previous volume here. As it stands now there are 4 movements completed:

Serpents in Red Roses Hissing
A Grass-Green Pillow
Purple-Stained Mouth
Yellow Brooms and Cold Mushrooms

We'll see where the next 2 fit in. The pair that the Summer Singers tackled were the yellow and purple pieces which were perfect for the ensemble because they love to have a good time (the texts have to do with being drunk). Here they are throwing some sweet sounds down on the audience:













It turns out that I wasn't the only composer in attendance. They performed a great rendition of Robert Berglund's I Will Praise Thee, O Lord. He is the heavy hitter in the MN choral scene who founded the Minnesota Chorale in 1972 (they serve as the Minnesota Orchestra's choir-in-residence for those of you who didn't know...and they're really good). He was a super nice guy and we chatted about this-and-that before snapping this picture with Maestra Vicki Peters (who is also super nice).

















This choir loves to have a good time and this concert was no exception. They had a great party afterwards where they presented me with this awesome cake: the first time since my high school graduation that I've had my name on a one!

Printed on the left side of the cake was a reproduction of their concert poster. Look at the detail on this thing! How do they make cake frosting do that? It seems like it wouldn't be edible...but it is...and it's delicious.

Speaking of said concert poster, they all signed one for me.


















By far the coolest gift was personalized wine from Stillwater, Minnesota's Northern Vineyard. If you look under the title you'll see they've printed the names of the pieces along with "Keats/Shank". Booze with my name on it? How many times is that gonna happen in my life! Way cool!













They're performing the concert 2 more times and recording it as well. Hopefully they will give great gifts like these every time they perform them! I'm holding out for personalized fine Irish whiskey...

I was able to bring along an old college friend to the premiere and, after the party we went to one of my favorite restaurants in the Twin Cities, Ingredients. I had the lemon caper chicken penne. It was amazing.