up nort yah-hey

Last Thursday I traveled up to Fargo, North Dakota with the Singers to perform for the North Central ACDA Division convention on the campus of North Dakota State University. The only time I've ever been that far north was when I went to Fargo's sister city (Moorhead, MN) to attend the Rene Clausen Choral School (which I highly recommend). It was cold.

And the scenery was beautiful...













This was taken over and hour later. The drive is all like this. It's a straight, 4-hour burn up I-94 and there is nothing to look at.













Here's a change of scenery.













We left the Cities at 7:30am for our 4:30 curtain call. The Singers were asked by the national ACDA office to perform the premiere of the Raymond W. Brock Commission for this year. In the past 17 years, ACDA has commissioned some pretty amazing composers (Gian Carlo Menotti, Z. Randall Stroope, Samuel Adler, Morten Lauridsen, Rene Clausen are a few that I love and they've commissioned Dominick Argento for their 50th anniversary in 2009) and this year they chose Canadian, Eleanor Daley. She took a text by Madeline Bridges and wrote a piece called Life's Mirror for mixed choir, piano and oboe.

For the curious choral nerds out there, The Singers performed the following:
Sing Joyfully (William Byrd)
Coelos Ascendit Hodie (Charles Villers Stanford)
Carmina mei Cordis (Abbie Betinis)
1. Aeterna lux, divinitas
2. Angele Dei
Life's Mirror (Eleanor Daley)
Trois chansons de Charles d'Oleans (Claude Debussy)
1. Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder
2. Quant j'ay ouy le tabourin
3. Yver, vous n'estes qu'un villain
Wanting Memories (Ysaye Barnwell)

In the rehearsal space at NDSU.













The performances took place in the Stern Music Wing. I've never been to NDSU before but I'm told the students will oftentimes gather in the Laid-Back Memorial Union.













Fellow composers Abbie Betinis and J. David Moore set up a booth and exhibited some of their wares. Both of these cats teach me daily about being an artist/vendor and I totally need to do this at some point (hopefully with them to split the cost). Fellow Singers Composer-in-Residence Jocelyn Hagen had one for Graphite Publishing as well but I didn't get a picture of it.













The only downside was that the exhibition hall was in this place. (Insert joke here.)













Seriously, the naming committee for this college just can't catch a break. First the Stern Music Wing then this. Next up: the Bharph family of Ohio donates 3.2 million for a gourmet cafeteria.

Here, JDM shows what a large sum of money looks like to a professional artist. Yep, those are ones, folks. If anyone is considering getting rich by being a composer just look at your future.













That being said it's a happy future, despite the psycho peepers look on JDM's face, because you get to mine your imagination on a regular basis.

Also in the Butte Lounge is a semi-life size statue of NDSU's mascot, the Bison. You can't really see it in the picture (unless you click to make it larger) but this thing actually has little iPod earbuds coming from its fake mp3 player (along with its enormous hemp necklace).

The Fargo-Moorhead Curling Club. The moment I made fun of this institution one of our basses turned around and schooled me on curling. I trust his judgement and, apparently, curling is an extremely athletic sport. You be the judge.

Alto Mindy Mennicke. She and I didn't know each other until we both performed with the Singers but, apparently, we go way back. We both graduated from Faribault High School (10 years apart) and went to Luther College (10 years apart). I was also in an area community theatre production of Oliver! with her dad, Hub. Welcome to Minnesota, folks.

Soprano Liz Gullick. We attended Luther College together and, aside from the 2003-2004 concert season, we've performed together every year since 1999. I sang her wedding last fall and fully intend on writing a solo for her voice at some point. She's the best.

I've blogged about The Singers often but one thing I've never said is how grateful I am to have been a member of this choir since its founding in 2004. My life as a composer and teacher is enriched every time I set foot into that rehearsal room because of the repertoire we tackle. It's like eating a gourmet dinner once a week (Poulenc, Bach, Howells, Paulus, Argento, Britten, Pärt, Mendelssohn...not to mention all the languages I've had to learn). It's definitely not easy cooking but, if you do it right, it's nutritious and delicious at the same time. Mahalo.