Dad, David, Ari, and I got to go because we pretended to be ushers. But... a picture is worth a thousand words. So I'll let them speak for themselves.
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| I don't know how to flip this around. |
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| The "Red Ferrari" of the organs. |
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| And a whole lot of pipes. |
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| I love this picture. Dramatic David in the Argyle. Oh... and Mom too. ;) |
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| I'm sad it's blurry, but there was an awesome little compartment. So I went in. |
It was the Southern Nevada Musical Arts Singers, the smaller group of the Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society (which I joined this season)--Dr. Doug Peterson, the conductor, keeps inviting me to sing with the singers group. I keep telling him my heart is willing, but my calendar is full. At their concert on Feb 11 the program included Haydn's "Missa Brevis"--or "Little Organ Mass". They were singing it in the Doc Rando Hall on UNLV which houses one of the best organs in the area (if not THE best), it's fairly new. So they got thinking it was sad to be singing "The Little Organ Mass" in "the shadow" of this fine instrument and not use it. Someone reminded Dr. Doug that I play the organ--he frequently mentions something about me and organ in the large choir rehearsals (you would be surprised how often it "comes up" somehow). Anyway, he asked me if I could play the organ on the "Benedictus" movement that features an organ and soprano solo. Haydn wrote it for strings and organ--the accompaniment they used otherwise was a piano reduction score--and that's what I got to play from--a piano reduction score that I got to figure out what was supposed to be organ and what strings, etc. Bless YouTube!!! I even found a version of just an organ and the soprano singing--that REALLY helped. I had exactly 1 time to practice with the organ and the soprano--the Thursday before. I thought I'd have some time with the organ to myself a bit first, but no--my first time touching the organ, other than figuring out how to turn it on, was with the soprano singing along. I did get a bit to myself after the soprano went back to the other choir rehearsal. Then I went early on Sunday afternoon before the rehearsal prior to the performance. We had one time to run through it so I knew where it fit into the mass and how the choir comes in at the end and then . . . POOF! The performance. It could have gone better--but it could have gone a WHOLE LOT WORSE! It was a stretch for me to do something like this, but I figured I needed to do it--because if one of my kids had an opportunity like this you KNOW I would have made THEM do it! I did have the family bring a video camera, made sure it was charged up and had tape . . . but then David filmed it, so . . . you miss the first part--which is the main organ solo--and you get seasick through the rest. I'm hoping I can get a better copy of the performance. Oh, and the "Red Ferrari" comment is in reference to what Richard Elliot (one of the Tabernacle Organists) said when he was asked what he thought of this organ when he was here doing one of the first concerts on it (which I attended). He was asked to compare it to the Tabernacle or Conference Center organ(s). He said that the Tabernacle organ is like cruising down the freeway in a Cadillac (or some such luxury car--I'm not sure if that is the exact one he said) and playing this organ is like racing around the streets in a Red Ferrari. I will admit that on Sunday, when I had a few minutes with no one really around I ROCKED it on full organ. Fun stuff. Anyway. That is (as Paul Harvey would say) . . .the rest of the story.
ReplyDeleteWay cool! I love the pics!
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