St. Martin’s Chamber Choir hosts a series of creative “feasts” – events – with the purpose of supporting the choir financially – and one of these is happening this Saturday evening at the beautiful home of Jack Finlaw and Greg Movesian – longtime supporters of St. Martin’s, and Greg a former president of the board (Jack was also Director of Theatres and Arenas in the Hickenlooper mayoral administration). They live at Upway, a house adjacent to the Denver Botanical Gardens, and it is incredibly generous of them to offer this event at their gorgeous Congress Park home. The event includes dinner and drinks in their house and garden (weather permitting), and if you are interested in a beautiful evening in a magnificent home in excellent company, with proceeds benefitting your favorite Denver choir (J), please contact Steve Grupe at (303) 298-1970 or steve@StMartinsChamberChoir.org for details and tickets. I’ll be there, and I’d love to see you there, too!
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St. Martin’s’ last rehearsal was incredible! There are times when the choir makes a huge leap forward for some unknown (to me) reason, and it happened this week. Since the choir is made up of good sight-readers, even difficult pieces often sound pretty good on the first read-through; but then they seem to labor along at that level for a couple rehearsals in a row, and one wonders what to do or say to make them better (one tends to feel like a charlatan at those times…). But then there’s a moment when each piece begins to gel, to coalesce, to take on a shared interpretation among all the singers and me. It’s my favorite moment in the rehearsal process. For some pieces it happens in the first rehearsal, and others it’s not until the last (I suppose one could argue that we’ve even performed pieces in the past that have not yet achieved it, sad to say!). And it happened this week with the two most difficult pieces in the concert. A week ago we were still struggling to feel everything together (partly my fault, partly the singers’); but this week I lifted my arms, and WOW! We were making exquisite music from first to last.
And I think this might be the best concert of the season from this point of view, if this rehearsal was any indication: a smörgåsbord variety of interesting pieces performed with exquisite ensemble and poignancy.
Get tickets now, before word gets out! 😉
· Fri., June 3, 7:30pm, Montview Blvd. Presbyterian Church, Park Hill
· Sun., June 5, 3:00pm, St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church, Cherry Hills Village
(303) 298-1970; or online.
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