where do the weekends go? – volume two

i’m starting to feel rather unoriginal in my titles these days. my posts, too, for that matter. so much about the wedding and details pertaining to that, and about time flying and feeling like “it” won’t all get done. hopefully this post will be different enough that it will keep your attention.

this weekend i had another opportunity to sing with cantate, a group with which i have sung for nearly four years now. the group is on the smaller side, and i like it because it is not a requirement that you sing in every concert. with the exception of some christmas-season concerts, i have sung almost every concert they have done for the past four years. it’s a nice musical outlet, even though i sometimes wonder how i got in. many of the people in this group are highly trained and also sing in the chicago symphony chorus, the apollo chorus of chicago, or bella voce. i am not one of those people, but i appreciate the experience it gives me. my sight-singing skills have greatly improved, and i have been given the chance to sing very challenging music that i might not have sung otherwise.

this past weekend, cantate was invited to sing two concerts of bradley ellingboe’s requiem, conducted by the composer himself. in addition to the requiem, we also performed psalm 67 by charles ives and a double-choir motet titled unsere fäter by johannes brahms. friday’s concert took place at the prairie lakes community center in des plaines, and we were accompanied by the prairie lakes youth symphony. natalie, my musical partner in crime friend who sits next to me, and i enjoyed watching the littlest trumpet player ever attempt to do his thing. he didn’t have many opportunities to play but, boy, was he good at counting rests. well, most of the time.

saturday morning we had a rehearsal for the sunday matinee, which found us at st. luke lutheran church in chicago, where we were accompanied by the chicago arts orchestra and joined in the chorus by the concordia university kapelle.

the rehearsal was slated to last from 9:30 to noon, but went a little longer, so i ran home afterward to wrap a gift and change my clothes for natalie’s bridal shower, which was at 2. the shower was fun and gave me a chance to prepare myself mentally for being in that same situation three weeks from now: sitting in front of a large group of women, opening gifts and thanking everyone for their generosity, and hoping i don’t drop anything breakable!

sunday was another full day, starting with an early arrival at church in order to rehearse a duet with laurie. it went well and it felt good to be warmed up well so early in the day. i dressed in my concert black for church, so i could head straight to the 1:30 rehearsal from church. rehearsal went well and we were given a little down-time before our final call, which gave us the chance to relax a little and meet some of the students from concordia. the concert went very well, and i think professor ellingboe was pleased.

leaving the church, the warm air wafted over me and i smiled again, so thankful for this spring weather. i am hopeful it will stick around now, especially for easter. no one likes a cold, rainy easter sunday.

the weekend was capped off by david’s and my completion of the apartment painting! with the exception of one or two touch-up spots, the painting is done! yippee!! so now it is possible for me to begin to move some things over from my apartment. again, yippee!!

finally, an hour or so after i arrived at work today, david called to tell me that he had just added a new dvd to his collection. a little movie called say hello to clive for me. it’s actually in print. with a real cover and everything! so cool. what’s that you say? you’d like a copy? well, drop me a line!