Brand New Alice Tully Hall

Hello All,

My name is Dashon Burton, and I am the Junior Senator of the Baritone Commonwealth of Cantus, and wish to have the floor to speak...

Cantus just arrived in NYC yesterday afternoon after some shady navigating (which way do we go, Dashon?). This is sort of a hometown for me, as I spent much of my childhood here, so it's always wonderful to see the sights, have some lovely food, take in the wonderful civil engineering that can fit 400 million people into 17 square feet (numbers are approximate).

After visiting with some friends, I met up with Cantus tenor Paul Rudoi at the brand new Alice Tully Hall (photo by Iwan Baan) at Lincoln Center. First, I have to echo Paul's sentiments: "50% of why I am here is for the orchestra, and the other 50% is for the architecture." It's an absolutely stunning building to see, and just to walk in is amazing too.

The celebrated orchestra was playing for the Opening Nights Festival which is ongoing until March 8. Last night, Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen renewed my sense of some very familiar works to me. Beethoven's First and Seventh symphonies were served with great vigor, and it's obvious that their continued dedication to this monumental cycle will produce more wonderful concerts and recordings. The camaraderie of the musicians was evident, and their structure is very similar to the way that Cantus started, which is always amazing to see. From their program bio: "Founded in 1980, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen initially consisted of a group of outstanding music students who drew up a grassroots constitution in order to optimally motivate the individual members both personally and musically ... The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen is organized as a company in which the musicians are sole partners. Thus they assume full responsibility not only for artistic but financial matters as well." As a chamber musician it is always wonderful to share in the successes of other chamber ensembles as well as be inspired by them.

This virtuosic set of players truly dug into the music. Every bar was infused with life, and rarely have I heard such supreme musical nuance. The musicians played with a sense of clarity that made each line that they wanted you to focus on at the forefront. Mr. Järvi was clearly pleased with the results of his and the rest of the musicians' hard work, and I would say had the best "seat" in the house! Combine the musicians and the wonderful acoustics of the new hall, and you get quite a show. It was a technically, emotionally, and visually wonderful journey through two of my personal favorite Beethoven symphonies, and I couldn't really ask for an artistically better way to start a visit to NYC.

Also, for all of our connected audience across the country who can't make it to the concert at Trinity Wall Street on March 5 at 1PM (EST), just a reminder, they'll be broadcasting it LIVE on the internet, so do tune in!

Welcome new Cantus bloggers

Hi, gang:

wanted to take a moment to welcome the new bloggers and readers out there at Cantus Tales.  If you didn't know, I have been the voice of Cantus' Tales From the Road and other blogs since 2004.  I will continue to post under my own name, but the mantle is finally being passed to the group at large, which will mean many more stories, lots more information about life in Cantus, and hopefully a lot more fun for you as well.  

I look forward to reading about the adventures and lives of my compatriots, and I hope you will too.  

Oneonta

Hello!

I'm posting from Oneonta, New York, where we, just earlier today, had some educational outreach with various groups around town. We also had a great first concert of the tour there, with an estimated 800 people in attendance, and an encore request to boot (we sang one of our favorites, Biebl's Ave Maria). Above is a picture of the church, and in the distance you can see Tim tuning his autoharp for the concert. The acoustic of the First United Methodist Church was certainly a lot of fun to work in, considering we sing pieces like Lux Aurumque or Deep River. And it was nearby some great places to eat, like the Autumn Cafe or a diner called "Corfu". Here we are preparing for the concert...and our large meal...at Corfu yesterday evening!

Speaking of food, we definitely won't forget our choice of restaurant for dinner on our way to Oneonta! It had been a long first day of tour, between a layover in Milwaukee (or Atlanta for Chris) to the three hour drive from La Guardia. We had difficulties in choosing where to eat, but by the time we really NEEDED to eat there was nothing around! So we decided to stop at a Chinese Restaurant in the middle of nowhere...we took some pictures and ate huge plates of food...

Now we're moving on to Poughkeepsie, where we'll have a masterclass and a concert tomorrow at Vassar College. Check back soon for updates!

Mission Week

Hello all,

Cantus is in the middle of our Mission Week: a chance to get out to Twin Cities area schools to sing for, and inspire, choral music students. Thursday was spent at Robbinsdale Cooper High School with 5 great choirs full of students who asked great questions and laughed along with Cantus for 90 minutes. Thanks again, Cooper students, you were great!

Wednesday saw Cantus at Robbinsdale Armstrong High School, singing for, and working with, the concert choir there. We heard two great pieces and the students responded so well to all of our coaching. Way to go Armstrong!

Friday we'll be in River Falls, WI and next week Cantus heads to the East Coast for a 2 week concert tour, including stops in NYC and Vassar College. Check back for more updates.

Blog Updates!

So we updated our blog a little bit recently! Our blog is going to focus not only on our fantastical adventures on tour, but many other things, including happenings at home, information about new and veteran singers, our musical process, and each member's current musical interests. If you want to see any one type of post, just check out the labels to the right.

We'll be writing in this blog regularly, so check back often. Or, if you're really into Cantus, subscribe to updates or become a follower of Cantus Tales via the bar on the right!

That about covers it. Talk to you all later!

Hurdy Gurdy!

I thought a lot about what I would put into my first music post, so I decided to focus on a new CD I heard last week! I love to go to Minneapolis' Central Library down at the bottom of Nicollet Avenue and search for new and interesting albums. While I was looking at the instrumental music, I came across a very interesting looking CD cover with the words "Hurdy-Gurdy" and "Prototyp" on the front. Usually when I can't tell which is the band name and which is the name of the CD I put it back, but it looked interesting, and I couldn't remember the last time I heard a hurdy gurdy. The hurdy gurdy is more or less a mechanical violin, where the strings are "played" by a wheel underneath them while a keyboard on the side changes the strings' pitches. Here's a picture explaining the different parts:



When I got home, I slid it into my macbook and listened. It seemed completely electronic underneath the almost bagpipe-ish sound of the melodies! But when I read the CD jacket, the group (whose name IS Hurdy-Gurdy it turns out) said all the sounds on the CD were made organically from the sounds their hurdy gurdies made. If you get a chance, you have to check it out. Here's a youtube video of Stefan Brisland-Ferner from Hurdy-Gurdy playing "Delirium" from the Prototyp album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alnVExbQYCw

Have fun, and check in again soon!

End of 2008, Happy New Year, 2009!

Greetings, Cantus fans!

Well, the year ended on a high note with a fantastic national tour of All is Calm, followed by a run at the Pantages Theater, in downtown Minneapolis--this time with a full theatrical production. We garnered more great reviews: All is right with 'All Is Calm', 'All is Calm' delivers joy -- pure and simple, and 'All is Calm' celebrates peace ... in wartime
. It was a real treat to reunite with our actors from last year's premiere of the piece, John Catron, David Roberts, and Alan Sorenson, as well as director Peter Rothstein. The guys all broke off to visit family and friends during the holidays, but now we are all back on the clock, and doing travelling for the group.

We just returned from New York, where we performed a few showcases for the American Performing Arts Presenters conference (trying to drum up some business at some new venues around the country, and finished the week with beautiful performance of Edie Hill's A Sound Like This at the 31st national convention of Chamber Music America. CMA provided the funds for Cantus to commission the piece from Edie--6 ruminations of texts by Kabir, the 15th century Indian mystic, on translation by Minnesota Poet Laureate, Robert Bly. A fantastic multi-movement work, it really captures the sound of music of the spheres. It's such a thrill to sing in New York City, too. We'll be back there again on March 5th to sing at Trinity Church, on Wall Street.