For the third time this month, I'm going to do a performance of the Beethoven Missa Solemnis, this time at the Oregon Bach Festival.  I'm down in Eugene, Oregon doing rehearsals this week leading up to our performance on Friday.  I haven't been here for two years, so of course it's lovely to be in Eugene, see old OBF friends, and be making music under Helmuth Rilling.

Here's a picture from rehearsal:

This is just the beginning, because June has been a very musical month for me.  I also did some performances with Cappella Romana, reprising the repertoire from our Greece tour a year and a half ago ("From Constantinople to California").  We performed at the annual Chorus America conference in Seattle, and also a show in Portland.  This review just came out today from Oregon Arts Watch, which was glowing.  You should read it, because when it talks about 2 singers taking on a slightly nasal tone (in the Eastern style), that's me! (And the wonderful Les Green.)

As if those experiences aren't enough, there has been even more music-making!  I was so excited to collaborate with my amazing wife Abby to do a concert last week.  For the first time ever, we presented a concert/sound therapy event together.  It was called "Summer Centering" and we did a wide variety of music, including Snow Patrol, John Lennon, Greek chant, The Civil Wars, and some music I wrote.  And the real centerpiece was Abby's performance on the singing bowls she trained to play in Nepal. 

We're going to do another event like this on August 1st.  Info here

Also, Abby is performing her singing bowls at another event on July 7, which includes yoga, acupuncture, and sound therapy in a single event.  Info here

This picture is from after the event, when several people had lots of questions about the bowls:

Lastly, I've gotten a little behind on my composition project, but I managed to get into a practice room at the University of Oregon today for my latest idea (recorded just with my laptop).  For some reason, ragtime was speaking to me this week!

Well, my wife Abby is now off on her trip.  She left yesterday and will be gone for a whole month.  Generally I'm feeling sad already and gonna miss her terribly.  But I am hoping I will use some of my extra free time to write more.  Each project I've done for 52 Ideas so far has gotten me excited, but then I feel like I don't have enough time to really develop it.  Or also sometimes I don't really have time to record it as well as I would like. 

I was feeling SO excited for Abby doing this experience in Nepal, learning new things, exploring a new culture, and volunteering her time for people in need.  We were talking about how it was like she was being lifted up like a bird to follow a dream she has.  And then she played me a piece from Dharohar Project (which is amazing, by the way...you should check it out.)

So then I was also feeling connection to the Snow Patrol song "Run," which seemed to capture how I feel about Abby doing this.  Then lastly, going on the bird theme, I remembered a great song by the Wailin' Jennys called "Bird Song." 

Thus, a mashup was born!

This is the first time in the project that the music isn't completely original.  I used the three tunes and imagined what it would be like to have them all happen at relatively the same time.  So here's the result.

In other news, I'm really excited that Esteli Gomez is going to be in Portland next week.  We have been singing together in Conspirare for a couple years now. 

While she was in town, I asked her to teach a workshop at Resound NW.  She said yes, and "Your Voice, Your Song" was born!  It's going to be cool, and it's happening next Wednesday, March 6.