I've posted Idea 20 below. It's just some ideas I'm trying to flesh out right now. I'm currently asking the question: how can music be beautiful and touching without being excessively cheesy or corny? So here is one attempt on that topic. In other news: I have returned not long ago from a European tour with Cappella Romana, but I'm actually headed out of town again this week. I'll be singing at the Victoria Bach Festival in Victoria, Texas and then running up to Austin, Texas to repeat the performance. This is the same conductor as Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson, and we will be performing Beethoven's massive and powerful work, Missa Solemnis. This will be my first time performing this monumental music, and in just a couple more weeks, I'll get to repeat the experience performing Missa Solemnis with Helmuth Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival.
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Conspirare has just celebrated its 20th anniversary, culminating in a special event this month called "Wondernight." This beautiful video was featured at that event, and it captures the spirit of this awesome group. I feel so grateful to sing with Conspirare. 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. I just returned from the Conspirare tour to France. Below is a highlights video I made some pictures and video from the trip. We loved this experience - we did concerts in Saint-Lo, Falaise, and Paris. We we there performing as part of a festival called Polyfollia. We also visited the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach in Normandy, where we sang to honor the lives of those fallen in World War II. I'm so excited that Conspirare's next CD is going to be released next month. It is the choral music of Samuel Barber. We had an incredible experience recording this music last fall in Goshen, Indiana. Below is a video that was released about the recording process. Enjoy! |
AuthorDaniel Buchanan Archives
March 2020
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