I’m a couple days now into my tour of Greece with Cappella Romana. It is so beautiful here! We spent the first couple of days recovering from jetlag and rehearsing on Rhodes, in a cute little town called Lindos.
Now we are on Patmos. The next few days we will participate in a festival of sacred music.
I’m regularly posting my pictures from the trip on Flickr
: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beholdhowfree/
I’m so excited about my trip with Cappella Romana to Greece in just over a month! We are trying to raise addition support to be able to make a recording of Byzantine music in an authentic, 6th-century Byzantine church on the Greek Island of Paros.
I haven’t had the chance to share the full extent of my summer travels on my blog yet, but as usual, this summer is bringing me to lots of exciting places. My friend Kyle calls it “musical tourism” when a gig gives us the opportunity to visit places that we would want to visit anyway.
This week is certainly a bout of medical tourism for me, while visiting the Eastern seaboard and performing for the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival in Harrisonburg, Virginia. It’s a beautiful town, as I discovered while exploring during my free time today. During the performances this weekend, I’ll be performing a Bach cantata, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, and Act 2 of Le Nozze di Figaro.
This week is also giving me a chance to visit a bit with my parents in Maryland and see my in-laws, who live in southern Virginia.
Next week brings me back to Oregon,only not my home in Portland, but returning to the Oregon Bach Festival in Eugene. I’ll spend a few days there to perform the Bach Magnificat.
The last part of my June musical tourism is an Oregon tour with the Portland Baroque Orchestra. We will be taking a concert version of “Dido and Aeneas” to several cities throughout Oregon.
I’ve been regularly posting pictures from my traveld on my Flickr page, if you want to keep up.
I’ve got a few “Craig-isms’ to share from rehearsals this week with Craig Hella Johnson and the Victoria Bach Festival musicians. I love the way these great images come up in rehearsal.
“Burn all of your undergarments and just let it soar.”
“Just dots on a chalkboard.”
“Just like popcorn.”
“Get it out of your system, all that judging…let the fire burn.”
“Like you don’t want the bubble to fall on the ground.”
“A light sabre.”
“Don’t use your ‘high noon’ vowels here.”
“We could call each other at 3am Monday morning and say ‘Let’s do this.’”
And then one really special reflection Craig reminded us all about:
“We all share this unique musical instinct. We all have it, every one of us.”
Special thanks to Marie for bringing this article to my attention. It’s not a big surprise, but doctors are continuing to discover the myriad health benefits of singing.
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You Docs: Singing the praises of the curative powers of song
Published: Thursday, April 21, 2011, 9:28 AM Updated: Friday, April 22, 2011, 6:58 AM
By
1. Lower your blood pressure. You may have heard about a woman in Boston whose blood pressure shot up just before knee-replacement surgery. When drugs alone weren’t enough, she began singing her favorite hymns, softly at first, then with more passion. Her blood pressure dropped enough for the procedure, which went off without a hitch. Singing releases pent-up emotions, boosts relaxation and reminds you of happy times, all of which help when stress and blood pressure spike.
2. Boost your “cuddle” hormone. Oxytocin, the same hormone that bonds moms and new babies, also surges after you croon a tune with your peeps.
3. Breathe easier. If you or someone you know is coping with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, singing just twice a week could make breathing feel easier and life feel better. In fact, in England there are “singing for breathing” workshops. But why wait for a workshop?
4. Find serenity after cancer. Surviving cancer is a major milestone, but afterward you still have to cope with the memories (tests, diagnosis, treatments) and quiet the “will it come back” worries. Vocalizing can help you blow off steam and stress. Turns out that singing actually calms down the sympathetic nervous system (which tenses up when you do) and boosts activity in the parasympathetic nervous system (which makes you relax).
5. Rewire the brain after a stroke. Plenty of people who’ve survived a stroke but lost the ability to speak learn to communicate again by singing their thoughts. Singing activates areas on the right side of the brain, helping them to take over the job of speaking when areas on the left side no longer function. Called Melodic Intonation Therapy, it’s used in some stroke rehab programs, and insurance may cover it.
That’s not all singing can do. It also helps everyday health, increasing immunity, reducing stress for new moms, quieting snoring, easing anxiety in ways that also may ease irritable bowel syndrome, and just making you feel happier. That’s a great return on somethi
ng you can do in your car, with your kids, in a local choir group, while watching “American Idol” or even in a glee club.
Here’s how to put the “glee factor” to work for you:
Off-key? Squeaky? Tone-deaf? You may get more out of it! In one study, amateur singers felt a rush of joy after warbling, but trained professionals didn’t experience any extra elation from singing.
Hymns? R&B? Hip-hop? It doesn’t matter. Just choose tunes that mean something to you. You’ll pour more heart into singing and conjure up good memories and healing feelings.
Get the kids in on the act. Thanks to the television show (”Glee,” in case you hadn’t figured it out), glee clubs (also called show choirs) are getting hot in schools across the U.S. and Canada. That’s great, because kids get a special set of benefits from musical expression, including better grades, less risky behavior, even higher SAT scores.
The YOU Docs, Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen, are authors of “YOU: On a Diet.” Want more? See “The Dr. Oz Show” on TV (weekdays at 3 p.m., KATU/2). To submit questions, go to www.RealAge.com.
© 2011 OregonLive.com. All rights reserved.
I’m back home from spending an amazing week in Finland. My friend and colleague, Markus Yli-Jokipii, with whom I worked at the Oregon Bach Festival, was so kind to invite me to perform the Bach St. John Passion. The performance was with his ensemble in Turku, Finland called Kuninkaantien muusikot (Musicians of the King’s Road).
Below are just a few pictures and memories of my trip.
Flying over Greenland on the way to Helsinki. The sun was so beautiful, just sitting there on the edge of the earth.
After two flights and 2 long bus rides, I finally arrived in Turku. I stayed with Markus and his wife and 2 adorable little boys. I had so much fun just hanging out with them and the kids, including so many rich conversations about culture, religion, politics, music, and language.
Maija with her son, Tobias
We didn’t really have a lot of time to put together the music for St. John Passion, but luckily I was only singing 3 pieces of music, so a day of rehearsal was enough.
Rehearsal in Archangel Michael’s Church, Turku
Concert poster
Full chorus and orchestra in rehearsal
In addition to our performance in Turku, we also did a concert in the small town in the region called Loimaa. The town is home to a beautiful church that was lovely to sing in.
Mats (Evangelist) in rehearsal in Loimaa
This is a video of me singing in rehearsal there:
http://youtu.be/XeqjKUQXpsQ
The soloists and Markus right before our performance
In addition to performing, I also go to do a little sightseeing in Turku.
Turku Market Square
Beautiful room in the Turku Castle
Turku fish market
Little fried fish - yummy!
There was a Finnish election while I was there, so there were political posters all over town.
After several lovely days performing and visiting Turku, I had a couple remaining days to stay in Helsinki and explore a bit.
Helsinki city life
View of Helsinki from the ferry headed to the island of Suomenlinna.
Art in the modern art exhibit “ARS11″. It was an entire show of modern art inspired by Africa.
Scandinavian design is particularly interesting to me. The city is a lovely mixture of ancient and modern. I enjoyed a visit to the design museum, and this quote seemed to capture the Finnish aesthestic beautifully.
A coffee table I LOVE
Beautiful church in Helsinki
Helsinki train station
Hello all! In case you hadn’t figured it out yet, I’m in Finland right now! I am so happy to be here in Turku, Finland to perform Bach’s St. John Passion with Kuninkaantien Muusikot (Musicians of the King’s Road). Rehearsals have gone very well so far and we have our first performance tonight.
More about the performance later. But I have to just talk a bit about some things I’ve noticed here. Every time I come to Europe I am astounded how things are so similar to the USA, but subtly different in a way that is hard to describe. Generally everything just feels…smaller. The cars, the cups, the toilets, the homes, the people. I would have expected this as compared to my former home in Texas (everything’s bigger in Texas!), but this also seems true when compared to Portland.
Oh, and the Finnish language! Such a colorful language, but so few cognates! I only know a couple words, but in true singer fashion, I have already learned to pronounce the language very well - or so my hosts tell me. It is crazy to think that there is whole language for 5 million people. That’s like Houston having its own language.
I have posted a few pictures on Flickr and will post more as the trip continues. Here are the pictures: www.flickr.com/photos/beholdhowfree
Spring, a set on Flickr.
Spring has arrived in Portland! I’m loving the first blossoms of the season.
Now that I’m all done with Portland Opera To Go, I’m sinking my teeth into some new projects. I’m back teaching my many wonderful voice students. And I’m doing a couple projects with Cappella Romana for the next two weeks.
Tomorrow, a small group of singers (12) will catch a plane to San Francisco. We’ll get warmed up at do a concert in San Francisco’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation. After staying the night, we’ll sing at the church service and then spend Sunday afternoon recording a special project at Stanford University. There’s a whole article about it in the San Francisco Classical Voice.
This represents a few new things for me. First, I’ve never been to San Francisco before, so I’m looking forward to seeing the city, however brief.
Secondly, this is the first time I have ever sung in Greek. The past week of rehearsals has been a real trial by fire. Like many other languages, it’s fairly phonetic, with a few twists and unique sounds.
Also, I’m surprised at the Eastern musical influence present in this music. We were in rehearsal and I kept hearing “wrong notes” or things that were “out of tune.” My colleagues are much more experienced at this style of music than I am, so I eventually I tried to clear up my confusion. The response was “Oh, in the minor mode, sometimes the 6ths are sharped and sometimes not, depending on the approach, and the leading tones are really low. Just listen, you’ll pick it up.” Ummm…ok! And there’s also a whole system of ornaments and scoops that is standard when singing this type of music. We’ve even got some music that looks like the image below. I find myself looking at the page thinking, “And I sing this….how?!” I feel like I’m able to sing a real wide variety of music, but it is always exciting to put one more tool in my toolbox, so to speak.
After our trip to San Francisco, we’ll be doing concerts in Portland and Seattle next weekend. Hope to see you there!
These pictures are really moving to me. The photographer Irina Werning worked with people who wanted to recreate pictures from their childhood or adolescence. Some of them are hilarious and others are quite powerful.
I’ve posted a few below, but you can see all of them here.
:: Thanks to Tara for bringing this to my attention. ::
