Just had a gig with the Edmonton Sympony Orchestra

Sang in a "hand-picked chorus".

http://www.winspearcentre.com/calendar.asp?action=detail&id=1391&incDate=6/18/2005

Mozart – Thamos, König in Ägypten
Mozart - Coronation Mass
Ralph Vaughn Williams - Five Mystical Songs

tell us more!

and welcoming a new conductor to the podium. He'll be taking over next season. I met him after the rehearsal and we hit if off right away - we're both fans of progressive rock.

I was part of an 80-100 (we never did get an exact count) voice chorus, barely enough to do those pieces vs. an orchestra. I got to accompany part of one of the rehearsals because the regular accompanist went to the wrong location.

Performance took place here (http://www.winspearcentre.com/content.asp?catid=2&rootid=2) and they used the organ (http://www.winspearcentre.com/content.asp?catid=119&rootid=2). To get an idea of the size, look off to the right and you see two doorways. Those are actually quite tall. In the centre of the organ at the bottom you can see a couple of white blips. That's actually a huge four-manual console.



Here's a better picture (http://www.letourneauorgans.com/indexen.html) with the orchestra.

I play it as well. I had practice time yesterday and today.

It was a fairly stressful gig because we didn't have all that much practice time. We only went through each piece a couple of times to work out the breathing and where consonants should land. You were expected to sight read it correctly first time - in German.

The two rehearsals with the orchestra concentrated primarily on the soloists and getting the balance right - no time to be learning notes. One of the rehearsals was photographed for press releases. I'll post them when available.

I'm probably going to join the choir that sings with the symphony regularly (Richard Eaton Singers).

:shrug:

The orchestra's on standard contract and it was a volunteer choir. I was in a paid choir for a couple of years but it was too small to compete against orchestra and I'm happier singing the larger works.