The Easter Services at CUMC were beautiful, with the young people acting out the resurrection narrative, a live bunny at the children’s sermon, fantastic music by the Chancel Choir and a wonderful Sermon by Reverend Scott Sharp.
Tag: chancel choir
Tenebrae
The Tenebrae service at Central United Methodist Church last night was beautiful and moving. Tonight is the “Great Getting’ Up Mournin’ celebration” with the Chancel Choir and a Baptist Gospel Choir. It’s supposed to be fantastic and not to be missed. The celebration is at 7:00 pm, 201 University Blvd NE. 243-7834.
Holy Moses
I had my day all planned out — go to the second service, get material on the way home to finish the door, do more watering, herd cats — or so I thought. After the service, which had a wonderful liturgical dance to “Moses”, Jerri asked me if I had gone to their concert at Keller Hall last night and photographed it — I hadn’t, so she asked me if I could photograph the concert this afternoon. The concert was great. A mixed Choir, with the Symphony Orchestra of Albuquerque, performed the Easter selections from Handel’s Messiah, then the SOA played Brahms’ “Academic Festival Overture” and Camille Saint-Saens’ “Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor,” with Natalia Tikhovidova on piano. Ms Tikhovidova is a phenomenal pianist and the “Piano Concerto…” was very lively and showy. The SOA and choirs will do another performance on March 17, 2013, 2:00 pm at John XXIII Catholic Community, 4831 Tramway Ridge, NE.
I started out the photo session standing with the choir in the beginning of the concert, so I got a super-wide angle photo from the choir’s/orchestra’s point-of-view, with the audience in the pews. The percussionists were fun to watch because they followed their music with such intensity — there were times they played only one or two notes, so they obviously didn’t want to miss them.
Although I had to lay aside my well-laid plans for the day, the concert was well worth it.
The Second Coming
The second coming of the Messiah was as wonderful as the first. The soloists were fantastic, the orchestra was superb and the Chancel Choir was marvelous. Janet, one of the Choir members and soon to be minister, and I were talking about how many great musicians and artists we have in New Mexico, especially given a population of only 2 million. I was telling her that it’s the “enchantment factor” — the beautiful environment and great climate that draw people to New Mexico — we are truly blessed to have so many exceptional performers to share their talents with us and truly enrich our lives.
The Messiah Has Come
If you missed Handel’s Messiah tonight, performed by the Central United Methodist Church’s Chancel Choir with the NM Philharmonic Orchestra, David Felberg, Conductor, and soloists Cammy Cook, Soprano, Jacqueline Zander-Wal, Mezzo-soprano, Javier Gonzalez, Tenor and Ivan Conrad, Bass — not to worry, there is a second coming of the Messiah tomorrow afternoon, Sunday, December 9th, 3:00 pm at Central United Methodist Church, 201 University NE. If you live in the Albuquerque area, you really shouldn’t miss it — there will be tickets available at the door.
Before the concert began, members of the Albuquerque Girl’s Choir were singing in the hallway as people came in. Most of the girls were very young, and they didn’t have a director. They were all very cute, but as they tried to sing, especially with recorded music, they were so rhythmically challenged that they were difficult to listen to. After the Chancel Choir had warmed up, Jerrilyn Foster, the director of the Chancel Choir, came out and started directing the girls choir, which completely transformed them — they all of a sudden sounded good and were “in compás”. I think Jerri has a magic touch, because she takes all comers into the Chancel Choir and gets the best out of all the singers. She is really amazing.
Tonight’s performance was wonderful. Even though I’ve been listening to the choir practice every Wednesday night and Sunday afternoon, and to Laurie sing with her CD daily for months; and even though I sat through the rehearsal with the soloists Wednesday night and the dress rehearsal with the orchestra and soloists last night, tonight’s performance still sent chills up and down my spine and brought tears to my eyes — it also brought back memories of listening to the Messiah in a 15th Century Cathedral in Madrid, Spain in 1996. The cathedral was packed and we had to stand through the whole concert, but the sound and the atmosphere was so beautiful and mesmerizing, you felt like you where in the 18th century, and there wasn’t a dry eye in that old cathedral when the Hallelujah Chorus was sung. I had much of the same feeling listening to the Messiah this evening and I believe, like Handel, that we see Heaven before us and “the great God Himself” when we listen to great performances of the Messiah.
The Messiah is Coming
Only seventeen days left until the Central United Methodist Chancel Choir with the New Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra present Handel’s Messiah. I am listening to the choir rehearse as I write, and they sound wonderful. Besides singing, the choir director has the choir do choral calisthenics and stretches so they will be in ship shape to deliver outstanding performances. The performances will be on Saturday, December 8th at 7:00 pm and Sunday, December 9th at 3:00 pm. If you live in the greater Albuquerque area, I highly recommend getting tickets to this concert. Tickets can be purchased on-line at http://holdmyticket.com/event/119812.
Handel composed the Messiah in 1741, a 100 years before the term photography was attributed to the process of recording images on a medium using a camera. Since the daguerreotype was one of the earliest photographic processes that resulted in a direct positive, I used a hand-colored daguerreotype effect on the photos of the choir doing their calisthenics, stretches and singing to represent an early time. It doesn’t take us back to the time when Handel lived, but it does give a sense of rehearsing the Messiah in the earliest days of photography.
Off Center & Not Even 