Messiah

Yesterday was the only rehearsal for Messiah, and it was AMAZING!!! I haven't played the whole thing for years (no one seems to do it in the NW), and it never really seems like Christmas without it. But this is in an amazing church with a huge pipe organ, and all pro musicians (except 2nd trumpet, who is a church member). Listening to the arias (which the oboes mostly sit out on) I was just in awe of how great the strings sounded! It is also a neat thing, one of the violins (who is our concertmaster in the little symphony) was at grad school with me and we played this 100 times back in Ohio. Seems like everyone does Messiah back east. Oh well. Fun times.

Can't wait to do the concert tonight, hope the singalong part of it doesn't wreck everything. And the soloist are mediocre, although the baritone is quite good. But just playing with these fabulous musicians makes life funner.

Also this morning I played in church - one of the Mannheim Steamroller thingys for the predule (holly and ivy, I was fabulous but people talked through the whole thing) and then a lovely piece with our semi-pro baritone, who is really fun to work with. I can't even remember the piece but it was lovely. Of course no one will remember because this was the Children's program Sunday...and they were really cute.

Got the recordings back for Wizards of Winter (bells) - and they were really good! We play it about 1/2 speed, but considering all it was great. I am considering putting it out on Utube. We'll see.