Ok fine...

One more set...but this is it. I mean it. Don't even think about asking for more. The party's over. Call it a day.

dal niente
Michael McBride, conductor; Anita Chandavarkar, fl; Alejandro Acierto, cl; Jonathon Kirk, tbn; Ammie Brod, vla; Rob Clearfield, acc.
****

Janelle Jansen, harp
***

Isabel Castellvi, cello
*****


Kathleen looking terribly cute.
*


Majel looking terribly cute.
**

Rose doin' the schmoozy schmoozy.
******

(n.)

All the rest, all at once

Photos from the various dress rehearsals / performances on the festival. ( - some by Lisa, some by Rose, some by Chris Preissing.)

Cahoots and Collectives' invisible walls designed by Lisa Marks.
(photos in foreground by Sydney Nagel - just visible in the far background is Nick Barberio's "A Year of my Life")

****

Rose on a giant cone rampage.
***

Jon Eliot
**

Amanda Johnson, stage manager extraordinaire.
*****

Ryland Barton, Jon Eliot, Griffin Sharps in the throes of Lamia.
******

Kathleen Gallagher in the throes of ?Corporel.
*

Kathleen and Nick in the throes of a three-hour-tour.
***

Another perspective on the weekend.
****

dal niente in the throes of Kirsten Broberg's OPENING
Linden Christ, voice; Austin Wulliman, vn; Peter Martin, pc; Isabel Castellvi, vc
*****

Austin Wulliman and Andy Nogal
**

dal niente
front: Austin Wulliman, Isabel Castellvi
back: Andy Nogal, Linden Christ, Connie Schoepfin, Alejandro Acierto, Kirsten Broberg, Tony Arnold, Ammie Brod
*********

Two of our gracious hosts, ZhouB and Nick Depeter.
**

Kathleen and Sean Griffin cutting to the chase. Back and to the right is Katherine Bennet's sound installation.
****

Nick and Tony
*****

Random Polaroids from performance nights:

Onto the next big thing...
(n.)

Too much information (and more pictures)

This week saw the Spring Concerts for my youth choir, Capella - the most super awesome, and incredibly dedicated group of high school students I know of (...outside of Walden). Photos from the spring concert will likely be up on the NCS website soon. (And hey, by the way, check out our wine tasting fundraiser - buy a ticket, designate North Coast Singers as the beneficiary, drink some wine. It's simple.)

***

And lots of concerts coming up. If anybody who reads this is in San Diego in the next three weeks, you can come see me wave my magic wand (which is to say conduct) on the following concerts/pieces:


Tuesday May 8 (TODAY!) 8pm Warren Lecture Hall Studio A;
Music by UCSD Composers;
A wonderfully bizarre piece for voice and ensemble by a good friend of mine, Charlie Wilmoth. I don't think it has a title yet, but it involves banging trash can lids and spanking...yes spanking pieces of hung poster board. Love it.


Saturday May 12; 8pm Warren Lecture Hall Studio A
UCSD Spring Festival
John Cage's "Etcetera" for large ensemble, along with Jason Rosenberg and Fabio Oliviera.
(Also on this concert is Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians," but I'll just be in the audience for that one)


Friday May 18; 8pm Warren Lecture Hall Studio A
UCSD Spring Festival
"Muse Mute" for voice and ensemble by another good friend of mine, Carolyn Chen. Also on this concert is "Vortex Temporum" by Girard Grisey, which will be conducted by Nick Deyoe, (aka "Nick The Younger" as he is sometimes known around the UCSD music dept.). Not much Grisey gets played on the south-left coast. Perhaps a pre-concert talk by my current mentor, Philippe Manoury?


Saturday May 19; 8pm Warren Lecture Hall Studio A
UCSD Spring Festival
"Tongues" by Jason Eckardt, with Stephanie Aston, solo voice.
SO excited for this one. To my knowledge this will be the 4th performance of this piece ever. I had the good fortune to present what I think was the 3rd performance of "Tongues" ever in Chicago last year with Dal Niente and Tony Arnold. This time around we'll be in a super nice performance space and with an EVEN BIGGER thunder sheet! Also on that concert I'll be conducting a new piece by my friend, UCSD composer, Steve Willard.


There are a bunch more concerts on the UCSD spring fest...some highlights include "Le Marteau" (again with Stephanie singing), a live performance of Lucier's "I Am Sitting in a Room," and my good friend/collaborator, Jason Ponce's group. Come to a concert, get a program, scope it out.


In early June, Kathleen and I are trying to arrange an encore performance of Feldman's "For Christian Wolff" someplace in the greater San Diego area (NOT on the UCSD campus). More details to follow.

****

And now for some more photos from Collusions. These came from the nights preceding the first curtain rise (as if that won't be obvious).

Ryland and Jon, self portrait.
***


Ben Kolak...hanging lights.
*****

Barnaby doing what Barnaby does best: standing around looking charming and hot.
**



Opera Cabal directors looking...well...dare I say, fantastic.
******


Rose, suitably proud of her chicken-wire-hanging handiwork.
*

That's all for now. Come to a show.

(n.)

Just can't get enough sparklers

I PROMISE that the next post after this one will include photos of something OTHER than Majel with sparklers, and Ursula rehearsals.

But for now, I have one more set of the same that really needs to go up. (Once again, Jon, Majel and Griffin.)

God tells Ursula to remain a virgin. (She's very cute.)
***

Ursula meets Julian.
*****

Julian is plagued by visions of a giant black rabbit.
*****

God looks on, mostly unamused, as Santiago Rocinante (Pope of Rome) hits on Ursula.

****

Santiago and Ursula.
All saints are hotties.
*****

Definitely my favorite shot of Majel.

****

Ursula beseeching....something.
****

(n.)

Fighting operatic post-partum depression

For all of the avid followers of Opera Cabal's doings, I'll just go ahead and throw out there that I'm probably not going to get more than one post a week up until we start to roll with the next project. If I manage to get more up, awesome. If not, trust that the excitement will keep coming, just at longer intervals. If Homestarrunner can be successful posting once a week, so can we.

(And in case you're curious about the dark, sad truth behind the facade of "not enough time to post more frequently" - there's always a sad truth behind the facade - life after the festival is grim all around. To fill the deep dark void left by its completion, I've fallen into a vicious downward spiral of match.com binging and purging, and Majel has sunk into an almost vegetative state, compulsively watching Dirty Dancing over and over and over again. I thought for a few days about chugging nyquil, but then I remembered that they took out all of the good stuff.)

So the progression of history continues to march past. Today I thought we'd revisit some of the pre-production excitement that began when we "moved into" the Zhou Gallery on Monday April 2. Excitement was in the air, white spandex began to cover everything, and so, logically, we started cutting magnets and lighting as many sparklers (the legality of which in the state of Illinois is somewhat dubious) as we could find.

Joseph's white spandex backdrop for "Architect of Catastrophe"

Lisa cuts magnetic poetry while we rehearse. Handy platform construction work by Barnaby.



Jon in a break from Lamia rehearsals.
(More Lamia rehearsal pics below in a post from a couple of weeks ago.)

Majel, Jon and Griffin in Ursularia rehearsals. Griffin is practicing making use of his authentic train sounds.


Jon demands that Majel prepare for the terrors.


The moment we've all been waiting for - the first run of the vision sequence WITH the lit sparklers. Majel was somewhat skeptical.


Griffin moves like the hand of god to secure Majel's protective eye ware. I promise that the look of terror on Majel's face was no act.



"I'm a birthday cake!"


"Now! Say something profound!"

Majel was so proud of herself for surviving the miraculous ordeal.