Musicians Needed!

Irene Kwok is a talented musician studying for her Masters in Music at Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU) in Belmont, California. She is looking for more singers and an additional musician to help her put on a classical music recital to be held at St. Jude's Episcopal Church in Cupertino, California on the 20th of May, 2006.

We met through our interactions in the St. Jude's choir. Michael Morris, the musical director, passed on the following via email from Irene.

Irene and I just spoke tonight. My voice is very hoarse this week because of my cold and my speaking for the whole weekend at DunDraCon XXX (which I will cover in another post), so it will be another week to let my voice heal before Irene can listen to my range and consider whether she'd prefer me to sing tenor or bass. She was very enthusiastic about getting another male singer to go with the others already assembled, and is looking for a few more singers, male and female!

In total, Irene is looking to recruit 16-20 people. She has 13 already. If you are interested in having an opportunity to perform some marvellous music, or if you are simply interested in attending a free, open recital of some marvellous classical music, please read on! (I've updated some of the information based on Irene's latest information).
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Dear musicians,

I am a music graduate student looking for singers and a couple of instrumentalists to help perform a recital that I need to conduct as part of my graduation. If you have some time, would like to help me out, and would enjoy the repertoire, please read on.

There are two choirs singing at the recital and the choir I’m recruiting for will sing the following pieces:

1. Mendelssohn’s “He, Watching Over Israel” from the oratorio Elijah.
2. Mozart’s “Lacrymosa” from his Requiem – this will be accompanied by a string ensemble and hopefully a timpanist! (still needed)
3. A contemporary piece by Brant Adams “Down by the Riverside” (4-part version) which mixes gospel rock, jazz, blues, swing into a single piece.

Practice Schedule – Mon. 8-9:15pm, starting from 3/20/2006:
There are 8 practices offered. Depending upon the need of the group, some of these may be sectionals for those who need it (i.e. others don’t need to attend). The dates are:
3/20, 3/27, 4/3, 4/10, 4/17, 4/24, 5/1, 5/8. Location is my home in Cupertino.

Dress Rehearsal – Sat. 5-6:30pm on 5/13/2006:
Everyone needs to be present for this combined practice with another group that practices at my university (Univ. of Notre Dame de Namur, Belmont), and also to rehearse with string ensemble.

Recital – St. Jude's Episcopal Church — Sat. 6:00 – 8pm on 5/20/2006
For Performers: 6:00 is call time. Recital begins at 7 pm. Everyone is invited to a reception afterwards.
For Attendees: Doors open 6:50 pm.

Need:
• 1 soprano
• 3 altos with rich warm round tones
• 1-2 tenors
• 1 violist
• 1 percussionist (for wood block and timpani)

Requirements:
• Can read music independently and quickly
• Some chorale experience
• Pitch accuracy
• Dependable

If you have interest, email me (Irene) at kwoksmusic@yahoo.com. Thank you!
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Practice, Practice, Practice!

If you are interested in practicing, either with Irene or even on your own, you might want to peek at the MIDI practice files for He, Watching Over Israel. You can even find the score (with markings) for all the parts online at the University of Kansas.

For Mozart's Lacrymosa, you can get the first two pages online for free, and the entire score for $1.50. I found the lyrics online:

Lacrymosa dies illa, qua resurget ex favilla judicandus homo reus.
Huic ergo parce Deus, pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem! Amen!

Finally, for Down by the Riverside, by Brant Adams, sheet music is available online for $2.05.

I'm sure Irene will arrange for music for everyone participating. The links above are for those interested in pursuing their own similar parallel or subsequent musical paths.

Hope to see some of you in rehearsal. Hope to see more of you in May.

Enjoy!

-Peter.