Changelog Digest

On Saturday I saw the Carmina Burana ballet - two of my friends stuck with the chorus for the performance, so I and three other friends got free tickets (although that was offset by having to pay for parking). It was really interesting to see how the choreography underscored the text. However, the music did suffer a bit from the staging; the dancers were between the orchestra in the pit and the choir in the rear part of the stage, so they had trouble staying in sync. But the overall effect was undeniably dramatic. And I'm doubly glad I didn't participate, so that I was able to fully enjoy the show.

The latest symphony drama is that the principal director abruptly resigned (or was dismissed) with four weeks remaining in the season, and they had to scramble to get people to conduct the last few concerts. Luckily, the person they found for Carmina was already familiar with both the music and the choreography, and was likely instrumental (lol) in ultimately making it a success.

I'm definitely going to take at least the next year off from symphony chorus and see how things shake out with the personnel changes. I didn't get a callback from the other choir I was interested in, so I've accepted an invitation to play the G4/A4 position for the community handbell group this coming year. That's the position that Robby would play for our church group and one slot lower than my usual position at B4/C5, but it was where they had a vacancy, and at least it's not any lower (read: heavier) than that.

Our church has a new music director starting this week, hurray. I've known her for years; she's about my age and super nice. No previous church direction experience, but an excellent musician, and she does have experience organizing a local Girls Rock camp, so I don't anticipate her having any difficulty with the role. We're not exactly a demanding group.

I keep forgetting to write about my first Renn Faire experience last month. Going in, I wasn't really sure how to expect it to compare with an SCA event. I guess more than anything, it was like going to a fantasy-medieval version of Disney World with no rides. People dressed however they wanted, and there were lots of food options, tons of shops, and various entertainment shows scheduled throughout the day. My favorites were the electric renaissance musicians from Italy (Rota Temporis) and the audience-participation Shakespeare performance - my companion got drafted into the latter, which was hilarious. Instead of dressing in garb, I wore my TTRPG dice print dress, and got a ton of compliments. I'm really not used to being complimented on my appearance! It was weird but nice!