Fall 2018 OCC Singer’s Blog
In Rehearsal for Faure Requiem

Gratitude It is Friday morning as I write these words.  THE Friday morning of the three days of concerts.  My thoughts are not about how much work we have put in, not about the huge effort and energy it takes to sing three concerts in three days; I am not...

The Music Lives Inside Me Now After the note-learning is well-behind me, though it required hours of focused study and mindful repetition; After working to blend my voice with the other voices, as we rehearse together each week, learning to hear the other sections, as...

A Different Perspective For the past few years I have been an alto.  I met wonderful singers and actually got to see Arthur at work from my place in the section!  This year I have really had the opportunity to see our chorale from different perspectives....

Turning the Last Corner and Seeing…      …UGLY Sweaters! Having had Thursday off from our rehearsal schedule to spend the day feasting with family and friends, we did catch up with an intense Saturday rehearsal (Allison is still taking notes, so we...

Kathleen’s Surprise
What happened at Kathleen’s talk on the Faure Requiem on November 15th?

Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear Just when I’ve relaxed into the weekly routine, I suddenly realize that we’re only a month away from concert time.  I guess there were a couple of sure signs: Allison working us through long phrases of music and the...

Metamorphosis of a Musical Relationship by JoAnn Phillips, Sop II Though credentials and talent were part of her history, our new conductor was rather a mystery. Her methods dismayed us as some were quite strange. That oohing and circling the air seemed deranged. But...

The Carpool Divas We are the "Carpool Divas".  How we came to this name is for another time.  Every week, we begin the same way.  The group begins to assemble beginning in Brewster, where three of the Divas jump into one car and travel to Orleans....

Our Carpool In the summer of 2016, I attended a performance of music and readings that focused on the sea at the National Seashore’s Salt Pond Center.  It was a concert by the Chamber Singers of the Outer Cape Chorale.  I had recently retired after teaching...

The Shakespeare In The Music I am absolutely loving the poems John Rutter has collected for his cycle of songs “When Icicles Hang.”  My curiosity was piqued by the two pieces that are songs from Shakespeare plays.  It seems I am not the only one in our group...

That Thing That Happens Lately when I leave rehearsal I find myself saying, “Whew! That was a workout!”  Of course, mine is nothing compared to Allison’s.  She must burn a gazillion calories up there as she stretches her body and her imagination in an effort...

The Music Man Let’s see…  Over there are the Sopranos – those wonderfully talented women who serenade us with soaring notes.  And here are the Altos, who form the sweetest harmonies as they sing what is undoubtedly the most difficult part.  In the...

Putting in the Effort It’s football season, in case you haven’t noticed.  Tom, Bill, Gronk.  Sometimes the games happen on a Thursday night, but they start so late (thank you west coast!) that their OCC fan base can usually make it home to catch the first...

Reflections On My Birthday Rehearsal This past rehearsal was interesting for me.  It was my birthday and family suggested they'd love to spend part of it with me and the only way to do that would be to attend our rehearsal.  My X, Lanny, still and always a...

Learning in Pieces One might expect that, to learn a piece of music at a rehearsal, you’d start at the beginning and progress measure-by-measure through to the end.  But it turns out that there is another way – a most effective, interesting, and creative way – to...

We're really underway There were a couple of changes to the room this week: A long, mystery table with desserts sat between the S2 and T1/B1 seating, and there were town names posted on the wall. Desserts ... cake?! But let's do this in chronological order. First...

The hardest part begins I love Thursday nights during Chorale rehearsal seasons.  When we’re starting out we have new music in front of us full of unexplored time signatures and rhythms.  At first, it all looks impossible.  What was the composer...

Homecoming Welcome, Friends of the Outer Cape Chorale!  This season, we’re trying something new – a blog to share perspectives about our Fall 2018 season, from the start of rehearsals through the concerts themselves.  We hope to have a few different authors...