How much do I envy Crocky?

[mothwing]

A lot, especially when it comes to her singing and the choirs she can sing in. Her ensemble performed "Lux Aurumque" at their last concert, which is beautiful piece by the conducter and composer Eric Whitacre (here's also a TTBB only version of this here commissioned by the Gay Men's Chorus of LA). 

Whitacre is not only noteworthy because of his beautiful music, but also because of his virtual choir- this is them with Lux Aurumque:

I love the VirtualChoir project, you can join here.

Comments

[ysilme]

What a beautiful piece, and what a wonderful idea! This is the first time I hear of the Virtual Choir, but I certainly will keep looking for it! Thanks for sharing. And congratulations to Crocky for the last concert. What a challenge to sing something like this! It's been some time since my last choir participations; I got vocal chord problems and never went back to singing afterwards for several reasons.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

It's beautiful, isn't it? ♥ Crocky's choir are pretty bad-ass. There are fourteen of them, and they're singing modern music with up to fourteen voices.

It's sad to hear about your vocal chord problems! I used to love singing and am on the lookout for a new choir right now, but my lack of sight-reading skills bars me from anything but my local church choir, I think.

[ysilme]

How frustrating for you! My vocal chord problem came from work; I jobbed as a castle guide during my Uni years at Heidelberg, and had to work too often with a cold. I was then chronically hoarse and the specialist forbade me five years of singing. In the meantime, I went abroad for three years, was seriously ill when I came back, and when I started to think about singing again, I had so many other new leisure activities that the rehearsing intensity of my old choir (Bach-Chor) was simply too much for me to include. By the time I had stopped singing, the choir had reached a really good level and now I only had the choice of singing in my preferred level - with a respective engagement of free time, which meant one weekday, three weekends out of five, and once a month also another weekday evening. Plus vocal training once a month by a separate coach one afternoon. Or singing on the level of a weekly rehearsal only, which left me with the local choirs as well. The one I used to go to as a teenager (Kantorei) has a choirmaster who selects pieces I simply never am eager to do (I could, I'm invited every time since my parents are still members), and that for over 12 years now! ;o) (he's doing romanticism up and down and up again), and the other choir, church choir of our village, with a small extra part of doing much more elaborate pieces, is rehearsing on Thursday evenings only - and that is my evening reserved for Tai Chi lessons. I tried all the Tai Chi teachers and classes in the region, and unfortunately the Thursday evening one is the only that really works for me, has suitable hours and driving distance, and my husband can make it as well (as we prefer to go together). I fretted about that for a time, but then realised that singing simply hasn't the importance any more it used to have, despite my missing it. It's more like "missing it, but not as much as making it possible".

Can you not train yourself in sight-reading, or getting help by Crocky? I've never been perfect at it either, but it was sufficient for any choir I wanted to go to, and my skills improved over time.