Eye of Modok

Wow, what a night! This year’s performance of Messiah sold out nearly a week before the concert, a first for the International Festival Chorus. We even sold out all of the boxes for the first time in the history of the Forbidden City Concert Hall. And, we delivered. Phrasing was immaculate and consonants were spit out with gleeful abandon. The soloists were outstanding. When the house lights came up, the audience were on their feet - a standing ovation!!

I’ve certainly grown as a Tenor during this concert, and I believe the same is true for everyone. We really took ourselves up to professional level. Our Soprano soloist Gillian Webster commented to conductor Nick Smith that the Tenor section in particular was as good as any she’s heard in London, professional or otherwise. High praise indeed!! The fact that I can be a part of this choir is one of the highlights of my life, let alone of my stay in China.

Left to right: Marshall-lead, me-bass, Steven-baritone and Paul-tenor - The One Night Stand-Ins

Left to right: Nancy-baritone, Grace-bass, Wendy-lead and Becky-tenor - The Treblemakers

The whole gang with our hostess Sarah Randt

I’m amazed at the access I get through music in this town. I’ve already performed a few times at the British Ambassador’s residence, not that surprising when you consider that the conductor for the International Festival Chorus is British, but when the chance came up to perform at my own native US Ambassador’s house, of course I jumped on it! To make matters even better, it was barbershop quartet style music!

Technically, we were performing for the for the ambassador’s wife, Sarah Randt, as the true stars of the show were friends of hers from her Hong Kong days before coming to Beijing. It turns out that Sarah was quite active in the music community in Hong Kong and now invites her friends, The Treblemakers, a female barberhop quartet style musical group, to perform in Beijing every year for a select group of around 80 guests. This year, to change things up a bit, they decided to sing a duet with a male group for one of the songs. Only problem is, there is no male barbershop quartet group in Beijing. Well, there is now. Or, there was at least for that night. Thus, the One Night Stand-Ins was born.

The show was a tribute to the great American Songwriter, Irving Berlin. All told there were a total of 14 songs, two of which the male quartet sang alone, and one of which the male quartet sang as part of an octet with the ladies quartet. The songs were chosen to illustrate certain stages in the life of Irving Berlin and dialogue accompanied each song so that the audience (and I) could learn something of the history of the composer. It was a great show, especially the ladies, who really had their act together. The One Night Stand-Ins gave a passable performance, which was, from the feedback we got, well recieved. I enjoyed it so much, I’d love the chance to do it again. We’ll have to change the name though.

[tags] barbershop, quartet, embassy, ambassador, US, Beijing, Irving, Berlin, treblemakers [/tags]

Another great concert for the International Festival Chorus at the Forbidden City Concert Hall. Last night we performed “A Sea Symphony” by Vaughan Williams, with words by Walt Whitman. It was a challenging piece for sure, and alas, we failed at perfection. However, we seemed to have delivered the message to the smaller than usual audience, who made up for their lack of numbers with their enthusiasm. Our next performance of Handel’s Messiah on December 2nd is ceratain to sell out early again this year and will be wonderful, but this concert debuted a very different kind of choral work than is usually available in China. It’s what we do!