​I think back to my amazing experience as a high school (kind of singer - was more of a cello player and drummer) and pianist/accompanist for my high school choir. The director pushed us to amazing things for h. s. things and I'm proud to remember that these 2 pieces were learned and performed in my junior year in high school! (Philadelphia suburbs!)  had to learn the piano reduction of the Haydn - and I'm sure that it took weeks - to this day - I still have the opening memorized - smile!

I love Esenvalds in general but I really love this piece (we sang it at First Unitarian Society), as I feel it is so poignant in how it deals with loss and memory, and how it describes time being forgotten in sleep and dreams. It really speaks to me during this crisis as I have been reliving my life and all the beautiful memories of people, places, and life experiences I encountered and am so grateful for.
 
 
Only in sleep I see their faces,
Children I played with when I was a child,
Louise comes back with her brown hair braided,
Annie with ringlets warm and wild.

Only in sleep Time is forgotten--
What may have come to them, who can know?
Yet we played last night as long ago,
And the doll-house stood at the turn of the stair.

The years had not sharpened their smooth round faces,
I met their eyes and found them mild--
Do they, too, dream of me, I wonder,
And for them am I too a child?
 
--Sara Teasdal

​As we all are staying home and hearing the death numbers rise, I thought this piece by Stephen Paulus helps underscore the enormity of the word HOME.  It was also sung by the Basilica Cathedral choir at my father’s funeral.  It is very special to me.  

The highlight of my "extensive" solo career was when I was asked to return to Mankato in 1968 to be the soprano soloist in Handel's Messiah... with the Mankato Symphony Orchestra and Oratorio Chorus.  I don't know if the concert was recorded, but if it was, I don't have it.    So, I have selected a beautiful rendition by Kathleen Battle.  I'm sure that I sounded just like her!  :-)  The frosting on the cake was that I was given $67 for my performance!  (To put that in perspective though, my teaching salary at Edina High School was $5600.) Since then, I've done so many Messiah performances as a chorister and have never tired of the experience.  Enjoy!

​I came to formal choral music rather late in life (post college!) spending the majority of my HS career as pianist, accompanist, and musical theater kid. I saw the original production of Sondheim's Sunday in the Park as a HS Junior. The themes of order, design, tension, balance, and HARMONY resonated with me then, and still guide almost all my choices to this day.

​Bach's B Minor Mass has always held a special place in my heart.  It is the work that brought my father together with Helmuth Rilling and which ultimately led to the founding of the Oregon Bach Festival fifty years ago.  It is music which I studied and sang under the baton of my mentor and teacher, Helmuth Rilling.  It is a staple of the Oregon Bach Festival and the opening concert of the 2020 Festival.  Most recently, it is music that I prepared just three weeks ago with the 2020 JSB Ensemble (Young Stuttgart Bach Ensemble) of the International Bach Academy of Stuttgart.  
 
We were 80+ musicians from 30 countries, who came together on March 6th in a beautiful German monastery to study and prepare Bach's B Minor Mass and Köthener Trauermusik under the baton of Hans-Christoph Rademann.  It was a week of intense rehearsals, joyous music making, shared meals, new friendships, and global exchange. The final performance was to have been in Stuttgart on March 21st – Bach's 335th birthday. With the impending threat of the coronavirus, we had to suspend all workshop, masterclass, and concert activity in Stuttgart so that everyone could safely return home to their respective countries.  On the evening of Thursday, March 12th, we came together one last time to perform the B Minor Mass for ourselves.  There were no trumpets or timpani, so the oboe professor played the first trumpet part from his pocket score. There were no vocal soloists so members of the chorus and vocal masterclasses stepped out to sing the arias.  Teachers and students sang and played side-by-side with incredible focus and passion. It was not a perfect performance but one of great emotion and celebration, reflecting our collective love of music and the time we had shared together.  I will never forget that evening nor the final Dona nobis pacem (Grant us peace), which slowly unfolded and grew in intensity and fervor – an international prayer for global health and cooperation, and a musical exaltation of faith, love, hope, charity, and peace.