The Tricky Ave Maria

Lisa, who is tall and thin and beautiful,  has long and incredibly graceful arms that she uses to wonderful musical effect.  While she doesn’t eschew the conducting patterns that we use as shorthand to communicate beats, she is not hampered by them, and when a musical phrase needs to soar, her gestures soar, and the singing moves in the most  beautiful way.  Those singers, intense and involved and expressive, made some of the best music-making I’ve heard in years.

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So, Wellesley sings the first verse of the Biebl, then, surprisingly, Lisa steps off the podium. The Camerata conductor, Frank Albinder (another old friend), who sang with Chanticleer for 11 years or so, gets on the podium, the men in the balcony stand up, and they sing the second verse, in the men’s version.  Then Lisa gets back up and both groups sing the third verse, combined, filling the church with glorious sound.

I was absolutely undone.

These are the moments we musicians live for. Worth the snow and slush.

But it was their final piece – and a bit of a trick – that undid me.  Following Wellesley was to be the Washington Men’s Camerata (which happens to contain several old Cornell Glee Club buddies, and I do mean old!).  They were in the balcony of the church listening to the women.  The final Wellesley piece was the famous Biebl “Ave Maria.”

Frank, Lisa, and I spent quite a bit of time together at the World Choral Symposium in Copenhagen, Denmark.  They are both warm, beautiful people.  I was lucky they let me hang around with them.  Here’s a little video that shows them both – my students saw this video and accused me of being a little drunk – I was not.  But I was happy to be hanging out with Lisa and Frank and listening to that great music: