Some tidbits from various online sources:
* You can see some pictures from Sing For Hope: By Leaps and Sounds! over at the Children’s Aid Society website. What a great afternoon!
* I joined Camille Zamora, co-founder of SFH, in recording an interview with Michael Rice, host of OperaNow!, the opera podcast, for a special segment on performers giving back. We were joined by Janice Mayer of Classical Action and Frederica von Stade, who recently presented a concert for Classical Action with Jake Hegie. You can listen to the whole podcast here (or download it from iTunes); our segment starts about twenty minutes in, I think. But you should listen to the whole thing. It’s deliciously irreverent.
* I’ve been having a terrible time keeping this a secret. Yada yada yada, indeed!!
* I haven’t been able to update ACB.com since I got my Mac, so I am talking with a web designer about building me a new site. If that happens, it will likely go live in the fall, so until then, I made a temporary site using iWeb. So easy!! Check it out here: http://web.mac.com/annecarolynbird/temp
That’s all for now!
Showing posts with label Sing for Hope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sing for Hope. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Monday, March 03, 2008
Gardening
I thought the world was sugarcake, for so our master said.
But now I’ll teach my hands to bake our loaf of daily bread.
We’re neither pure nor wise nor good; we’ll do the best we know.
We’ll build our house and chop our wood and make our garden grow.
When I first sang these words as a high school junior at State Choir in Salt Lake City, I thought it was the silliest song ever. I distinctly remember thinking, “This song makes no sense.” Ah, the folly of youth.
I’m a bit overwhelmed by the awesomeness of today’s Sing For Hope concert. All I know at this moment is that my friends and colleagues are first rate, talented and generous and sweet. We have laid some outstanding groundwork for future collaborations with and for Children’s Aid Society. (People are already talking about next year’s event.) But there were also some new connections made today among my friends, folks who didn’t know each other but who discovered many awesome things in common.
Something I forgot to mention in my short speech today was another part of my inspiration for this concert. A couple of years ago, maybe even just last year, my mom asked that instead of giving her birthday/Mother’s Day/Christmas presents, we instead give a “random act of kindness” to a stranger. (I think I’ve mentioned this in terms of giving away my post-concert flowers.) This idea has really grown in me this year, and I have sought out opportunities to give back more and more often. This concert was in part a rather large manifestation of that, a late Christmas and early Mother’s Day gift to my mom. Thanks, Mom!
I have not always been a giving person. I think I had a lot to work out before I could be open enough to give without fear of “running out,” without wondering if there would be anything left for me. Or, frankly, before I could even see that anything needed to be given, before I could extend my view beyond myself. But now I think I truly understand the ideas behind the adages “to whom much is given, much is required,” and “the more you give, the more you receive.”
I’m promptly running out of steam, as my post-show high wears off and my nose gets more and more stuffed up (currently I can only breathe through my mouth), so I’m going to wrap this up, unfinished and unfocused as it is. The point I really wanted to make was that I have fully embraced my status of being “neither pure nor wise nor good,” and through the daily work of (metaphorically) chopping wood and building my house, I have found that I have more to give than I ever knew.
I would like to think that we planted some seeds today, both in the hearts of folks who support CAS and other wonderful charities and also in the minds and spirits of the students who saw and heard us perform. I know at least one student in the choir is considering a career in music, and I hope we encouraged her and others to follow that dream. It’s a wonderful life! (Crazy sometimes, but wonderful nonetheless!) If you would like to help us make this garden grow, please consider making a contribution to Children’s Aid Society. When you call or print out the form, please mention Sing For Hope and the music programs. Unlike cooks in the kitchen, it’s impossible to have too many gardeners in this garden...
But now I’ll teach my hands to bake our loaf of daily bread.
We’re neither pure nor wise nor good; we’ll do the best we know.
We’ll build our house and chop our wood and make our garden grow.
When I first sang these words as a high school junior at State Choir in Salt Lake City, I thought it was the silliest song ever. I distinctly remember thinking, “This song makes no sense.” Ah, the folly of youth.
I’m a bit overwhelmed by the awesomeness of today’s Sing For Hope concert. All I know at this moment is that my friends and colleagues are first rate, talented and generous and sweet. We have laid some outstanding groundwork for future collaborations with and for Children’s Aid Society. (People are already talking about next year’s event.) But there were also some new connections made today among my friends, folks who didn’t know each other but who discovered many awesome things in common.
Something I forgot to mention in my short speech today was another part of my inspiration for this concert. A couple of years ago, maybe even just last year, my mom asked that instead of giving her birthday/Mother’s Day/Christmas presents, we instead give a “random act of kindness” to a stranger. (I think I’ve mentioned this in terms of giving away my post-concert flowers.) This idea has really grown in me this year, and I have sought out opportunities to give back more and more often. This concert was in part a rather large manifestation of that, a late Christmas and early Mother’s Day gift to my mom. Thanks, Mom!
I have not always been a giving person. I think I had a lot to work out before I could be open enough to give without fear of “running out,” without wondering if there would be anything left for me. Or, frankly, before I could even see that anything needed to be given, before I could extend my view beyond myself. But now I think I truly understand the ideas behind the adages “to whom much is given, much is required,” and “the more you give, the more you receive.”
I’m promptly running out of steam, as my post-show high wears off and my nose gets more and more stuffed up (currently I can only breathe through my mouth), so I’m going to wrap this up, unfinished and unfocused as it is. The point I really wanted to make was that I have fully embraced my status of being “neither pure nor wise nor good,” and through the daily work of (metaphorically) chopping wood and building my house, I have found that I have more to give than I ever knew.
I would like to think that we planted some seeds today, both in the hearts of folks who support CAS and other wonderful charities and also in the minds and spirits of the students who saw and heard us perform. I know at least one student in the choir is considering a career in music, and I hope we encouraged her and others to follow that dream. It’s a wonderful life! (Crazy sometimes, but wonderful nonetheless!) If you would like to help us make this garden grow, please consider making a contribution to Children’s Aid Society. When you call or print out the form, please mention Sing For Hope and the music programs. Unlike cooks in the kitchen, it’s impossible to have too many gardeners in this garden...
Monday, January 21, 2008
Miscellany, Jan 21
* From an email I wrote this morning: “This year has presented a whole new facet of my career - music being given or offered to me [unsolicited] to perform and/or premiere - and I really don't know yet how to navigate it. I'm learning slowly, and at the same time, am totally overwhelmed with all the opera and "traditional" old-school standard stuff that is coming my way. It's a wonderful problem to have, I assure you, but it still take some figuring out.” Le sigh.
* Re: the March 2nd Sing for Hope concert: A couple of you have commented on how I can put this thing together organizationally with all the other stuff I have going on. That’s the beautiful thing! The goal of Sing For Hope (one of the goals, anyway) is to facilitate these concerts in such a way that the only thing “we artists” have to worry about is our performance. They, together with the folks at the benefitting charity (Children’s Aid Society in this case), take care of press and advertising, ticketing, programs and publicity materials, all of that. It’s an incredible gift. If you would like to help SFH in this mission, they have a donation page, too! The concert will be at 3pm, fyi, if you’d like to save the date.
* This week I have to get my taxes done. I like to have them done by my birthday every year, but February and March are so busy now that I know I’d better do them now or I’ll be scrambling come April. The incentive: last year I had only W2 employment, as opposed to 1099, which means… tax refund!!
* I made new friend at a recital this weekend, giving my extra ticket to someone I ran into at the box office. Turns out he is a musicology PhD and music critic from Europe, and we spent some lovely hours talking about what’s shakin’ in “classical music” these days. He’s here to do some research into a major 20th C composer, and I just happen to be sort of “connected” with that scene here in NYC; my roommate’s good friend is a major scholar on the composer he’s studying. I’m excited to introduce him to folks, because I think his ideas about music and music writing and “the scene” in general will be a welcome addition. It was a fantastically serendipitous meeting!
* Related: there are some great comments in the Shake Up post; go read them. I’d love to say I’ll get a response posted, but keep reading and you’ll see that is unlikely… Read TM’s great riff instead.
* I can’t remember who first linked to this beautiful interview with Dawn Upshaw, but thank you. “Joy and beauty are my goals.” Amen! (I couldn’t help clicking on the included sound files, fearing (hoping??) that the listed “Dancing on the Ceiling” was a Lionel Richie cover…teehee)
* Music this week: Susanna, including a couple of hours with other GR cast members to run recits and ensembles; Rosina, although she’s still in the text-only stage; Evan Chambers’ new oratorio The Old Burying Ground, which I’ll be recording and touring between Figaro and the SFH concert (I was so excited to learn that a friend will be with me on this project!); and just for fun, some Strauss songs with a pianist/conductor friend. We discovered that we both performed the same set (Madchenblumen; can anybody tell me how to get umlauts with Pages?!) on our Masters’ recitals, so we’re going to get together and make some music. I’m looking forward to it all, but it is a lot, so I apologize in advance for a light blogging week… (Get off my back, Marc.)
* Re: the March 2nd Sing for Hope concert: A couple of you have commented on how I can put this thing together organizationally with all the other stuff I have going on. That’s the beautiful thing! The goal of Sing For Hope (one of the goals, anyway) is to facilitate these concerts in such a way that the only thing “we artists” have to worry about is our performance. They, together with the folks at the benefitting charity (Children’s Aid Society in this case), take care of press and advertising, ticketing, programs and publicity materials, all of that. It’s an incredible gift. If you would like to help SFH in this mission, they have a donation page, too! The concert will be at 3pm, fyi, if you’d like to save the date.
* This week I have to get my taxes done. I like to have them done by my birthday every year, but February and March are so busy now that I know I’d better do them now or I’ll be scrambling come April. The incentive: last year I had only W2 employment, as opposed to 1099, which means… tax refund!!
* I made new friend at a recital this weekend, giving my extra ticket to someone I ran into at the box office. Turns out he is a musicology PhD and music critic from Europe, and we spent some lovely hours talking about what’s shakin’ in “classical music” these days. He’s here to do some research into a major 20th C composer, and I just happen to be sort of “connected” with that scene here in NYC; my roommate’s good friend is a major scholar on the composer he’s studying. I’m excited to introduce him to folks, because I think his ideas about music and music writing and “the scene” in general will be a welcome addition. It was a fantastically serendipitous meeting!
* Related: there are some great comments in the Shake Up post; go read them. I’d love to say I’ll get a response posted, but keep reading and you’ll see that is unlikely… Read TM’s great riff instead.
* I can’t remember who first linked to this beautiful interview with Dawn Upshaw, but thank you. “Joy and beauty are my goals.” Amen! (I couldn’t help clicking on the included sound files, fearing (hoping??) that the listed “Dancing on the Ceiling” was a Lionel Richie cover…teehee)
* Music this week: Susanna, including a couple of hours with other GR cast members to run recits and ensembles; Rosina, although she’s still in the text-only stage; Evan Chambers’ new oratorio The Old Burying Ground, which I’ll be recording and touring between Figaro and the SFH concert (I was so excited to learn that a friend will be with me on this project!); and just for fun, some Strauss songs with a pianist/conductor friend. We discovered that we both performed the same set (Madchenblumen; can anybody tell me how to get umlauts with Pages?!) on our Masters’ recitals, so we’re going to get together and make some music. I’m looking forward to it all, but it is a lot, so I apologize in advance for a light blogging week… (Get off my back, Marc.)
Monday, January 14, 2008
Youth Without Youth
A few weeks ago, as I was dreaming of my birthday party even in the middle of holiday merriment, I had an idea. My birthday only happens once every four years (February 29, Leap Day!), so when a Leap Year comes around, as it does in 2008, I tend to get a little giddy with the prospect of throwing a great big party!
This year, the 29th is on a Friday, so I immediately started thinking about a blow-out bash: rent a room in a bar or club, invite every single person I know in NYC… you know the kind. This will be my 8th birthday, and I know from experience that I will get more than a few “gag” gifts: Barbies, stickers, etc.. So, I thought, why not ask my friends to intentionally bring a gift suitable for an 8-year-old? Clothes, books, toys… We could then donate everything to a children’s charity here in the city.
And then the idea grew: why not do more? Why not ask my friends to join me in a benefit concert? I recently joined the roster of Sing for Hope, an incredible non-profit organization that “supports artists who create events that benefit humanitarian causes.” With a motto of “Uniting Artists, Uniting Communities” and a roster of singers, actors, dancers, composers, pianists, and even acrobats from Cirque du Soleil, all of whom donate their time and talent, SFH “facilitates the connection between artists and charities, and provides a network of support.” Over the years, SFH has raised over a a million dollars for HIV/AIDS charities alone.
After doing a little research into children’s charities in the city, I found one that I felt I connected with, and I sent off an email to the director of SFH, asking for her help in facilitating with the charity. She loved the idea, and immediately set to work! It’s amazing working with a group that has ground-work very well laid and with people how know how to make ideas become realities. We all - representatives from SFH, the benefiting charity, and me - are hoping to meet tomorrow for a chance to talk over the idea and the program and the details. As soon as we meet, I’ll update here to let you know the organization. We are even hoping that one of their choirs of children will be able to join us on the concert!
Last week I also sent out a message to my friends, and as of now I have more participants than I know what to do with! We’ve had to shift the date to Sunday, March 2nd, instead of doing it on the 29th, because a good friend is making a big debut that night! Many of us want to attend her recital, and I wanted her to be able to join us in the concert, so we just made a slight adjustment. Stay tuned for concert rep information, but you can rest assured that we will all be singing "Paradox” from the Pirates of Penzance!
If all goes according to plan, I’d like to see this turn into the way I celebrate my birthday (or un-birthday) every year. We’re starting with a small no-fuss Sunday afternoon concert at a church; maybe by my 9th or 10th birthday we’ll be hosting a $10k/table gala ball!! This could turn into a major relationship with this charity, or we could rotate through several that feel like a good fit. What an exciting prospect, what a way to give something back...
This year, the 29th is on a Friday, so I immediately started thinking about a blow-out bash: rent a room in a bar or club, invite every single person I know in NYC… you know the kind. This will be my 8th birthday, and I know from experience that I will get more than a few “gag” gifts: Barbies, stickers, etc.. So, I thought, why not ask my friends to intentionally bring a gift suitable for an 8-year-old? Clothes, books, toys… We could then donate everything to a children’s charity here in the city.
And then the idea grew: why not do more? Why not ask my friends to join me in a benefit concert? I recently joined the roster of Sing for Hope, an incredible non-profit organization that “supports artists who create events that benefit humanitarian causes.” With a motto of “Uniting Artists, Uniting Communities” and a roster of singers, actors, dancers, composers, pianists, and even acrobats from Cirque du Soleil, all of whom donate their time and talent, SFH “facilitates the connection between artists and charities, and provides a network of support.” Over the years, SFH has raised over a a million dollars for HIV/AIDS charities alone.
After doing a little research into children’s charities in the city, I found one that I felt I connected with, and I sent off an email to the director of SFH, asking for her help in facilitating with the charity. She loved the idea, and immediately set to work! It’s amazing working with a group that has ground-work very well laid and with people how know how to make ideas become realities. We all - representatives from SFH, the benefiting charity, and me - are hoping to meet tomorrow for a chance to talk over the idea and the program and the details. As soon as we meet, I’ll update here to let you know the organization. We are even hoping that one of their choirs of children will be able to join us on the concert!
Last week I also sent out a message to my friends, and as of now I have more participants than I know what to do with! We’ve had to shift the date to Sunday, March 2nd, instead of doing it on the 29th, because a good friend is making a big debut that night! Many of us want to attend her recital, and I wanted her to be able to join us in the concert, so we just made a slight adjustment. Stay tuned for concert rep information, but you can rest assured that we will all be singing "Paradox” from the Pirates of Penzance!
If all goes according to plan, I’d like to see this turn into the way I celebrate my birthday (or un-birthday) every year. We’re starting with a small no-fuss Sunday afternoon concert at a church; maybe by my 9th or 10th birthday we’ll be hosting a $10k/table gala ball!! This could turn into a major relationship with this charity, or we could rotate through several that feel like a good fit. What an exciting prospect, what a way to give something back...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
