Rochester, N.Y. – 09/30/08
7:30 pm | Some words of thanks
Betsy and Mitch
8:01 am | Rochester, N.Y. – 09/27/08
7:00 pm | Coffee Cake
So busy this week with teaching 9 students in two days and rehearsing for my upcoming concerts. Of course I am adding just one more thing to my agenda and have scheduled a meeting this morning for planning another concert in November. I guess I work best when I multi-task and I am happiest when I am singing. Can’t stay long now, I have to bake a coffee cake…
7:39 am | Rise and Shine
Up early this morning, no time to lose with two big programs coming up next week. There’s a lot of practicing to be done and I need to translate some Italian and German songs. I also have to write the small lecture which will be presented with my recital “Songs of the Rhein” at Roberts Wesleyan College. I enjoy using my writing skills for programs and hope that my clarification brings the audience closer to appreciate the music and text as a whole.
6:53 am | How I came to advertise…
One of the reasons I started advertising my services at weddings was because I got married last year. I picked up Best Wedding Planner to get some ideas for my wedding and I noticed that there were no vocalists listed for ceremony music. I began to wonder: “Where do brides go when they are looking for a vocalist for their wedding?” I saw this as an opportunity to make it known to the bridal community that a local professional was available. So here I am, and here is a picture from my wedding last year to Mark.
4:50 pm | And onward
Had a consultation for an October wedding last Friday. People do think about ceremony music at the last minute, I was told this by a wedding planner. The couple were having some trouble deciding on the right songs, so asked them about their relationship and I suggested some repertoire that might be a perfect fit. We came up with four songs:
How Beautiful – Processional
The Wedding Song – After the Readings
You Raise Me Up – The Lighting of the Unity Candle
At Last – Recessional
I will actually be playing and the keyboard and guitar at this wedding. It’s inside, so I won’t have to worry about cold feet or soggy shoes….
8:03 pm | Rainbow
Sang at a wedding yesterday at Shadow Lake. It would have been lovely to sing by the pond but the weather did not cooperate and a last minute decision was made to hold the ceremony inside. With hundreds of dollars worth of electronic equipment to be spared from getting wet, this was a wise choice. So thanks to some help I set up for the ceremony, played 15 minutes on the keyboard and then “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” as the ceremony began. I thought about the irony of this song as a gazed out the window at the teeming rain over the pond. “There is a rainbow out there despite the weather,” I thought and as the bride Betsy appeared in her stunning gown I mused to myself: “oh here is the rainbow right now…”
12:27 pm | Penfield, NY – 09/13/08
4:45 pm | After all these years…no cold feet
One may ask why I am interested in singing weddings. The reason is simple, I love singing weddings. It’s so wonderful to take part in a life changing moment for two people and I have gladly done this for a long time.
I started singing weddings when I was still a high school student. Those days I would play my guitar and sing; songs of John Denver and The Carpenters were the rage back then. When I began singing classical music, I would be accompanied by the organ. It was great to let my voice soar over the whole church. After I moved to Europe, I sang fewer weddings, but there were always an occasional one or two. I know the last wedding I sang in Germany was at the famous cathedral in Bamberg. It was a February wedding and it was so cold, that I could see my warm breath as I sang in the choir loft. As I waited for my songs, my feet were freezing so I found two plastic bags and slipped my feet into them to keep warm!
Now that I am back in the States, I still meet people who say “You sang at my wedding, I’ll always remember that.”
That is all the more reason to continue singing at weddings after all these years.
8:56 pm | 