We had one of those priceless moments tonight during our evening rehearsal (our first with the Portland Symphonic choir for this series) - Soprano Cyndia Sieden was singing that most gorgeous and time-stopping aria (the one that goes up to a super high D) from Carmina Burana.  She had just done the slow scale up to the high D, and was at the pause before the phrase ended, and the whole hall was silent: you could have heard a pin drop - she was sounding phenomenal, and everyone didn’t want the spell to be broken, and she turned to Carlos with a slightly helpless look on her face: she’d forgotten the last six notes of the aria!  Of course Carlos cracked up, followed by the orchestra, Cyndia, and the entire chorus.  It was a nice moment in an otherwise hard-working rehearsal session.

I was a bit out of it for the first part of the rehearsal as I’d decided that riding my bike to work on an 85 degree evening would be fun (plus my wife had the car).  It was hot and I didn’t drink enough water along the way, so I was in a bit of a daze for a while.  I also learned that riding with my viola on my back is a deal-breaker: the top of the case hits the back of my helmet so I have to keep my head way down to ride.  Bummer!

Click the thumbnail image above to enlarge this cool score - find more info here.

We had a great day today - we got up and went to our favorite coffee house - Crema Bakery+Cafe (see link in sidebar to visit their site) - then went out to IKEA to do some browsing.  We ended up getting some small stuff that is hardly worth mentioning, then we got a gift for our two cats, Daisy and Figaro.

Photos after the jump… [Read more →]

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