Tag: The Crossing

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Famous People

On Friday, I spent the whole day with a famous person.

Well, okay, he’s not A-list celebrity famous (my husband had never heard of him), but in the music world — the choral world, especially — he is quite well-known.

Photo by Malcolm Crowther

His name is Gabriel Jackson, and he wrote a song for The Crossing, which will be premiered Sunday, June 5. He has written an awful lot of gorgeous music, much of it choral (which is why he’s a bit of a celebrity with choirs), and The Crossing was able to commission him to write the first piece for their commissioning project, Seneca Sounds (works based on the writings of Seneca the Younger).

You know what my biggest worry was before I met him? That I wouldn’t have anything to say. I always get tongue-tied around celebrities.

My celebrity complex all started, I think, when I met Peter Tork. Apparently my dad and he used to be close, back in the day, and once my dad realized Nickelodeon had made me a fan of The Monkees, he thought it would be the coolest thing in the world to introduce me to Peter. And it was such a cool thing that I turned into the most awkward, shy preteen you could imagine, and even though I knew I had every capability of being smart and funny, I couldn’t formulate a single witty thing to say.

When I was a freshman in college, I went to a masterclass and recital by Frederica von Stade, my favorite mezzo and idol at the time (I still love you, Flicka, but I have since broadened my horizons!), and my friend convinced me to go backstage and say hello. I was at the end of a long line of well-wishers, and I think she may have been getting a little tired by the time I got to her. This was our exchange:

Me: You were great.
FvS: Thank you.
Me: I’m from the Bay Area too.
FvS: Oh?
Me: Yes. Say hello to San Francisco for me! (nervous, high-pitched giggle)
FvS: …uh…okay…have a good evening.
Me: You too! (walking away with a smile pasted on my face and the distinct urge to bang my head repeatedly against a wall)

After that, I gave up trying to make conversation with famous people. I was riding the subway in New York about ten years ago, and this older gentleman got on the train and sat down next to me. I glanced at him briefly, and here was my thought process:

That guy looks a lot like Henry Winkler.
Heh…I bet he gets that a lot.
Can you imagine being mistaken for Henry Winkler?
OMG, that actually IS Henry Winkler.
Henry Winkler is sitting right next to me!
Henry.
Frickin’.
Winkler.
The Fonz!
What do I do? What do I do what do I say what should I do?
Okay, be cool. Just be cool. Act like you don’t notice.
He doesn’t want to be bothered.

At that moment, some guy got on the train, took one look at him, and said (in a really loud voice), “Hey, you’re the Fonz! How are you? That’s the Fonz, man! Eyyyyyyyyy.”

Henry Winkler just nodded, mumbled, “Thank you,” and got off the next stop. I breathed a sigh of relief that I had not offended Mr. Winkler like that rude guy. But I realized that I was pretty darned close to doing the same thing, and if I had opened my mouth, something idiotic like that would have come right out. I’m sure of it.

So all of these botched celebrity meetings made me doubly nervous to meet Gabriel Jackson, a composer who I seriously admire, and whose very rhythmically complicated music I had been practicing for the last week, trying desperately to get perfect. And what was I going to say to this man? What was he going to be like? I had to pick him up from Newark Airport and take him to his hotel in Philadelphia, a good two-hour drive. Would he be cold and distant? Cranky from the long plane ride? Sleepy and jetlagged?

Was I going to say something incredibly stupid?

When I arrived at the airport, his plane had just touched down, and it took another 30-45 minutes for him to retrieve his baggage and go through customs. All the while, I was nervously waiting with the other limousine drivers, my sweaty palms clutching the paper proclaiming “GABRIEL JACKSON” in big letters — bigger than any of the other drivers’ signs, I noticed. Was that a faux pas? I sighed. His more difficult passages played in a tape loop in my head. Over and over again, my mind subconsciously practiced while I waited for him to appear.

People started trickling out of customs into the waiting area. I studied the face of every man that came down the hallway. Oh, no, I thought, would I recognize him? I’ve only ever seen his headshot! I know he has a big mustache, but maybe he shaved it off before the flight. Well, at least I have the sign. If I don’t recognize him, he will surely see me with the sign.

Turns out, I had nothing at all to fear. Not only did he still have the mustache, but he was wearing the same hat he wears in his photo. I knew it was him the moment he rounded the corner, and I saw him long before he saw me. I waved at him.

He didn’t see me.

I waved again, this time, bouncing his sign up and down.

Finally he saw me. And we shook hands as he entered the waiting area.

“How exciting,” he said in a charming English accent. “I’ve never been met at the airport by someone with a sign before.”

All of a sudden, the pedestal I had been holding him up on disappeared, and he was just an ordinary musician, just like me. We spent the long drive chatting about all sorts of things, from politics to human nature to religion and everything in between. I enjoyed his company immensely, and he even convinced me to come out for a drink with a few folks after rehearsal (which, for those of you who know me, I do very rarely! I’m such a homebody).

Maybe I should stop thinking of famous people as being famous and start remembering that they are just people. I mean, heck, if I ever get famous, that’s how I would want folks to think of me.

Oh, also? If you’re wondering about this group, The Crossing, that I mention from time to time, they just released this video that gives you an idea of how much we singers love being in this ensemble. Seriously, it is AWESOME.

And come to Sunday’s performance. You might even get to meet Gabriel Jackson too.

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The Crossing: Month of Moderns II

I know I was going to write about my learning process. Trouble is, I’ve been too busy learning to write about it!

I’m really excited about the concert I’ll be peforming in today, though. The Crossing is in the middle of its second annual Month of Moderns (a festival of new music), and we’re doing some really wonderful stuff. I’m especially excited about the piece by Lansing McLoskey that we commissioned for our “Levine Project” (works inspired by the poetry of Philip Levine). His piece is called The Memory of Rain, and I feel like it really captures Levine’s juxtaposition of industry and nature quite brilliantly.

Here is a podcast of our conductor, Donald Nally, discussing Levine’s poetry with composers Lansing McLoskey and Paul Fowler (we will be premiering his commissioned piece for the Levine Project next week).
[audio:http://www.supermaren.com/Audio/Crossing_Volume_4.2.mp3]

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And now, a post from the Shameless Plug Department

So I got a comment the other day on my last post from someone who said she wants to read more about my process while learning new music. I’ve actually thought about this a lot, especially since I’ve spent the last couple of weeks rehearsing for a concert of all new music. to be performed this Sunday (Ack! That’s tomorrow! It might even be today — or yesterday — depending on when you’re reading this).

The reason I haven’t written about my learning process is that I’ve been too busy learning to write about it! However, I have been taking some mental notes, and I have a few ideas for some posts in the near future. It might be a little too late for me to expound on the difficulties of this particular concert, but I still have two more concerts’ worth of music to learn before the end of this festival.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in the process of creating music, watch these videos…they are interviews with Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lang as he talks about his own process writing the piece that The Crossing commissioned for tomorrow’s concert.

Crossing Chronicle #1

The Levine Project: an interview with David Lang from Jeffrey Dinsmore on Vimeo.

Crossing Chronicle #2

Crossing Chronicle Vol. 2 – David Lang on writing his new choral work “Statement to the Court” from Jeffrey Dinsmore on Vimeo.

The Crossing: Month of Moderns I
Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 4:00 p.m.

Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill
8855 Germantown Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19118

Included on tomorrow’s concert:
Bo Holten: Tallis Variations (1977)
Benjamin CS Boyle: Cantata: To One in Paradise (2005)
Arvo Pärt: Pilgrim’s Song – Psalm 121 (2001)
John Tavener: The Bridegroom (1999)
David Lang: Commissioned World Premiere: Statement to the Court – The Levine Project

Honestly, if you’re in Philadelphia and you like music, you shouldn’t miss it. Bring an extra pair of socks, because the ones on your feet will be knocked off.

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Working Out and Singing

My friend Amy suggested that I write a post about my experience trying to keep up with the Body-for-LIFE Challenge while also rehearsing and performing at the Opera Company of Philadelphia’s production of Madama Butterfly, so here goes.

This year, I have had the great good fortune to be able to make my money singing — and nothing else. That situation made this past summer very lean (and a little scary), but once September came around, I was happy to see my paycheck come in from the Opera Company. I had a small role in Madama Butterfly (I played Kate Pinkerton, the American wife), so my checks were larger than I am used to just being in the chorus, which makes the scariness of the summer a little more tolerable.

I only mention this because it means I’ve also had the flexibility in my schedule to work out every day, something that I may not have had time for a year or two ago. The Body-for-LIFE guidelines suggest working out 6 days a week, which is no easy feat if you’ve got to get up early, go to your day job, then go to rehearsal, and come home exhausted. My day job was opera rehearsals, and since my role was so small, I wasn’t even called to very many of those! So I eased into a morning workout routine that has served me well.

Being gone from the house for such a long time, especially around dinner time, does wreak havoc with one’s meal plans. I tried the best I could, bringing protein bars in my purse to help with hunger cravings and trying to buy healthy salads instead of fatty tuna melts (my kryptonite), but I’m sure that one of the reasons I didn’t lose weight nearly as quickly over the five weeks of rehearsing and performing Butterfly is that I didn’t eat quite as conscientiously as I would have otherwise.

What also didn’t help is that, as a principal artist, I was invited to receptions and dinners by the company (to meet donors, etc.), and of course there was food and wine at all these events. I think there may be something about being an actor that turns on this pig-out mentality in my head when free food is available. Perhaps subconsciously we actors think that this free meal might be our only meal of the day (and there have been times in my life when that has been the case!), so we might as well fill ourselves up. Either way, it was difficult for me to turn that sensor off in my brain, and I think there were a few days there where I ate way more than my allotted caloric intake.

My costume helped a little: I was wearing a very heavy skirt (it must have weighed about 30 pounds!), and my dressing room was on the third floor, so walking up and down the stairs in my costume helped burn at least a few of those calories. And even though I was starting to get too small for my jeans in the real world, my costume stayed on just fine…probably due to the fact that I was slowing my weight loss with all that free food!

Now I’m in rehearsals for Philadelphia Singers‘ season opening concert, Bach and Beyond. I’m back to rehearsing at night, but I still have my days free. That means I can stick to my routine of a workout first thing in the morning, followed by a protein shake for breakfast. I eat lunch at home, and, if I can, I also have an early dinner at home before I go to rehearsal. I really like Amy’s idea of making sure that I have at least one salad a day; it helps keep my fiber intake up, as well as being a low-fat, low-calorie meal choice. Plus, I really like salads.

Don’t think I’m sitting around doing nothing else during the day, though! I’m trying to run a business and learn music for a recital I’m doing in March (featuring works by Philadelphia composers Benjamin C.S. Boyle and Jeremy Gill), not to mention my ever-increasing work I’ve gotten myself into for The Crossing. I’m still as busy as ever.

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A Little Podcast for Ya

I’m sure you have all heard me talk about The Crossing. I don’t think I’ve written about it as much as I’ve talked about it, but suffice to say that singing with this group of people is exactly the kind of musical experience I wish I could do every single day of my life.

Below is an interview that our director, Donald Nally, gave with WMFT’s Andrew Patner about The Crossing. Yours truly sang in all the recordings that are played on the podcast, including a movement from Kile Smith’s Epiphany Vespers, which will be released on CD in March.

Included in the podcast:

  • “der Frühling” from Tag des Jaars by Kaija Saariaho
  • “Herr Christ” from Epiphany Vespers by Kile Smith
  • “i lie” by David Lang
  • “Was heut’ noch grün” from Vier kleine Finalsätze zu ‘Es ist ein Schnitter, heisst der Tod’ by Erhard Karkoschka (excerpt)
  • “Creator of the Stars of Night” by Gabriel Jackson
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So, What’s This Recording Thing I’ve Been Doing?

So for the last month I’ve been working on a project with The Crossing: the first recording for this fledgling group, and hopefully a sign of things to come.

The piece is Kile Smith’s Vespers, written for The Crossing (a new music choir) and Piffaro (a Renaissance wind band), and I can’t wait until the CD is out in stores.

And, of course, because I seem to be one of those people who takes on WAAAY too much at once, I was not simply learning my music (including a newly rewritten movement Kile threw at us at the last minute!!), I was helping to organize flights from folks coming in from out of town, making sure everyone had the music, and even making available transposed versions for those of us with perfect or even good relative pitch.

(Piffaro’s instruments are all tuned to A=463 rather than the standard 440, which means that all the notes on the page really sound a half step higher than they look on the page, which can drive folks like me nuts.  As Adrian Monk says, “It’s a blessing and a curse.”)

At the same time, I was trying to fulfill my AGMA duties, which have seemed to multiply, Hydra-like, exponentially (and more viciously) the more tasks I complete (since the stress level for this volunteer job had started to affect me physically, I said enough was enough, and I stepped down as delegate).  Oh yeah, and never mind the fact that I had my day job, too, working at the transcription place, which I’m leaving at the end of the month (more on that later).

Since all work and no play make Maren very grumpy, Ray bought Grand Theft Auto IV for me to release some of my frustrations on.  Yeah, I know.  I don’t seem like the GTA4 type, but I’m really liking it.

Anyway, the recording was intense, but I think it went well.  And I really think the final product will be fantastic.  I posted a story that David Patrick Stearns did for WRTI on the piece.  I think it definitely sums up what the process was about…oh yeah, and you get to see me in my pigtails, which I sported every day that week because it was so hot and muggy.

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It’s That Time Again

It’s time for change.

Yes, I have now grown bored with my blog theme and uploaded a new one. Let me know what you think…I kind of think the bird is cute, but I have several other themes that I might experiment with, so if you check back in a few days, the look of the site may change.

I’m also writing with some shameless self-promotion, and I do hope you forgive me, because I’m actually really excited about it. I’ve recently been singing with a new choir in Philadelphia called The Crossing, as I’m sure those of you who have been following along my adventures for a while realize. They’re the group I went to Italy with this past summer, and we’ve had a number of really wonderful concerts in the past few months.

This most recent concert, a world premiere of a piece called An Epiphany Vespers by Kile Smith, was very well-received, by the critics and audiences alike. And luckily, the concert was filmed and now available for the entire world to see on YouTube. And so I will show it here.

It’s really hard to see me, since I’m the second person from the left at the very end of the line, but there is a point where the camera zooms in and you can see me at least somewhat.

So if you liked what you saw and heard, and you’d like to be kept in the loop as to what, when, and where we will be performing next, please visit The Crossing’s upcoming concerts list and join the new emailing list.

Oh, hey, did I mention you can make tax-deductible donations to the Crossing as well? At the moment, all the singers are putting their time and extraordinary talent in for the love of the ensemble, friendship, and music, and are only splitting the box office receipts after expenses, so your money would be helping yours truly, if only indirectly.

Okay, I’m done with the shameless self-promotion. The next thing I post will be something much more witty, I promise.

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Another Year, Another Dollar

Happy New Year! I know I should probably write something about new year’s resolutions and all that stuff, but this year, I’ve decided that I’m not going to have any resolutions, since I never keep them anyway.

I’ve been exceedingly busy this past Christmas season, what with performing in three Philadelphia Singers concerts and one Crossing concert, not to mention Christmas caroling. Oh, and did I mention I’m taking over said Christmas caroling company? Yeah, I was doing administration, HR, and payroll, while the current owner did sales. The deal isn’t done yet, but hopefully next year I’ll be running the whole thing myself, and by the time December 2008 comes around, it’ll be a well-oiled machine. Hopefully.

I did manage to get myself sick sometime around Thanksgiving, and I never really shook the after-effects of the bug. I’m still suffering from post-nasal drip, which is making me cough, and thus harming my voice. Very, very bad news, folks. My biggest problem is that I normally have quite a bit of time after Christmas to rest up and heal for the next round of concerts, but not this time! I’m currently in rehearsal for a Crossing concert with Piffaro (Jan. 5 & 6…come see us!) and then a barrage of Philly Singers performances of a Jennifer Higdon world premiere. So I’ve been in rehearsals since the day after Christmas, and I’ve only had New Year’s eve and New Year’s day off for some much-needed rest.

Of course, during all this craziness, my cat, Scratchy (no, not Itchy, who had the toxoplasmosis…Itchy is better, by the way, although his head is still a little bit sideways and probably will be permanently), got a urinary obstruction (essentially bladder stones), and we had to take him to the emergency room. He had to stay there for two nights with a catheter up his you-know-what, which, according to the attending vet, caused him to be “grumpy.” No kidding. Anyway, he is home now, and we have to keep both him and his brother (since they eat each other’s food) on a special diet formulated to raise the acidity of the urine in order to break up the crystals. They also have to be fed only canned food (it hydrates them and dilutes the urine) for the next two weeks, and man, that stuff is expensive!

Oddly enough, from all I’ve read and all the vets have told me, urinary crystals, or FLUTD, are pretty common in male cats of Scratchy’s age (he’s 5 years old). But when I went into the pet store, out of the myriad of cat foods, I only found one brand that made a canned formula suited to his condition. Oh, there were about two or three different dry types, but because I’ve been cautioned to keep Scratchy as hydrated as possible during the next two weeks, canned is all he should eat. So Purina has the monopoly on cats with urinary tract disorders. It’s either that or get the really expensive prescription stuff from the vet’s office. Oy.

Ray keeps telling me the cats are going to have to go out and get themselves jobs if they’re going to keep spending all of our money. I’m beginning to think he’s right. It’s definitely a good thing that I’m working so much.