Portland Recorder Society December Newsletter

Vol.3 No. 4

December, 2009

The next playing session will be Friday, December 18th, 2009 at 7:30pm.

Be ready to play at 7:30pm in the Community Room of the Kennedy School, 5736 NE 33rd Ave., Portland, OR. Bring music stands and stand lights if you have them. For more information, go to our website.

Links

Go to our Website

Become a Member

Register for Columbia Gorge Early Music Retreat

American Recorder Society

Not currently receiving this newsletter each month? Sign up HERE

All our professional coaches are available for private lessons and ensemble coaching.

Please contact them directly for scheduling at the links below.

Vicki Boeckman

Eileen Hadidian

Phil Neuman

Gayle Neuman

Kim Pineda

Bryce Peltier

Greetings and Happy Holidays to you all!

Ok, here's your fair warning...you won't want to miss this Friday's special playing session with Seattle Recorder Society's music director, Peter Seibert. Peter is an active composer and arranger and has been conducting recorder orchestras throughout the country for many distinguished years. We are incredibly lucky to get to play some of his music under his own baton. I hope you'll be able to join us and give him a warm Portland welcome! Another surprise on Friday will take the form of a slide show...come join us and see what it's all about!

See you soon,
Zoe

Upcoming Playing Sessions

December 18th - Peter Seibert (Seattle, WA) conducts
January 15th - Vicki Boeckman conducts
February 19th - Kim Pineda (Eugene, OR) conducts

Notes from our Guest Conductor

Hello Portland Recorder Society!

At the December 18th meeting, I plan to lead a diverse selection of musical styles with you. We'll do some Johann Sebastian Bach, some settings of medieval carols, and a well-known Christmas season work by one of America's greatest song writers.

Bach was a church musician during most of his career, and he created settings of traditional chorales (hymn tunes) that were intended for congregational singing. We will start with these and then progress to some of his chorale-preludes that I've arranged for recorder ensemble. Like the simpler chorales, the chorale-preludes are based on traditional hymn melodies, but they were written for organ and have more technical challenge. They are sublime music.

I've been asked to do some of my own works and plan to lead selections from my Suite on Early Carol Tunes (PRB CC036) and my Brightest and Best (PRB CC067). They are both SATB settings of melodies from less explored repertory; the first is medieval and the second is from the American folk tradition. (If you've seen them in music stores, the Suite is green, and Brightest is red.) I won't have copies for sale but will provide parts for playing. Stylistically, these works are very different, and we will sample both sets.

To end the evening, we'll play my arrangement of a tune that you've heard many times each December. As a hint, the composer lived for over a century. The setting I've done is in mid-20th c. dance band style. Come find out what it is!

My colleague Vicki Boeckman has told me what an enthusiastic group you are, and I'm looking forward to making music with you!

Peter Seibert

Columbia Gorge Early Music Retreat
April 2-5, 2010

Early Bird Registration is OPEN and the clock is ticking!! Get $100 discount if you register before Dec. 31, 2009!

Warm gatherings of friends and the fast approach of Christmas and the New Years Day fill my days. I anxiously await each day's delivery of mail for Seasons Greetings cards and Columbia Gorge Early Music Retreat registrations. Most exciting!

I've received registrations from returning attendees -- I think of the great times we shared at Menucha. And from new participants -- I am thrilled about the opportunity for new friendships and wonderful experiences! What a great time of year this is!

I encourage those have been waiting to consider this a friendly nudge to sign up now! Secure your place before December 31, and give yourself the gift of a $100 discount on your registration (includes tuition, meals, lodging and faculty concert).

Happy holidays to all!

And I hope to see you at Menucha on April 2!

Jeanne Lynch, CGEMR Administrator

Some comments from previous attendees:

"Menucha was a great facility and really set the tone for this Retreat. Nice that we had windows with beautiful vistas in each class."
""I liked having an opportunity to play with different directors, the variety of music + having full orchestra is great."
"This was a very well organized workshop. Well structured, planned. Good balance of teachers & kinds of music. Am very appreciative of the evening, English Country dance. Faculty concert - Wow!"

Clef Notes - The November PRS session in Review

by Ellen Mendoza

It was a dark and stormy night, as the faithful members of the PRS gathered in the Micky M's Community Room, which always gives me grade school flashback nightmares. It must be the clock on the wall with hands that never move. The room was full to the brim with recorderistas, including at least a few brand new potential recruits. As usual the population seemed tilted toward the large and heavy tenors and basses, because, it seems, you just can't have too many low notes.

After the usual shuffling of parts, we began to play, conducted by Seattle Starlet, Vicki Boeckman. Words fail me, as I attempt to describe the music we played. I guess you had to be there. No actually, it followed a traditional recorder line-up: Slowish old sacred music to warm up, tune up and connect with your inner cathedral, followed by old graceful secular dance music involving more eighth notes and many opportunities to completely lose your place. The finale was a swingy newish piece that was a snap to play, once we put aside all devotion to common note values and just went with the feel of it and Vicki's body language. After we packed up the instruments, we played catch with tasty tangerines, and demolished a cheese log. In other words, just the usual partying by a weird bunch devoted to music from columns of air moving over obstacles through tubes of this and that.
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This column needs volunteer writers...all styles, any point of view. Please contact Zoe at pdxrecorders@comcast.net or let me know at the next playing session!

News flash! Recorders dominate concerts in Portland. Violins very worried.

by Jeanne Lynch

A new and exciting trend has been spotted in Portland. The recorder is the most commonly seen and heard instrument in premiere music events in the city. Within the past three weeks this concert-goer has experienced a cornucopia of recorder riches.

The Oregon Renaissance Band, featuring PRS members Sharon Cheney and Daphne Clifton, performed "Extreme Early Instruments" program on the Community Music Center Family Fridays program. What a delight to hear recorders blended with their exotic cousins the rackets, sackbuts, curtals and others!

The following week included two outstanding chamber groups: La Stella Baroque (with PRS member Zoe Tokar) at First Presbyterian and Wildwood Consort (with PRS member Jan Groh) at the Old Church. Each group was composed of different instruments (recorder, violin, gamba and lute vs. recorder, flute, gamba and harpsichord), and the two presented quite different yet equally satisfying performances of the baroque repertoire.

The icing on this proverbial recorder cake was at Portland Baroque Orchestra's Bach's Joyful Noise concert. Gonzolo Ruiz and Kathryn Montoya, well known baroque oboists, were featured soloists. One played on oboe and the other on recorder in the Brandenburg No. 2, and in Harpsichord Concerto No. 6, the audience was treated to an exciting version performed by two recorders.

Violins, take note...and watch your backs!

	Thank you Volunteers!
Thank you to all who signed up to bring snacks for enjoyment after our playing sessions. We still have more slots to fill to keep our stomachs full! The sign-up sheet will go around AGAIN this month. Here's the friendly reminder to Gwyneth and Bruce Van Buskirk and Jan Groh - you're on for December 18th. Simple and healthy is ideal: juice, fruit, crackers, cheese, etc.

	We Need Your Membership!
Portland Recorder Society membership includes: ~monthly playing sessions (Sept-May) coached by professionals ~Discount to Columbia Gorge Early Music Retreat ~Monthly e-mail newsletters ~Networking opportunities with like-minded musicians Yearly dues are $40, additional donations welcomed and are tax deductible. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization! Click HERE for a link to our membership registration form. If you are not a member, drop-in fees are $10 per playing session; your very first visit is free to try us out!

Upcoming Events

PRS members are welcome to submit recorder/early music related items for this section. Deadline is 7 days prior to the next PRS playing session. Submit to pdxrecorders@comcast.net
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Oregon Renaissance Band will perform An Early Christmas from Many Nations "Echoes from Christmas Past" on Friday, December 18th, 2009 at 8pm at the Glenn and Viola Walters Cultural Arts Center, 527 E. Main St. in Hillsboro, Oregon. 14 musicians will be playing Christmas music from Scotland, England, France, Brittany, Mexico, Finland, Germany, and Italy on period instruments including lute, early guitar, harp, violin, viola da gamba, sackbutts, racketts, crumhorn, tartold (dragon-shaped rackett), recorders, bells, percussion, and voices. Advance tickets $15; day of the concert $17. For ticket information call 503-615-3485.

Oregon Renaissance Band will perform An Early Christmas from Many Nations "Echoes from Christmas Past" featuring early Christmas music from around the world: Saturday, December 26, 2009 at 3pm and 7:30pm at the Community Music Center in Portland, 3350 SE Francis St., Portland; and Sunday, December 27, 2009 at 3pm also at the Community Music Center. 14 musicians will be playing Christmas music from Scotland, England, France, Brittany, Mexico, Finland, Germany, and Italy on period instruments including lute, early guitar, harp, violin, viola da gamba, sackbutts, racketts, crumhorn, tartold (dragon-shaped rackett), recorders, bells, percussion, and voices. For the Community Music Center concerts admission is $12 and $10, available only at the door.
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Our friends, the Oregon Coast Recorder Society, has a new website! Please visit http://www.coastrecorder.org/index.htm to see what your neighbors are up to!

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