Eric Whitacre

How in the world did I miss this? Last week the BYU Singers performed my Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine live for the first time. AAAAGHH! Was anyone at the concert? Please let me know if you were there!

Here is a very, very cool video advertising the piece and the concert. And just look at the passion and intelligence on Dr. Staheli’s face. (He’s their brilliant conductor, and the man responsible for that luscious ‘BYU sound’).

Man, I just love that choir.

This is the recording from the “Eric Whitacre Extravaganza” in Minneapolis last weekend. It’s me conducting, and the Minnesota High School Honors Choir singing. The pianist was Renae Williams.

Here, again, are the poems by Ogden Nash:

THE CANARY
The song of canaries
Never varies.
And when they’re molting
They’re pretty revolting.

THE EEL
I don’t mind eels
Except as meals.
And the way they feels.

THE KANGAROO
O Kangaroo, O Kangaroo,
Be grateful that you’re in the zoo,
And not transmuted by a boomerang
Into zestful tangy Kangaroo meringue.

These will be in print this summer. (Available from Hal Leonard in North America; Chester Music for the rest of the world). You can purhase this recording (and the entire Minnesota concert) from the VocalEssence website.

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A week ago Sunday (March 15th, 2009) was my first performance with DCINY, the company that I’ve partnered with for another June concert this year in NYC and four concerts next year (including two in Carnegie Hall). The performers and I had a BLAST, especially with the premiere of “Animal Crackers (Volume II).” I changed a bunch of things during rehearsal, both in the vocal parts and the piano part, constantly tweaking it and trying to make the three pieces funnier. The old Vaudeville saying is so true: ‘dying is easy, comedy is hard.’ In the end we got some great laughs from a terrific audience, and we gave one of the best performances of The Five Hebrew Love Songs I’ve ever been a part of – such musical singing, and an outstanding string quartet.

Then it was off to Minnesota for the “Eric Whitacre Extravaganza.” (I know, I know. I didn’t come up with the name). What a town! On Friday night they held a reading session for the community, and the ‘community sing’ was probably the best pick-up choir I’ve ever worked with. With another rehearsal we could easily have been ready to perform an actual concert.

I also gave three extended NPR interviews, including this one with the terrific John Birge.

Then to the concert. Over the weekend I worked with The 75 voice St. Olaf Choir; the 120 voice VocalEssence; the 36 voice Ensemble Singers; and the 170 voice Minnesota Honors Choir, whose auditioned and came to Minneapolis from all over the state for this event. And my god can the Minnesotans sing. Truly outstanding musicianship from every choir, regardless of age or experience.

The sold out show – 2,400 seats – was with one of the best audiences I’ve ever seen (heard). Just incredible enthusiasm, and a sense in the hall that these people truly adored choral music. Such a deeply spiritual experience for me.

And I premiered another new piece, Nox Aurumque, sort of a darker, brood-ier companion piece to Lux Aurumque, with the Ensemble Singers and St. Olaf combining for the premiere. And Charles Anthony Silvestri (the poet for Sleep, Leonardo Dreams, Lux Aurumque, Nox Aurumque) joined me onstage to talk about each of our collaborations together, including Nox.

At the end the concert, all of the singers came onstage (nearly 400) and we performed Cloudburst and Sleep. I can’t even begin to describe what it was like conducting that many extraordinary singers at the same time. Just… transcendent. And powerful. And frickin’ AWESOME.

The whole concert, including all of my commentary between pieces, can be purchased online through the VocalEssence website. My deepest, deepest thanks to DCINY, VocalEssence, Philip Brunelle, Dr. Anton Armstrong, Bruce Becker, Russ Christiansen, MPR, and ALL of the musicians and educators who made the past two weeks possible. WOO HOO!!!!!

God help us all.

I’ve written another volume of Animal Crackers, three more musical settings of those timeless animal poems by Ogden Nash:

THE CANARY
The song of canaries
Never varies.
And when they’re molting
They’re pretty revolting.

THE EEL
I don’t mind eels
Except as meals.
And the way they feels.

THE KANGAROO
O Kangaroo, O Kangaroo,
Be grateful that you’re in the zoo,
And not transmuted by a boomerang
Into zestful tangy Kangaroo meringue.

The premiere will take place on Sunday at Avery Fisher hall in my first concert with DCINY. (The concert will include a bunch of my pieces, including the first volume of Animal Crackers). If you’re in town on Sunday, and just can’t get enough of totally ridiculous, way way way over the top choral and piano settings of pithy animal poetry conducted by the composer, well it ain’t going to get any better than this.

Here’s a video of the first volume:

Well, music video anyway… just an extraordinarily strange and beautiful short film set to Water Night, performed by and featuring the excellent Norwegian group Kammerkoret Nova.

When I wrote Water Night – fifteen years ago (!)- I never in my wildest dreams imagined that it might inspire something like this.