Eric Whitacre

An amazing day of rehearsals, and my first chance hearing Sleep, My Child. I’ll be making a few changes here and there, but I think it works. I’ll post the recording here tomorrow, as soon as I’m near a real internet connection.

It’s so interesting rehearsing  a lot of my works with this group, and seeing which pieces seem to connect with the choir emotionally. I think A Boy and a Girl is probably the general favorite, but they just own The Stolen Child. Perhaps it’s because I wrote it for them, but I wonder if there is a deeper connection between the poetry (Yeats) and their own cultural heritage. They sing it with this haunting mixture of melancholy and stoicism – British, to be sure, but youthful British, full of innocence and  hope.

Also, we’ve been having quite a discussion here about the difference between a chorus and a choir. Does anyone know? Apparently, here in England a choir is what we are, any group of people singing choral music. A chorus very specifically refers to an orchestral or opera chorus. Please post your opinions and insights… we’d love to hear more opinions.

Off to London this afternoon, with meetings tonight and tomorrow morning and then the concert tomorrow night. Woo hoo!