Post-FKO (part 1): n'MC and Playing Rapunzel

My bug is gone, so it seems it was more of a momentary post-con brain-twitch than an actual cold.

As I mentioned before, the members of n'Early Music Consort were excellent guests. It was fun to meet some of them for the first time after having drawn their picture; I'd be able to do a better job now that I have more of a sense of their personalities. I also had some interesting conversations with several of them about British vs Canadian vs American English, and we were mutually relieved to be able to fling about our extra "u"'s without being mocked.


Photo by Phil Mills

I was impressed by n'MC's arrangements (particularly Trial and Worry), and was also fascinated by the fact that different people conduct different songs, usually depending on who did the arrangements. They even performed "Chocolate Is A Vegetable," a song by Graham Leathers! You can find a sound clip from the original song on the CDBaby page for Gray's "Reality Check" CD.

Hey, as I created the link to that page, I just noticed that Dave Alway posted the review at the bottom of Gray's CD page.



Photo by Phil Mills

The individual talents within the group were also impressive. I admit I am a Playing Rapunzel fangirl. I would go to great lengths to be able to listen to Mich and Marilisa sing pretty much anything, for any length of time.

I had only had a chance to speak to each very briefly at Filkcontinental. At FilKONtario, I discovered (though wasn't surprised) that both are as likeable and just darned NICE as they come across on stage. I especially loved their joint persuasive strategies while helping to auction off the vandalized sheet music for and a recording of "Sholem" (I happily assisted with vandalizing) in the Interfilk auction. Joey Shoji won the item.

As I mentioned earlier, I was thrilled when they invited Allison, Jodi and me to participate in performing "Sholem" in their Saturday concert; "Sholem" is my favourite track on Mich's CD. Mich sent us our individual parts by e-mail; we didn't have a chance to actually practice it with each other or with them until the morning of the concert.



Above: Allison and Jodi singing their parts on "Sholem." Allison has a photo of Mich, Marilisa and me at the same practice. We were all a tad nervous in the beginning, not quite sure how it would come together.

Mich suggested we go through the whole thing once, then fine-tune. After we finished the run-through, there were a few brief seconds of silence, and then we all started jumping up and down, screaming like lunatics. Dear lord. It was JUST SO FUN PLAYING MUSIC TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!

Once we calmed down, then we went through smaller bits for individual people, going over rough bits and fine-tuning. Mich is wonderful to work with...she's very gentle but also has a clear idea of what she wants, and is able to articulate it in a way that the performer can understand and accomplish.

Photo by Phil Mills

My biggest challenge was not getting so distracted by all the beautiful vocal harmonies that I'd forget to come in where I'm supposed to with my flute. It was a musical highlight for me, being surrounded by all that wonderful music; I felt as if it could easily lift me up and carry me away. I just couldn't let that happen when we were on stage. :-)

Mich and Marilisa write and perform such gorgeous songs that even if the words are sometimes in another language, I still find myself moved to tears by the beauty of the music itself.

Ok, I'll stop gushing.

But just for now.

Link O' The Day

Predatory squirrel attacks: Yet more evidence that SQUIRRELS ARE EVIL! Thanks to Dave Weingart for the link. :-)




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