November 19 - The Approaching Fog

A couple of more pages orchestrated for Joshua Fought the Battle: II. Shall We Gather, and record a portion at the lab after class (last traditional teaching day -- finishing up Police King of Pain -- Quiz 14 tomorrow and students take over responsibilities come Monday). Owen and I hit upon a compromise plan (little do we know), then I take it on the road, through the Caldecott and Berkeley, south to San Mateo Bridge, over the Santa Cruz Mountains


to Half Moon Bay (here's a picture from last walk in vicinity -- it's dark this time around), gas not as low comparatively as last time, getting directionally thwarted and realizing that the trajectory is virtually identical to when John Beeman's house proved elusive.


At last I reach Marilyn Pratt whose house (with a non-illuminated street address, but fortunately big windows, through which I seredipidously glimpse her) turns our to be just down the street from John's. We record the rest of her Offstage Soprano parts in Mice Suites, Op. 68 (there she is above in rehearsal last August 17 at Chamber Arts with Maria Mikheyenko [Lennie] and Suzanna Mizell [Curley's Wife], on the laptop (including the erotic sounds of Dancesong, standing at a respectful distance in her guest bedroom [!]). Tea afterwards, and emailing Harriet, since phone battery is low, then blitzing home, well perhaps a mite con brio, at least that's what the law enforcer seems to think in the Presidio as the fog closes in on a very dark night.

September 12 - Vaseline? What the Hell For?

Another successful Mice and Men tonight (above with Wayne Wong [George], Maria Mikheyenko [Lennie], and Alix Jerenic [Candy]), with the biggest turnout yet -- the cast has developed a tradition before going into the house that involves standing in a circle, with outstretched arms to the center, shouting a favorite line. Tonight it was "Vaseline? What the hell for?"



[Suzanna Mizell (Curley's Wife), Alex Katsman (Piano), Wong, Mikheynko, Jerenic]

As in...

CANDY: You see that glove on Curley's left hand? Well that glove is full of vaseline.

GEORGE: Vaseline? What the hell for?



Slip-sliding our way through the evening (here's many of the cast in the Act II Prelude Worksong -- Erin Lahm [Slim/Whit), Megan Cullen [Boss/Carlson], Alix, Adam Broner [Crooks], Suzanna),



it's Megan Cullen's 25th birthday (above with Wayne and Maria), so there's cake and ice cream, along with the requisite champagne reception.



Earlier, finish orchestrating the twisted ragtimic Abraham and Isaac: II. The Separation (four final pages for a total of 21) and begin conceiving the orchestration of III. The Rescue.

September 7 - Blow That Horn

Another amazing performance from the cast of Mice and Men (including Maria Mikheyenko [Lennie] and Suzanna Mizell [Curley's Wife], above), as well as impressive opera arias in the first half of the show, offered by the likes of Mike (at right -- very much looking forward to his participation as Haemon and The Messenger in Antigone this Novemeber),



taken in by an enthusiastic audience, featuring Diablo Valley College Theory students Desiree Abad, Daniel Ciurlizza, and Megan Mui, and a couple of their friends who are/will be attending the University of California at San Diego this semester (plus that old guy in the middle).



Leaving San Francisc Community Music Center, the fog is coming in to the south towards Bernal Heights and


north,



with the houses directly across the street cooling in the last light.



Home, beginning orchestration of IX. One Day Dinah from Israel in Trouble -- 6 pages, but since all piano, not much of a feat -- being based on the instrumental forces in Act III, Scene 3 (in the bar, with the out-of-tune-piano) in Alban Berg's Wozzeck.

August 17 - Ah!

Mice and Men rehearsal and Suzanna Mizell (as Curley's Wife) is getting throttled again with Maria Mikheyenko (Lennie) doing the honors and Marilyn Pratt (Offstage Soprano) looking and singing on, but, hey, it's all in the course of art, life, music, and the universe, right? More rehearsal pictures of the day eventually at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com.



Quark Sister call-backs thereafter for John Bilata's Quantum Mechanic, then home,



and page four of the Odysseus movement of Iliad Songs orchestrated (Odyseus and Penelope above -- a bit after the Night Journey of chapter 10...)

June 22 - Singing Byrds of a Feather

Byrd is the word (Renaissance William's Sanctus from the Mass for Four Voices) at St. Gregory's today in SF today, then To Everything There Is an Audition at Chamber Arts for Goat Hall San Francisco Cabaret Opera auditions with



Meghan Dibble,



Suzanna Mizell,



Alix Jerinic, Alex Katzman, and Harriet March Page. Lots of wonderful singing -- from auditionees Suzanna, Alix, Jillian Boye, Sasha Joggerst (Tiger Brown down in Santa Cruz, as noted a while back), Erin Lahm, Allison Collins, Annemarie Ballinger, Robin Hansen, Ayelet Cohen, Elizabeth Russ (Polly Peachum in same), and Shauna Fallihee -- and more next week at the same time, as we begin casting for



Mice and Men (Act V, Scene 2 B page 6 prepared for publication, incidentally)



Antigone,



Diocletian,



The Countess Cathleen, and fine works by the likes of Henry Purcell, Peter Josheff, and others.

May 25 - St Gregory of Nigh Extravaganza

Nice turnout for the Tisha-Pagliacci show at St. Gregory of Nyssa, San Francisco, but first



church at same, with Sanford Dole conducting, and we decide to join his excellent choir. Sanford mentions thereafter, in passing, an upcoming concert of compositions by members on texts of the saints (the expanded SGN take) on the walls,



including William Blake, so am happy to provide a choral arrangement of Op 108 Blake House: I. To the Muses, which I will do by this Thursday evening's rehearsal.



After an interval, we gear up for the Tisha-et-al performance with Harriet March Page and Rachel Deatheridge,



Rachel's family,



and the Project Opera folks assembling --




for Johann Strauss, Jr., Die Fledermaus and Puccini La Boheme excerpts, including Rachel in the former's "Adele's Laughing Song," and



Letitia Page in the latter's La Boheme (Mimi's Act I aria),



plus Harriet in the Leonard Bernstein Candide "Old Lady's Tango" (assisted by a certain certainly uncertain caballero),



and a first-part conclusion back to Fleder "Champagne," tra-la!



Intermission with Harriet overseeing all,



including Lisa Prosek,



Sharon Walters, Kat Cornelius, and Suzanna Mizell.



The ensuing Leoncavallo Pagliacci is taken in by Suzanna and Tisha



as Eliza O'Malley frolics



and Mark Narins closes in.



After-concert party at 19th and Pennsylvania,




with fine views of the City,




280 and the new tower,



Bay Bridge,



and East Bay Hills environs...




graced by Harriet holding forth -- entertaining and



entertained.




This investigative one-eyed jack reporter can testify that



the house is well-apportioned within (right down to the amazingly mirrors)



with folliage well-proportioned without.



We make our way home, past the golden season of the North Lagoon Mountains (note those three oaks at extreme right crest -- they have a lot of character),



and make a bit of time for score publication preparation of page 8 Mice and Men, Act V, Scene 2.