Nothing to be done when Friday the 13 falls on a Friday this month,
so here's Meghan Dibble (Estragon) and Eliza O'Malley (Vladimir) singing the opening of Waiting for Godot (with more at markalburgerworks.blogspot.com - dated February 1, 2005).
Nothing to be done but watch the beautiful/horrible/incredible documentary War/Dance (re the ongoing strifes in Northern, reaching down to Central, Uganda) with Harriet, be grateful for Crystal's safe return from such striken places as Soroti (which up to several years ago was perceived as far enough south to be secure), and mindful of the perils of the inumerable.
Nothing to be done but prepare page 20 for publication of Mice and Men, Act V, Scene 2. Hm, people waiting....
Happy Birthday, Crystal!, who turns 21 today -- so... A toast! A toast! -- and who has, in the last couple of months, been on an incredible pilgrimage (superbly chronicled at crystal-uganda-2008.blogspot.com)
to Uganda
specifically, Kampala, with side trips north-east to
Mbale,
Sipi Falls,
Soroti,
Lira; and west to
Mbarara
Bushenyi,
Queen Elizabeth National Park
in the Great Rift Valley
up against the Ruwenzori Mountains
whose foothills include Semuliki National Park,
home to some of the Batwa people.... before coming back to her own home -- today! --
in San Rafael! So, as well, Happy Homecoming!
Meanwhile, two rehearsals this evening, first getting the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra going at Potrero Hill Neighborhood House Theater. As John Kendell Bailey is welcomely conducting the first half of the program, am able to head several blocks downhill (both venues being along De Haro Street on Potrero Hill in SF) to
St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church for the first rehearsal, beyond excellent works of others in the ensemble, of Blake House: 1. To the Muses with Sanford Dole and sons and daughters of the choir -- just a quick double reading from 7:30-7:40pm -- and a good start, though challenging, somewhat due to meter, but more particularly in light of the second strain's accidentals: 5/8 alternating with 7/8, octatonic melody harmonized such that the mode is
E: Do Re Me Fi Sol Le La Te Do... Dorian-Lydian-Minor, one supposes!
From here, a race back up to the Nabe for Camino Real: Block Four and Variations on Americana, as part of The Sousa Variations collaboration, to be given 8pm, Staruday, June 7, at Old First Church (Van Ness and Sacramento Streets, SF, with co-collaborators contributing movements to the latter as follows
Harry Bernstein - Stars and Stripes Quodlibet Alexis Alrich - MinSu David Graves - Sousa Variant Mark Alburger - Variations on Americana Erling Wold - On the Death of David Blakely Michael Cooke - Stripes and Stars Loren Jones - Stars and Stripes for Desert
Mark Alburger (b. 1957, Upper Darby, PA) is an award-winning, eclectic ASCAP composer of postminimal, postpopular, and postcomedic sensibilities. He is Music Director of San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra and San Francisco Cabaret Opera, Editor-Publisher of 21st-Century Music and New Music, and Professor Emeritus in Music Theory and Literature at Diablo Valley College. His principal teachers were Gerald Levinson, Joan Panetti, and James Freeman at Swarthmore College (B.A.); Jules Langert at Dominican University (M.A.); Christopher Yavelow at Claremont University (Ph.D.); and Terry Riley. Dr. Alburger has composed 406 major works over the past 48 years, including chamber music, concertos, oratorios, operas, song cycles, and symphonies. His complete catalogue is being issued on discs from New Music. Alburger's multiple blogs include: markalburger.blogspot.com,
markalburger2022.blogspot.com,
markalburgerworks.blogspot.com, markalburgerevents.blogspot.com, markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.
com, 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com
