The spontaneous fun continues. Tonight, it was a Christmas concert at Fitchburg State University with a friend. I don't think I've been to a Christmas music show since I was married and living in Tennessee and saw Trans Siberian Orchestra with X2.
The plan came together early this afternoon. Before the plan was hatched, I had procrastinated my way out of going to the gym and even having a shower. There were some alerts on a social media account and an attempted log in from Oklahoma to deal with and I finally got around to taking the annual Christmas card photo. There had been several false starts testing the card concept over the past couple weeks and when I realized the date today, panic set in, a setup was devised, improvised, and finalized. There is nothing like a deadline to get my arse in gear. The envelope addressing was underway when suddenly I was changing gears and showering and planning an outfit for appetizers and a concert.
My friend and I met at Slattery’s, a longtime Fitchburg favorite.
After much deliberation over zucchini sticks and chicken strips, or a fig and prosciutto
flatbread, or nachos, we ordered the nachos. Later, it was a quick trip to campus and
the concert in Weston Auditorium. I couldn’t remember the last time I was in
the auditorium, but it's possible it was when I was still a student, long before the school was promoted from "college" to "university."
The concert featured a collaboration of five choral groups from the region including Gardner and Westford, and multiple instrumental groups. The music was segmented into three groups, “Songs of Christmas Past,” “Songs of Christmas Present,” and “Songs of Christmas Yet to Come.”
 |
| Full stage. |
The first segment featured classics from Tchaikovsky, Irving
Berlin, and selections from Handel’s Messiah. The "Hallelujah Chorus" sent me back to singing with the youth choir in the choir loft at Faith United Parish. The second segment had two
interesting arrangements, one of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” and the other a very
fresh take on “Jingle Bells.” The final segment was heavy on adaptations of pieces
from Trans Siberian Orchestra.
The event was described as having 250 musicians and when all
the singers in white shirts were on stage with the instrumentalists in black shirts, the stage was full. The
odd thing was, with around a hundred singers, they weren’t that loud and it
seemed like the instruments were drowning them out. In spite of that, it was
still pretty great. Very enjoyable, and a nice change of pace.
No comments:
Post a Comment