Recently in Music Category

I went to the audition for the choir Saturday. When I showed up, another soprano was already there. We were both early, nobody else were around. "Laaaa!" she tested, dancing around in the room, yawning, stretching, making all those faces "real" singers do. I couldn't quite make up if she was trying to intimidate me or if she was just trying to calm her own nerves.

"Why don't you warm up!" she suggested. Warm up... hmmm. My lips turned into a line. "I'll just start with being in this room," I smiled. "You've got to warm up! Laaa!" she sang. I kept smiling but backed off to a different part of the room. Apparently, she wasn't quite comfortable warming up with me in the room either - she burst out in a few "laa!" sounds now and then but otherwise kept quiet. So I suggested we warm up together. She agreed. Phew! After that, we got along really well.

I'm not sure what a Hollaback Girl is. Neither is Jeffrey. That didn't stop him from doing this hillarious "dramatic reading" of Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl. You've got to hear it!

Sometimes, being a Soprano in the Scandinavian ensemble group Stambandet borders on the blissful. This is my second year there, which means I've got most of the Christmas concert repertoire (lyrics + music) memorized so well, that I can enjoy the singing without sticking my nose into all those dots on the paper. Hurray! I love that feeling of mastery. So at tonight practice, I felt very blissful.

Jeffrey's cd Travelog came today... (hip hip hurray!) and so, Little Green, my ipod which I always forget to charge (as a true wirephobic will do with all her electronic stuff) finally came alive again. I played Jeffrey's album at the #71 Watertown back and forth today.

With Little Green tucked into my hand, it's curious how many people I suddenly noticed who also wore earplugs. The streets are full of wandering ipodders!

Have you ever wondered what you look like when you listen to music? I kept looking at people to find the common expression. Most ipodders seem happy to avoid eye contact at all costs. Me included. Ipods are great tools to filter away people, just the way sunglasses protects you from the sun. The tiny little iPod earplugs might not make much noise, but still clearly communicate that "I don't want to talk to you".

While my Little Green was singing for me, the bus stopped at the last terminal. This guy in front of me got up in a hurry, but thanks to my music, I was staring at the floor. That's also why I noticed that in his hurry, he accidentally dropped his scarf: Blue, long and lonely, soon to be drenched in footprints, stale rain and city mud. "Oh no! It can still be rescued" I thought,  leaning forward to pick it up.

That's when it hit me: A single sentence like "Excuse me, you dropped your scarf" might mean that I would have to turn the ipod off if he said something back. What if my plugs might popped out, perhaps I'd accidentally turn down the volume, turn off the song, hit the wrong menu or..... Hmmm. My music would be all messed up. So, I sat back in my seat to assess the situation.

Still waiting for the bus driver to let us out, he was standing in line just a meter away from me. Another girl who sat next to me made efforts to get up. "Phew!" I thought to myself, "She'll pick it up & the guy gets his scarf, this is perfect!" I grabbed my bag and headed the opposite direction to the back door exit.

But almost stepping at his scarf, the girl suddenly hesitated, then made an awkward move and stepped over it.. she walked away, just as I got pushed through the backdoor and out. My plan didn't work!

Now there was a curl of dirty, blue scarf on the floor and whose fault was this? Lazy me. 

I ran into the girl again outside the bus, and I saw.. white wire, dangling from her ears. iPods are bad for human kind.

Two of my friends just made a noise in the world. Jose Manuel Tesoro wrote The Invisible Palace, the true story of a journalist's murder in Java. Amazon currently have only 4 left in stock (hurry!), and at his book reading this Thursday, there were only a few copies left at the promotional shelf. The reviews are glowing!

Jeffrey Radcliffe wrote music: Travelog . Jeffrey's music is mesmerizing! I can't wait to get this album. Go and listen to the demo (link above). If you like it - please support him by getting his album - he makes no money off this. It is so worth the $13 dollars: Jeffrey deserves much more.

...so I sent my mum a cd from Stambandet's Christmas concert last year. My solo (Maria) was recorded and I thought I'd better send it to her so that she could tell me how much she likes my singing! "You've got to milk your mum for what she does the best," says Mr. Teen. And that to me, is unconditional praise.

She got the cd. Then she sent me the obligatory email of praise:

"Nå lurer jeg på om det er denne du synger en solo på, da må du si hvilken."

After listening to the cd, she wants to know which track my solo is.

Times Union reviews Stambandet's visit in Troy, N.Y. this weekend:

At the Chapel and Cultural Center at Rensselaer on Sunday night, there was exactly the same number of people in the act as in the audience, so Stambandet went on. Which was a good thing, because Stambandet was simply enchanting.

About two weeks ago, sitting at the Sheppard Post Starbucks where I usually do my writing work, I suddenly noticed a copy of the Boston Globe's Calendar on a table. Most the contents are listings of museum exhibitions, concerts, theater shows, musicals, bar life, restaurants and other happenings in the Boston area, and I rarely get the chance to go. But lately, I've realized how much I miss the musical activities that were such a huge part of my life when I was a teenager. The Calendar seemed to almost scream at me from that table, I had this weird feeling that I was meant to go get it.

I kept resisting the urge, trying to focus on my writing. In the end, the temptation was so distracting that I had no choice but to get it over with.

I picked it up. So many concerts, classical, jazz, all genres. A little rubric called Auditions usually followed every section. I looked closer:

Stambandet: Scandinavian vocal ensemble has openings for one Soprano, one alto, one tenor. Fluency in Swedish,Norwegian, Icelandic, Danish or Finnish required. Ensemble singing experience required. Call.... for audition information.

That paper must have been planted there for me. Just what I wanted!

So - I got in touch. The audition was a lot of work. Warm up exercises. I sang a Danish folk song (in Norwegian of course!) in at least 6 different keys: my voice crackled and burst in the absolute highest. A sudden, horrible though: Perhaps I should have auditioned for the alto voice instead? Too late!

Sight reading - learning two parts of two different songs in Stambandet's repertoire, then singing these together with an alto, tenor and bass from the band. And in the end, an interview.

It took almost an hour all together and it was so much fun that in the end, when the next person to audition came in and I had to leave, I was even more nervous than in the beginning: What if I didn't get to come back?

But I just found out that I did! And I'm so excited - I'm joining this Sunday.

For my birthday, Britt gave me Ephemera's "Air".



Intensely beautiful.

Every single chord, every single word, every single track: Ephemera lulls you into blissful states of tranquility.

Tusen, tusen takk, Britt!