Lux Aeterna Sunday, October 16, 2011, 7 pm

Come hear the Los Angeles Master Chorale perform: 

Lux Aeterna Sunday, October 16, 2011, 7 pm

Tickets start $24 and every seat at Disney Concert Music hall is a great one!

Listen to selections for this concert from past LAMC performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

This is Bradley's official debut with the Chorale. If you can come, let us know and if you can't, please share the shows info with anyone you know that would like to hear Bradley sing with this amazing group of people.

Bradley has two additional performances with LAMC in January/February. Click the link for more details!

Starting in January 2012, the LA Philharmonic and Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela are running a series of concerts called The Mahler Project, which will take audiences through all 9 of Gustav Mahler's symphonies.  Gustavo Dudamel is conducting ALL of them.

 

As of this Friday, I have been offered a Standard Contract by the Los Angeles Master Chorale to perform in two of these concerts: Mahler's Symphony #2, and Mahler's Symphony #8 (AKA "the symphony of a thousand").

 

This development represents a major advancement in my musical career: the LAMC has offered me a Standard Artist's Contract of Employment for these two shows.  I will be eligible to join the American Guild of Musical Artists.  When I first received this news, I was literally bouncing around the apartment with giddy excitement.  

 

These two symphonies are Mahler's most popular works.  Due to the heightened publicity surrounding this series, I would advise you to buy your tickets as soon as possible.

 

Get Tickets for Mahler #2, Sun 22-Jan-2012

Get Tickets for Mahler #8, Sat 04-Feb-2012

Thank you for all your love and support.

Sweetheart of the Sun

Thank you to all of you who have promised to buy or have bought tickets for the raffle mentioned in my last post!

As thanks, I thought I'd share something I worked on today, since my part time job gives me the freedom to make music on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I made this in about 4 hours. It's about Ruth of Biblical fame, written from the perspective of Boaz who courts her and marries her.

Sweetheart of the Sun

I think it turned out very well considering the time spent. I voiced all 24 tracks in my home studio.

Bradley's gonna sing in S. Africa with the Angel City Chorale!

Hello everyone,

Yes, you read that correctly... I'm going 10,000 miles away from home
to sing my heart out with 60 other choir members!

Background
-------------------
LATE this summer I plan to travel with 60 other members of the Angel City
Chorale on a two-week tour for a great cause. We're flying to South
Africa to give public concerts in support of the Amy Biehl foundation,
which for 15+ years has been engaged in a compassionate mission to
heal the deep, stinging racial wounds of a society scarred by two
generations of apartheid.

Amy was a Fulbright scholar who had been working closely with local
communities to bridge the divide. One night in 1993 while she was
driving through Guguletu, four black men forced her car off the road,
pulled her out, beat her and stabbed her to death.

They were convicted of murder and sent to prison, but Amy's parents
(who shared her desire for racial harmony) forgave her attackers and
fought for their successful release four years later. They created
the foundation in their daughter's name to continue the work that she
started.

(Milly wanted to make sure you all knew that I wrote the stuff about
Amy myself and didn't copy:paste from their website.)

Trip and Raffle
----------------------
The trip has been planned by a travel/outreach committee in the
chorale, which coordinated with a travel agency to make all the
arrangements and group discount rates. That being said, it's still
expensive.

Every member who's going has to raise money to offset our individual
trip cost, with raffle ticket sales and other fundraisers. Each
ticket is $10.00; 50% of the ticket goes toward my balance of the trip
cost.

The grand prize is a $3,000 travel credit with our travel agency,
which can be used anywhere, any time, with any mode of transport, and
reserved for future use if you don't want to blow it all on one trip.

Your purchase of one ticket would be awesome!

Two would be even more awesomer!!

Buy five or more and I'll have your babies, promise!!!!!

I will send post cards and show pictures on my blog during the trip.

If you would like any more details, please contact me at this email or
call me at two one three-two five four-five two eight two.

Thanks a million!

--Bradley Chapman

P.S.: You know, Boy Scouts have it easy; we never had to sell cookies
door-to-door or anything of the sort! If you have practical advice for
me on pitching and closing "the deal", or know of someone who'd like
to sell tickets on my behalf (including yourself, if you are so
inclined) then let me know!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Baroque tuning.

I was listening an interview on KCRW with the director of a contemporary choir known as "Seraphic Fire." They produced a new recording of Claudio Monteverdi's Vespers with the composer's minimal arrangement. (Incidentally, this performance is selling very well on iTunes.)

To highlight the dramatic between a symphonic orchestra and Seraphic Fire, the host played both versions sequentially. I immediately noticed that the Seraphic Fire version was tuned down a half step. "That's the baroque tuning," I said out loud.

I thought this was a seemingly unimportant note, but my wife was taken aback and stared at me, bewildered, and asked: "How the hell do you do that? What's baroque tuning?"

Perfect pitch aside, I do know that baroque tuning is centered around A=415Hz, but that it's not just tuning everything down a half-step; the frequencies of each note are slightly different than the standard tuning (A=440hz) that is so common. Some Internet folk get quite technical about this.

First Post - Händel's Ode to St. Cecilia's Day

This blog will be dedicated to the review of music: usually that which spins on my turntable at home.

In case you didn't know already, I like music. I like to sing it, dance to it, and listen to it while doing all of the above. I especially like collecting vinyl records.

One of my favorite places to shop for vinyl is at Thrift Stores. Most of the stuff that ends up here was lost to time years ago. A lot of it is not well cared for. There are occasions where I'll find discs in great condition, a few steals and some rare gems!

This week I found a copy of a recording of Händel's "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day," a musical setting of poems by John Dryden.


This record was produced some time in the mid-to-late 1960s. (Pet peeve: most records fail to indicate their production year ANYWHERE on the packaging or discs, so I have to rely on design trends on the packaging, or pure internet research).

Under the direction of the great Leonard Bernstein, the New York Philharmonic and the Rutgers University Choir produce a stirring rendition of this work. Solos by Adele Addison and John McCollum.

The solo and instrumental work is quite good, but what astounded me most was the blend of the choir. It sounds as though they are miked fairly close; there can't be more than 30-40 singers in the room. They are all singing perfectly in tune. Their diction is clear and the tone is bright but not overdone.

For your enjoyment, here is a sample of "Movement III. Chorus: From Harmony":

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1828575/h%C3%A4ndel-cecilia-harmony.m4a