Made it to the 20th Century!

We covered the 18th Century on February 3rd.....everything from a treble viol solo to Beethoven Quartet Opus 18 number 2 (written in 1798)
And on April 28th we celebrated the 19th Century with a Brahms wallow. A talk by Will Johnson and then the Piano Trio in B Major and the String Sextet in B flat Major. It B a happy day......

And NOW!!!   Stories of the 20th Century!
The first part of the weirdly wonderful Pierrot Lunaire by Schoenberg; Facade by Walton;  A cute little duet by Hindemith and trios by Lili Boulanger (the younger sister of Nadia Boulanger)

June 2 at 2pm at Cinnabar theater in Petaluma.
763-8920 for tickets.

A-Zed starts in the 17th century.....

Our first in the A-Zed through the centuries starts September 9 with a Purcell program.

Called Magic in the garden, the program includes music from the Fairy Queen, a juggler, a hula hoopist and a comedian and an actor.

Soloists are Eileen Morris, Kira Dills-Desura, Corey Head and Eugene Walden. They will be joined by other singers and the Alphabet orchestra. This is a benefit for Cinnabar Theater so there will also be a Silent Auction and refreshments available at intermission. And the garden itself is the stunning creation of Sandy and Borue O'Brien.

Tickets and more info at cinnabartheater.org

A-Z thru the centuries

We have dates!
September 9, 2012....17th century. Purcell's Fairy Queen set in a gorgeous private garden.
February 3, 2013.....18th century program at Cinnabar Theater, Petaluma
April 28, 2013......19th century. An all Brahms program with one of the sextets
June 2, 2013....20th century. Hopefully Schoenberg's wonderfully weird "Pierrot Lunaire"

.....and then!

The plans are in the works for our follow-up series.

THRU THE CENTURIES...with the A-Zed players.

A quartet of concerts: first, one of 17th century music; second, one 18th etc. We're thinking of starting with an outdoor concert in early fall of 2012. "Magic in the Garden" based on Purcell's Fairie Queen, but incorporating other things as well. Then in winter the 18th century...too many options at the moment. Late winter of 2013, an all Brahms concert including a Sextet. Finishing in late spring with 20th century....Pierrot Lunaire (Schoenberg) with something we have in mind but aren't firm about yet......something very fun.....

After the first, in the garden, the concerts will be at Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma.

We are having fun plotting and planning.

Details to follow.......

Z wrap-up!

A grand finale!

The audience sang along on the last piece...by Zespedes.

Not the original words, perhaps. This time is was:

It started out with A's

Then we moved on to B's

When we arrived at C's

We knew it was a Disease!

Z end!

Amazingly we finished our 23rd concert last night! 23 concerts in 24 months. It was great fun musically, and we awarded prizes to the people with the most letter cards. 6 of us will go to Chez Panisse for a meal, 5 people got wonderful (altho maybe tasteless) tote bags made from the sets of the "Dragon of Wantley" production. (L concert). Some got wine from A-Z winery and those who had come to "Z" for their first alphabet experience got Zinnia seeds......Hey, prizes! Then Gwyneth had made alphabet soup, alphabet cookies, and zwetchendatschi, for the whole audience!

Peggy Lucke compiled a list that included these stats:

Total number of concerts...23

Number of performers involved...66

Venues...16

Composers whose music was played...113

Blog Posts...115

Number of artists designing cards...20

Number of instruments played...18

Number of rehearsals!...137

Operas performed...1

Dragons...1

And so it was...a lot of fun and a wonderful feeling of camaraderie amongst the performers and audience members. Many, many thanks to all who participated in every way! It was a great adventure.