I love candles. John and I got married in the evening primarily because I wanted to get married by candle light. We didn’t have any flowers but we did have 250ish candles lighting the sanctuary, the liturgical setting was called Unfailing Light and I was absolutely giddy when I […]
Dr Pilkington said we should love ourselves enough to leave our baggage in Oxford. I thought at the time at 48 years old I was probably stuck with the baggage what was given to me. Even as I left Oxford on a bus full of choir members I […]
Contemplation from the Oxford Botanical Garden. It’s not easy to describe what it feels like to have vast parts of yourself stripped away so that the honesty of your gesture matches the song in your heart. This has been tried with me before in lesser venues to no […]
Jordan begins the morning with a foreshadow of what is to come. “Where Have The Actors Gone?” is a haunting Morten Lauridsen tune unlike any of his others. You can hear a decent version of it CLICK HERE If you listen to it you have to dig through […]
We did a bunch of stuff today but this post is mostly about the performance of Annelies. Annelies is a 75-minute choral work for soprano soloist, choir and instrumentalists. The libretto is compiled and translated by Melanie Challenger from The Diary of Anne Frank. Music is by James […]
Day seven was full of lectures and conducting. Fine lectures by Jame Jordan, the President of St. Stevens House, James Whitbourn, and 4 hours of conducting practice with the choir. This was on top of a two hour rehearsal they had for their own concert tomorrow. The evening […]
Today is Sunday and it is a day I have been anticipating! The 25 directors and a few members of the Christ Church SATB Choir will lead the morning Eucharist along with 2 organists from Williamson Voices. We eat a little breakfast and then head over to the […]
Today was an interesting lecture on GF Bodley who designed the church and chapel and many of the accompanying spaces at St. Stevens House. St Stephens House was started by three of the original founders of the Oxford Movement which was begun by high church Anglicans who successfully […]
Lux Aeterna, Morten Lauridsen Tyler Weakland, Conductor Today Daniel Hyde returned to talk with us about score study and rehearsal techniques. We also had a very interesting lecture by Stephen Darlington on the Eaton Choirbook. One of only 3 illuminated choir books to survive the reformation. We […]
We use the number of the day instead of the name because most of us aren’t sure what day it is. Each day is the same punctuated by meals, worship, conducting master classes and 6 hours of lectures a day. Each day gets even more interesting. Today we […]
Today we started out with a discussion with the Director of the Anne Frank House, Ronald Leopold. He was fresh from a reception at 10 Downing Street in honor of Anne Frank’s Birthday. The conversation was very interesting and applies to the course because we are studying the […]
Today I sat down to breakfast with the only other person in the dining room and realized he was James Whitbourn the co-director of the Institute and the Composer of Annelies a choral work based on the Diary of Anne Frank (The Recording of which was nominated for […]
Monday I arrived at St. Steve ‘s house. It’s a day before the institute begins. The grounds are beautiful. It is a former monastery that only recently was turned over to the college. My room looks out towards the church. This is the view from my bed. There […]
Sunday July 6, 2014 – 11am Eucharist Service. I was all psyched up for Choral Mass at St. Paul’s. Let me cut to the chase…it was a disappointing experience. The mass was Missa in C (KV 257) “Grosse Credomesse” by Mozart sung by the Cathedral Choir accompanied by […]
Sunday July 6, 2014 7pm After this mornings big, tourist filled service at St. Paul’s Episcopal, I decided to go to an Evening Service at a small community church near my room in Chelsea. I showed up at 6:40 and saw they were setting up a projector and […]
1). If I wanted to stand up and introduce myself to a bunch of strangers, I’d go to an AA meeting. 2). The chances that I’m going to go drink bad (or even good) coffee after worship in a room full of strangers is roughly 0%. 3) just […]
Darren Hochstedler 