Throwback Thursday: Videos from the past several seasons and rarities

Today I am sharing a number of youtube videos LCA has produced in the past several seasons. I will also link to a previous blog with some older recordings. In this year of reflection and celebration here is the opportunity to highlight our musical achievements and great music-making!

First up:
City Called Heaven arr. Josephine Poelinitz featuring LCA Soloist, Jessica Bauer

This was performed at the 2014 Holiday Concert in O' Donnell Hall.

I Bought Me A Cat by Aaron Copland

Copland will again be featured on our upcoming concert on Nov. 3

In the Air Tonight (Phil Collins) arr. by Jason Horner

This was an audience and choir favorite on our 2016 Fundraiser Concert at the Royal Grove. 

And finally a link to a previous blog I posted with a performance under the previous name the Lincoln Civic Choir. The chorus was prepared for this performance by John Lauber, who will again be joining the choir to conduct on the fall concert this year. Special thanks to our LCA Historian/ Archivist Kent Remmenga for having the original recording. 

Lincoln Civic Performance 

Brahms Requiem: The Choral Movements

So, this blog title is a little misleading (grad students looking up sources for choral conducting courses!).

The Brahms' Requiem is a complete Choral-Orchestral work. All 7 movements include huge portions for the choir. However, a few movements also include vocal solos.

For our combined effort with the Lincoln Civic Orchestra on Nov. 3 LCA will be preparing all movements without solos (1,2,4,7). Why? Well, many factors play into program planning; leaving time for each ensemble to do some other music, hiring costs of musicians, rehearsal time available to prepare a masterwork, and having a concert that is both well received and timely. I think sometimes we both undersell and oversell our audiences. Hopefully, there is a wide variety of guests at our concerts. Some may have experienced Brahms in its full glory several times with many performing ensembles. Some may be at there first "classical" concert. There are (again, hopefully) families with kids of all ages.

LCA's main job is "to serve the community by providing an excellent experience for our audiences and members." This is our mission statement. It is also something we must work at with every performance. We fulfill the role of servant-leaders through excellent performance and engaging events. We ask the community to come with us in this journey. And by incredible collaborations with other musicians and organizations in Lincoln and the region, like the Lincoln Civic Orchestra, we extend our voices and talents in an act of unique engagement, hoping to show care and justice to a world in need of so much.

Choral music can reach into hearts and open minds to a sense of belonging and community much deeper than might initially be considered. It's so exciting to prepare this music and create what could be considered a "choral movement" of community building. 

OMLCA! We Return, We Celebrate, We Move Forward

"Tonight's the night!" Tonight we gather together again. We reclaim our sacred space for making music. We work together to create and build community, like this organization has done for 40 years! I am so blessed to work with incredible people and musicians to create something unique. I hope the entirety of the ensemble feels similar. This is a huge season of celebration, of remembering, of collaborating and of moving ahead into the next 40 years!
And we have a new logo and theme for the season.

I am so excited to begin tonight. The beauty of Brahms, Copland, and other incredible musicians of the past will guide us in our celebration season!

Check out the season:

http://www.lincolnchoralartists.org/2019-2020-season.html

Join us on our social media pages!

https://www.facebook.com/LincolnChoralArtists/

https://twitter.com/LNKNChoir

https://www.instagram.com/lnknchoir/

Use our season hashtags: #LCA40 #LincolnChoralArtists #LCACelebration40 

Guest Blog Post #2: John Lee...The melodies linger on

I am once again so pleased to offer a guest blog post from an LCA Singer and our Bass Section Leader, John Lee. I hope you enjoy this post! Thank you John.

A couple weeks ago Martha [John's wife] and I went to the Willie Nelson concert, with Alison Krauss, at Pinewood Bowl [in Lincoln, NE]. What a wonderful Saturday evening under the stars! 

Alison led off with her beautiful voice, singing “River in the Rain,” which we sang a few years ago when we did the music of Roger Miller’s “Big River.” She continued with a number of songs she has written, such as “Down to the River to Pray” and “I’ll Fly Away” from “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” and at least one of Willie’s songs, “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground.”  

Then Willie and his band came out and performed for more than an hour of this own songs, leading off with “Whiskey River” and on through “Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain” with shout-outs to pals Merle Haggard ("Pancho and Lefty”) and Johnny Cash (“Folsom Prison Blues”). Willie was showing some difficulty breathing, but inviting the audience to sing along on familiar hits like “On the Road Again” and “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” let him rest his voice a bit. 

What struck me most was that Willie is still singing – and packing the house – at the age of 86! With his “little sister” (age 88) on the piano! That tells me I still have a few years that I can enjoy singing with the Lincoln Choral Artists – and elsewhere. No, I’ve no aspirations to do Pinewood Bowl – unless it’s with LCA! But in my 30 years or so singing with Lincoln Choral Artists I’ve sung at the Lied Center and Lincoln Center (New York) and Holland Center (Omaha) and many other venues – even the Royal Grove! I’ve told this choir before about my decision, as a junior in high school, to give up trying to play football and concentrate on music. I never would have gotten to New York playing football! 

Music is something you can continue to do your whole life. I’m looking forward to starting the next LCA season! 

John Lee

It's been too long...

Hi All, Sorry for the lack of posts in recent weeks. I have been visiting family, going to conferences, and enjoying some down time before the busyness of fall is open us. Today I have been thinking about how important our role as musicians/ artists is in the current politics of the world. Sharing our voice in as many settings as possible can build coalitions of trust instead of tearing down hope and creating fear. I try hard not to be political on this blog. (So much so, I have considered writing a seperate blog under a pseudonym just to vent my frustrations and fears.) Our voice for singing and for sharing hope and joy continues to come back to me as more important than being right about the multiple crisis our country and world are in. I want us to strive as citizens of wherever we come from to be better people. To listen more, to hate less, to be smart about our words, and to lift up those in need.

I can't wait to get back into rehearsals with the Lincoln Choral Artists as we prepare for some amazing music in celebration of 40 years of community building. But I'm even more excited to share that joy and hope with the world.

Guest Blog Post #1: Nick Vacarro

Today's blog was written by LCA singer Nick Vaccaro. I am so thankful for his contribution to the organization as a singer, supporter, and now blog poster! Jason Horner, LCA Artistic Director
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Nick Vaccaro, Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Last September I returned to choral singing after about a break of about 20 years. I feel fortunate to have found (thanks to member Dorothy Ramsey)  the Lincoln Choral Artists as a vehicle for doing that.

One of the main reasons that I’ve felt an immediate connection to  LCA is the very broad and eclectic repertoire that we’ve explored. Over the past year, we’ve sung music ranging from Thomas Tallis and Heinrich Isaac to James Taylor and Pat Benatar.   I haven’t loved everything that we’ve sung -  but I’ve liked most of it, loved a lot of it, and learned from all of it.

So, why do I think that performing such a wide range of music is a good thing?

 It isn’t always a good thing. Juxtaposing or combining different styles of musical expression can sometimes produce strange results, and musicians sometimes struggle to do justice to music that falls outside their comfort zone.

All the same, I’ve found that an openness to stretching or crossing musical boundaries has made my musical life a lot richer -  both as a performer and a listener.

Here’s one example. In 2007, I finished graduate school and came to Nebraska. Before I’d made much in the way of social connections here,   I found myself with a lot of alone time when not working.  I also had a melodica (an instrument I’d started playing the previous year), and had recently come across a number of interesting musical performances on a new website called YouTube. So, I decided to pass some time by recording MIDI-accompanied renditions of whatever music that I thought I could make sound decent on the melodica. And that eventually turned out to be… a lot of different things, drawn from a range of musical genres even broader than the programming for LCA’s last season.

The videos are still up on YouTube – all in vintage 240 pixels, but with sound quality good enough that I can go back and watch them fondly from time to time.

Teaching myself to play every one of those (very different) songs was a challenge and a thrill in its own way. The feeling of playing an Aretha Franklin favorite is different from the feeling of playing a Robert Schumann favorite; not better or worse, but different in a way that’s worth experiencing.

LCA seems like a great place to pursue more of that sort of exploration. I look forward to seeing where we’ll go next.

Refreshment, relaxation (maybe), and just a changed in schedule

I love my job with the Lincoln Choral Artists. I love the music we make, the community we build, and the joy we share in singing together. But I am also happy to be in a moment of repose from the the weekly schedule of rehearsal and upcoming performances.

I have spent sometime this week discussing with colleagues, singers, and LCA leadership what is coming soon. But I have also been reflecting on my own need to relax/ refresh in this period of down-time. I don't really know if relax is the right word. That's not really something in my wheel house. But my fiancé Hillary and I went to a baseball game last night. I'm planning a solo motorcycle trip to western Nebraska in mid-June. And Hill and I will make a quick trip up Minnesota to celebrate babies and weddings with family.

But I think the biggest thing that helps me wrap up and move into this season of reflection is simply the change in schedule. Not so many evening rehearsals, not so many work and performance demands, and time to engage my thoughts and hopes for the future. I am exciting about the return of the new season with Lincoln Choral Artists. I am also going to enjoy my time now as I prepare for that return.