A week ago Friday, our gas oven died. The stove and broiler work - just not the oven. Repair people from the church looked at it last Tuesday and diagnosed a dead motherboard with a plan to just buy a new stove/oven rather than repair it. And, so we wait and eat thanks to a crockpot, a stovetop, and a microwave. I had committed to bring two gluten-free desserts to a senior zone conference on Friday (that's a zone conference for all the senior missionaries serving in inner-city Phoenix) and I needed to bake pie crusts for two Sunday desserts and I needed more granola so, what to do???? Happily, neighbors Janet and George Wells are out of town this week and they graciously allowed me to walk down the street to use their oven. But, it messed with our well-tuned weekly schedule. We perservered, however, and everything got baked in a timely manner.
Steve and I sing in our ward choir and today we took part in a special Easter-themed Sacrament meeting - a mini Easter cantata so to speak. I admit I have to compare this experience with all the years singing in the Columbia Stake Easter Cantata with Suzanne Kitchen and it has sort of come up short. First of all, the literature we sang today is not even close to the caliber of music Suzanne has had us sing. Sally Deford is OK but not for an almost entire program. Second of all, Rochelle, our director, never mentions diction so who knows what the congregation actually heard us sing today. Third, the program was just us singing. No speaking. Although, thankfully, we did finish early enough that the Bishopric counselor was able to say a few words about Christ and Easter. All this being said, it is still a joy for Steve and I to sing in the Gavalon Peak Ward choir. It is a small way for us to serve a great group of people.
Finally, the ProMusic rehearsal on Tuesday was just sad. We are playing the Mendelssohn violin concerto and we rehearsed with the soloist that evening with a skeleton crew of musicians (2 violins, 1 viola, 2 cellos, 1 flute, one clarinet, one trumpet). This concerto is probably the most well known violin concertos of all time - at least to a string player. But, our rehearsal conductor is a trombonist and it was pretty clear early on that he really didn't know this music very well. I could have conducted it better than he did. The soloist is a fine musician but she sounded a tad rusty with this piece, too. I am sure she will sound super for our mid-April performance, though. Oh, and no extra cellists besides Malcomb and me for this upcoming concert, again. I guess our dates conflict with all the other community orchestra concerts in April. I just can't help but to compare the well-oiled machine of Columbia Civic Orchestra and the amazing conducting of Stephan Freund with the ProMusica model. All these things are leading me to decide to NOT play in an orchestra here next year. I just don't have the time or patience with all of this anymore.
Otherwise, the Fraedrich cousin reunion was a bright spot in the week. As was the senior zone conference. And the beautiful weather. (sorry, kids back in snowsville). We have enjoyed our open windows almost all week.
No comments:
Post a Comment