Encore Blog

In Chautauqua this morning,  you see all these folks running around in black slacks and black tee shirts with a very colorful and cool looking logo that says Encore Creativity for Older Adults!    Hmmmmmmmmm

Well, we are ready for our final camp finale concert at 2pm.  But first we have to check out of the hotel,  have breakfast, go to movement class, and then have a final two hour touch-up rehearsal.  Then on to lunch where we will be celebrating the 50th wedding anniversary of Frank and Karen Gould - WOW-  and the 74th birthday of beautiful Betty Wren.  And Barry and Marcia Talley will be celebrating their anniversary Sept. 5.  At least I think it is Sept. 5.  They were debating.............Either Sept. 5 or 6 and I can't remember what the outcome was.

The weather has been sunny and hot all week.  In fact, very hot for Chautauqua.  But it is better than rain.  Tomorrow it will be rainy, windy and 60.  We lucked out.

So I am signing off from Encore Chorale Camp 2010 at Chautauqua.  It has been a truly extraordinary group of singers and many friendships have been made.

Many a glass of wine has been consumed too!   We have really had a great five days.   Until next year.................................

I am sitting in my hotel room at 7am Thursday, watching the weather station talk about the hurricane that is going to play with the east coast. It looks like it will play hardball.  When you live on the water, you always watch these reports carefully. 

No bad weather here in Chautauqua!   It has been sunny, sunny, sunny and hot!  Too hot.  Today it will be in the low 80s. Nice and very welcomed.

Camp has been so much fun.  We have a really great group of people and everyone is enjoying one another.  Happy campers.......that's what we are.

Tuesday was the day for the Chautauqua Belle cruise on the lake and it was a lovely way to spend the late afternoon.  We had rehearsed hard that day and the rest was welcomed. On Tuesday evening, I was rehearsing with our soprano recitalist, so Barry Talley, our guest conductor, took the rehearsal and they worked hard on The Music Man. Every singer came back from that rehearsal psyched! 

Wednesday dawned and after breakfast, and movement class, we did sectionals and then combined forces.  The rep is starting to take shape.  Very exciting indeed. I think this is the most difficult rep Encore has ever tackled.  Many of our singers have sung their entire life.  There are retired choral conductors and music teachers in the chorale. And there are some who have not sung for many years.  The confident, more experienced singers help make the others feel comfortable and welcomed.  It all works out.

The afternoon brought three hours of hard rehearsal.  We were all exhausted!  But the hotel served us such an excellent dinner on the porch of the hotel.  The evening was perfect and the view so beautiful.  Sitting on that porch, I just imagined was it was like in the early 1900's.  I could spend a lot of time on that porch. 

After dinner we all went back to Lenna Hall to enjoy a lovely and very well performed concert by soprano Jane Potter Baumer.  I was Jane's first voice teacher, so we go way back to the 80's.  She looks just like she did then!  Not fair, Jane!!   And Jane conducts the Encore Chorale in Indiana, PA.  She performed an evening of Broadway tunes and the audience loved her.  One delightful tune after another.  And it was so much fun for me to accompany.  Everyone loved the perfect evening.  Well......almost perfect.  One of our singers was walking back to the hotel from the concert and took a stumble.  Off to the emergency room for stitches in the chin.  Oh Lucille!  

Today, the sun has dawned.  Another beautiful day in Chautauqua.  More later............

It is the last day of August, 2010 and I am happily at Encore Chorale Camp in Chautauqua.

I went downstairs to the old, elegant and comforting lobby of the Athenaeum Hotel for early morning coffee and when I went out onto the grand porch, all my senses came alive. I heard a bagpiper playing "Battle Hymn" and it was as if the geese and swans were swimming in rhythm to his haunting melody. The sun, a brilliant and perfect ball of orange, was ascending from the east over the hills of the lake, the fountains were gurgling sweetly and the aroma of the magnificent flowers was so sweet. It was as if everything was unfolding at once and it was all so beautiful.........almost surreal. I wanted it to go on forever.

We finished our first day of camp, exhausted by happy. Encore got all the campers checked in, tee shirts, name tags given out and then we assembled for our first rehearsal. As Barry Talley, our guest conductor said, this is going to be a "Kamikaze read through" of all the repertoire. And it was! Fun but exhausting.

After the two hour rehearsal, we all went back to the hotel to freshen up for our opening reception and dinner. Our campers bring such a joyful mix of personalities and dinner was such a great event. We consumed copious amounts of excellent food and drink.

After dinner, we all went back to Lenna Hall for a simply delightful recital with Heather Haughn, violin and Jay DeWire, piano. Their recital was entitled "Encores for Encore." They played one fantastic piece after another. A truly fabulous evening for a very grateful and large audience.

Camp is good!

Encore's fall semester is just a few weeks away and I made Foxes Music very happy yesterday. I picked up 2,800 pieces of music for our Holiday Concert! That is a lot of music. We are their biggest choral customer. I go out of there with lots of boxes. Then the work really begins. Well, the work really began when months ago, I looked through many scores of music and had to make a decision. And lots of things go through my mind when I am choosing. Will the singers like it? Is it too high for our sopranos? Will it keep our interest? Will it be fun to rehearse? Will our audiences like it? So it is a difficult task just to choose it.

Then I have to decide how much to order. That means I have to forecast growth. I invariably end up ordering more. Foxes loves me. 

After it arrives, I have to number the scores for each chorale. Oh me. This is where I really wish I lived closer to some of my singers. They could help!
Then I have to make the rehearsal CDs. Now that is a chore! This year I got some help. Alexandra Phillips, a professional soprano, did the soprano CD. And Linda Maguire, the wonderful mezzo who does our Assisted Living Encore Singers program, did the mezzo.

That leaves me to do the tenor and baritone and that is all in my chest voice. Way down there. And the baritones will find that I don't own some of those really low notes. All in a day's work!

Encore tried something new this summer. We held two Open "Sing-In" Encore Rehearsals at Potomac Academy of GMU at The Woodlands and at our newest Encore Chorale of the Washington Conservatory of Music at Glen Echo. They were very successful and fun. So I guess they are a keeper. We may do it for all chorales next summer.

My big boy Spencer has just graced my desk. Sound asleep. He loves rainy days. He seems to be lazier than usual. And that's pretty darn lazy.

NEWSFLASH! I heard from the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage and they have offered us December 23 as the date for our Kennedy Center Holiday Concert. It is a tremendous evening to be at the Kennedy Center, as that is the night they do the huge Messiah Sing Along, with thousands of folks showing up to sing the Messiah. So, many many folks will learn about Encore. Couldn't be a better date for us!

We are a week and a half from going to Encore Chorale Camp at Chautauqua. 50 happy campers! Final preparations are underway - name tags, emails, emails, emails, working with the hotel, and my own musical preparation. Our soprano recitalist, Jane Potter Baumer (also director of our Indiana, PA Encore Chorale), asked me to accompany her for the recital. She is doing an exciting program of gorgeous Broadway tunes. So I thought it would be a piece of cake. Wrong! I have been practicing like mad.

We can still register campers as long as I have music. And I don't have much. We have room for five more campers.

And finally from the guy who takes all the Encore pictures and does the web site and so much more, a truly fabulous picture taken on the butterfly bush in our yard accompanies this post. Enjoy!

Today I had a great day.  I did what I love.   I got to hold court and conduct singers - returning Encore singers and Encore "wannabe's!"   What pure joy to meet these interesting and exciting people and make great music.   I get so crazy during the summer when most of what I do is sitting behind a computer, planning for the year, taking care of camp registrations, finding venues, finding support, etc.  It's all business and all badly needed.   But it is so much more fun and stimulating to sit behind a piano and feel totally happy and fulfilled.   Encore invited the public to an open rehearsal at our Potomac Academy of GMU Encore Chorale which rehearses at the beautiful Woodlands Retirement Community in Fairfax.   We had about 30 singers with many new ones coming to see what Encore is all about.  We sang for about an hour and then had a wonderful lite lunch provided by The Woodlands.

A really nice way to spend a morning, when the rest of the world was enduring outside temps of 98 degrees and "Code Orange" air.  And...I get to do it again on Thursday at Glen Echo - then again at both locations next week!

Spencer, my big baby boy cat, is on my lap all excited about camp.   He just helped me mail some music out.   We have fifty happy campers for Chautauqua.  It should be a fabulous five days and it's not too late to register.  Just do it now, because I will need a few days to order more music.  I would love to have you join us.

I am busy preparing the camp music.   Yes, I must practice!  And besides conducting, I am accompanying Jane Potter Baumer, our soprano recitalist.   I really have to practice!   She is doing some wonderful Broadway tunes and they are such a treat to play.

Tomorrow we will be doing our first Open Encore Rehearsal for anyone who wants to come to find out what Encore is about.   The Encore Chorale of Potomac Academy at GMU is hosting our two Tuesday rehearsals, Aug. 10 and 17 from 11am to 12:30pm.   After singing, we will be treated to some very delectable refreshments provided by the Woodlands Retirement Community where we rehearse.  Their address is 4320 Forest Hill Drive, Fairfax.  Let me know if you are coming because we want to have enough food!

And for the next two Thursdays, we are holding open Encore rehearsals at our newest chorale location, Washington Conservatory of Music at Glen Echo.  We will meet Aug. 12 and 19 from 2 to 3:30pm.   So please join us.   Just let me know so I have enough music.  All these rehearsals are free and open to all.

Spencer is ready to do more work.  He is really trying to help me type this blog.  ARGH! Now he is sitting on my keyboard giving himself a little bath.  Such a cutie!   His sister, Spicy, is sound asleep.  She can't be bothered.

It seems that my big boy cat Spencer is so excited about Encore and our camp and our upcoming fall season that he will not leave my desk!  He feels as if he has to help me dial the phone, compose emails, etc.  And he has one strong head butt!  I have made so many mistakes because of his "help."  Right now, he is sitting right beside the phone.  Sometimes he even knocks the receiver off the hook.  He is one crazy cat!

I am amazed how many emails and calls I am receiving for our fall 2010 season . It seems as if the word about Encore Chorale is spreading.  This fall season is going to be one big happy party!  I can't wait to see all the returning singers and warmly welcome the new ones.  Ladies and gentlemen........start singing in the shower!

Larry and I crashed a party this weekend.  It was on the water over on the Eastern Shore, on a barge with about 40 kids, about 20 years old!   Now how about that!

We had sailed over through the Knapps Narrows - Tilghman Island - on Friday evening and decided to anchor in Dun's Cove, a lovely and very peaceful place on Harris Creek which is off the mighty Choptank River.   Well, it is usually peaceful.  When coming into the cove we noticed what looked like a barge with lots of folks - loud folks - partying hearty.  There were workboats, as in crabbing boats, tied up on either side of the barge.  They had put picnic tables on the barge and they were cooking crabs, drinking beer, playing beer ping pong and just having a ball.   We anchored quite a distance away, with the wind carrying their noise downcreek.  After we got situated, we decided to get in the dinghy and take a little motor over to get a better look. Larry said I couldn't take my glass of wine because we would look like old snoots.  I took my wine.  He had a beer.  Just out for a cocktail cruise on the dinghy, but really being nosy about this fun party.   Well, they invited us to their party!  Those kids were so nice.  Just having a good time celebrating a birthday.  They were swimming and dancing and playing games.  They thought these two white haired folks were pretty cool.   Even took our picture with some of them.  And actually I was pretty good at beer ping pong.  That was the best party we ever crashed.

The next morning we enjoyed coffee in the then very peaceful cove, watching a hot shot pilot do all kinds of neat things in his little yellow plane.  It was a gorgeous morning for air acrobats.  We decided to pick up anchor and go over to San Domingo Creek, off Broad Creek.  San Domingo is the "back door" to St. Michael's.  It is a more peaceful anchorage than going in on the Miles River and the holding ground is much better. There were only three boats anchored.   We got in the dinghy and went into town and discovered that the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum was having a Chesapeake Folk Festival.   We were very lucky to see the Caleb W. Jones - a Skipjack  - launched.  She has just been lovingly restored at the museum .  We saw her pulled out of the water three years ago, so it was a thrill to see her go back in fully restored.

She looked so beautiful.  I couldn't help but think what the Chesapeake must have looked many years ago with all those lovely, graceful skipjacks plying the waters.  Now we see some mighty ugly new power and sail boats. 

The festival had lots of demonstrations on antique letterpresses, blacksmithing, nameboard carving, dipnet making, crab pot making and pound net fishing. There was story telling by historians but I was really interested in the Smith Island Cake demonstration.

Our neighbors had ordered two Smith Island cakes for a chamber music party we were giving this past winter and I was really interested in seeing how they make them.  The cakes are fantastic!  They were desingated the Official Dessert of Maryland in 2008 and they have become quite a sensation.  They were giving a demonstration on how to make the cakes and the women from Smith Island had the Smith Island accent and all the fascinating Smith Island stories.   For those that do not know about Smith Island, it is the only Maryland inhabited island accessible only by boat in the Chesapeake.  Visit if you have not.  It is truly amazing how those hearty folk make it.

After the festival we dinghied back to Cantabile and cleaned up and went back into town for a fabulous dinner at a new place called Rupert's.  What a great day!   That evening we sat on our "front porch"  (the bow of our boat) in our chairs and watched the day quietly slip away.  Nothing like being on the water.

Sunday was just your basic "windless" August day, so we motored back.  The storm that the weather channel was talking about slipped up the bay to our west.  What a lovely weekend.   Let's see.....it's Monday and we get to do it again leaving on Friday.  The plan is to explore in August  the rivers off the Choptank .  Next week is Oxford.  The Robert Morris Restaurant is again back in business and I hear them calling us to visit.

But for now, I hear Encore calling. The Chautauqua camp is now less than a month away and registrations are still coming in. This camp is now officially the largest we've had and the numbers are still growing.  Looks like I didn't order enough music or tee-shirts - gotta get on the phone and order some more!

I do hope you are all enjoying the little respite we are experiencing from that brutal heat wave. I hated it, and my cats hated it so much they didn't even go out on the screened-in porch. We all hated it. And it certainly did not allow us to sail on Cantabile. There is nothing like sailing in 105 degree heat. The Bay was empty. Speaking of the Bay, I watched a sailboat limp in on Sunday evening with a blown out jib. It evidently had gotten caught in the severe storm that rolled through. But shame on him for having his sail up!  When we hear of an approaching storm and you can actually see them coming, the sails are quickly taken down and we really batten down the hatches. Those storms can be brutal. I love being out on the Bay and the weather alert sounds saying:  "Seek immediate shelter." Sure. The most we could do is for one of us to go below - but that never happens. We have been thru some real hummers. Like the time the wind was so severe that it picked up our dinghy out of the water and twirled it around. Wow. That dinghy is not light. That must have been some wind.  And then there is the lightning! That is the stuff that really bothers me. With a 58 foot mast, we are a real target out there. So we don't touch any metal and hope for the best. And I keep saying sailing is so much fun!!!

We have two more weeks for all of you to register for Encore Chorale Camp at Chautauqua. We have forty singers registered and more still coming in. And many have had lots of choral experience. It will be a fabulous five days. Come on and join us! I promise you a great time.

Isn't it hard to keep a lovely flower garden in this weather? ARGH! The good news is that we have not had many weeds. I think weeds flourish in wetness which we have not had. I don't tolerate weeds! Not in my garden. My knockout roses have been so beautiful, and our lantana and lilies and blackeyed susans and daisies are so pretty. And all the sea grasses are so healthy. We water! Larry tried his luck at tomato plants this year and they are really paying off. The tomatoes are delicious with mozzarella and herbs. Yum!

Our daughter Tiffany and her husband Mike are expecting their first child November 2nd. Yes, we are going to be gramma and grandpa. We can't wait! Their friends and her sister Heather threw them a couples baby shower. What fun and what gorgeous presents. Such a happy time for our family. I imagine I am going to be one of those grandparents showing everyone I know my grandbaby pictures!

I better get back to my PR job.......that is my Encore PR job. I have spent so many hours spreading the word about Encore - all ten chorales! So help me spread the word. Tell a neighbor......bring a neighbor. The more the merrier. And September will be here before we know it. Where oh where did summer go!

I heard it announced today that there are now 500 million registered users on Facebook. Well, maybe we were that 500 millionth, because Encore now has a Facebook page - one more way to keep in touch. From now on, most significant news updates that appear on our website will also be on our Facebook page. For you Facebook users out there, that means if you "like" our page (if you're a user, you know what that means), you'll get those updates automatically on your personal Facebook page.  So...visit our page (click here) and "like" us.  If you're not already a Facebook user, now may be the time - you can be among the next 500 million users!

Oh, and we now have a Facebook link on this website so you can share our news with your friends (please do!).