2011 was a monster. Not in the Cloverfield sense, but definitely in terms of its massive tectonic shifts.

Personally, I survived the first year of my daughter Grace’s life. Quite a feat when you consider that, prior to her arrival, I’d probably only held a baby three times in my life. So that I was able to keep her alive, balance a hectic performance schedule and emerge with my marriage intact, 2011 was a resounding success.

On the professional front, 2011 was equally successful. We doubled our concert load (we’ve now sung in 32 of 50 states!), signed with Opus 3 Artists, joined the roster of BIS Records and debuted two major new works Andrew Smith’s Notes For A Requiem at the 2011 Vestfold Festspillene in Tønsberg, Norway and Gregory Brown’s Missa Charles Darwin at the Marine Biological Laboratory’s Falmouth Forum in Woods Hole, Massachussetts. This past summer, we participated in what is quite possibly our coolest project to date: the remix competition Devices & Desires. Partnering with Indaba Music, we unleashed the creative talents of their massive online community of users on three Gregorian chants recorded expressly for the contest. Hundreds of outstanding remixes later we had 6 winners and enough material to release a digital EP on Ariama.com, the new online classical music store from Sony Music.

In October, we flew all the way to Sweden to record endBeginning, our first album on BIS Records. It was a magical experience. (Don’t believe us? Watch the video.) The digital pre-release is out now, the CD comes out in the Spring. More to come on that front.

And then there was The Martha Stewart Show. Pre-show jitters aside, I guess we were ready for our close-up. Our appearance earlier this month was a success and the feedback has been terrific. Thanks to everyone who tuned-in.

There’s so much more I could go into, but New Year’s Eve beverages beckon. So I’ll close with a few PICTURES and some well-deserved THANK YOUS…

• Joanne Bouknight, for your willingness to show up at a moment’s notice and for always having your camera ready!
• Craig Zeichner, for taking a chance with Devices & Desires and helping us navigate treacherous legal waters.
• Eric, Colin and Rick at Indaba Music, for fielding HUNDREDS of questions and helping us create a really cool contest.
• Malcolm Bruno, for your continued artistic guidance.
• Greg Brown, for being a great guy and a huge geek!
• Catherine Cramer, for your love of Charles Darwin.
• Ebba Rydh and Emily Eagen, for Gesualdo-ing with us!
• Jens Braun, for making us sound like a million bucks.
• Rob Suff and the staff of BIS Records, for making endBeginning a reality!
• Geoffrey Silver, for five years of dedication, excellent singing and inimitable eccentricities. Tonight, I’ll raise a glass to all the good times and expensive baked potatoes.

And special thanks to the presenters and hosts at each stop along the way for your hospitality and to everyone who has taken the time to attend our shows, buy our albums, follow us, tweet about us or send us a “thumbs up” email out of the blue. We appreciate all of you!!

Happy 2012!

Writing this on a plane to Dallas-Ft.Worth International Airport, a hub we’ll see probably a dozen times in the next three-five months. This time around it’s for a concert in Waco, Texas.

We’ve had a lovely visit to the beautiful State of New Mexico with concerts and workshops in Portales at Eastern New Mexico University and in Albuquerque at New Mexico University and the lovely Cathedral of St. John.  We’ve enjoyed seeing our Facebook numbers grow after visiting and working with so many young singers!

One young singer asked us the question: “What’s on your iPod?”  This sparked a conversation in the car of desert island top 5 records.  Amongst the four of us, lots of good titles thrown out but here’s some highlights:

GS = Brahms Symphony #4 and Elgar “Sea Pictures”
CP = Fleetwood Mac Tusk and Daryl Hall & John Oates Voices
CH = Beethoven Complete String Quartets and Symphony #7
GW = U2 October and Bela Fleck Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 2 – The Bluegrass Sessions

In our downtime this tour, we’ve also been listening to the first edit of the album we recorded last month in Sweden for BIS Records.  It’s always enlightening to listen to one’s own performance and under such scrutiny.  We’re looking forward to sharing the fruits of our labor with you all when the record is released.  Keep an eye out!

Descending now into Dallas.  We’ll another update from our Mexico debut next week.

Thanks for reading and following us!

Since I’m sure Craig will be editing this blog before posting, I thought I’d first take the chance to let you all know that he’s really the unsung hero behind making us sound so good in print and looking so good in photos and in all our social media.  He really is amazing. (**CP: I didn’t pay him to say this, I swear.) 

So… October started with us flying to Sweden to record our first record for BIS Records at the most idyllic of churches in Länna, Sweden.  We think you’ll be very pleased with this next record.  It features some of the most beautiful polyphony in our repertoire from the Franco-Flemish Renaissance.  We found the church was especially good for chant so we hope you’ll enjoy that aspect of the record too!  Recording aside, it really was a lovely retreat for the four of us even though we were working.  Such a peaceful and quiet part of the world.

Upon our return, we got to be “smart kids” for a weekend and present portions of Gregory Brown’s Missa Charles Darwin at TEDx Woods Hole in Massachusetts.

Having experienced a taste of how Greg elegantly and intelligently introduces the piece, we’re confident that you’ll want to make your way to Lillie Auditorium at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole to hear the whole piece in its premiere!

On a bit of a sad note, we then announced the departure of our tenor, Geoffrey Silver after this December.  We’ll miss him very much but we don’t have to say goodbye just yet!

Yesterday, October 30th gave us the chance to throw Geoffrey’s replacement, Steven Caldicott Wilson, into the fire and we gave a performance of our Tudor City program in Grace Episcopal Church in Nyack, New York.  It was a lovely fall afternoon up the Hudson and Steve outdid himself in preparation and we look forward to adding his energetic personality into our little lives together.

Now, as the goblins and ghoulies are dolling up for their trick-or-treating, the suitcase comes out of the closet again to pack for our nearly 3 week tour beginning November 2!  We spend the first few days in residence at Dartmouth College which will give us a chance to work with some ensembles and classes on campus and give a concert in their beautiful Rollins Chapel.   We don’t have to say goodbye to Geoffrey Silver just yet as we’ll have him to share his skills especially as we offer workshops and masterclasses.

Next, we’re off to the American southwest for more concerts and workshops in New Mexico (Portales and Albuquerque) and Texas (Waco).  Then we make our first trip to Mexico where we’re appearing in the Festival de Música de Morelia.

Sadly, we’re only in Mexico for about 48 hours.  Hoping to get at least one good taste of local cuisine before we head back up north.  Back to Woods Hole for the aforementioned premiere of Missa Charles Darwin.  

Please do follow us on the road and send us tweets and messages on Facebook.  We’ll TWEET YOU BACK!

Happy Halloween!
GW

Instead of dwelling on how sad it is for us to lose his distinctive talent—both as a musician and a collaborator—we’d rather state the obvious: Geoff Silver is integral to everything we’ve achieved.  And thanks to his hard work on stage and off, we’ve achieved quite a lot!

But now to the future. We are very excited to announce that tenor Steven Caldicott Wilson is joining us for the next phase of New York Polyphony.

Praised by the New York Times as “a powerful, polished and moving Evangelist” for his April 2011 performance in the Matthew Passion of C.P.E. Bach, tenor Steven Caldicott Wilson is a frequent interpreter of early music both as a soloist and as a small ensemble member.  In December 2010, Mr. Wilson made his Carnegie Hall solo debut in Handel’s Messiah with Andrew Megill and The Masterwork Chorus. In March 2011, he sang the arias and ensemble parts in Bach’s B Minor Mass at St. Thomas Church NYC; he also sang arias and ensemble parts in an 8-singer performance of Bach’s Saint John Passion of 1725 with Chatham Baroque in Pittsburgh. In May 2011, he sang the title role in Judas Maccabaeus with the Clarion Music Society under the baton of Steven Fox.  Steve is a graduate of Yale University’s prestigious Early Music Program and currently serves on the voice faculty of the Turtle Bay Music School in Manhattan.   Learn more about Steve here.

Again, we are very exited for Steve to join New York Polyphony.  In the short term—as we get Steve up to speed on repertoire—there will be some overlap between tenors. Geoff will be with us until December. His final show as an official member of NYP will be in Beaumont, Texas on December 16. Steve will perform his first concert with us on October 30 in Nyack, NY and assume tenor duties full-time in 2012.  Visit our SCHEDULE page for more details.

Finally, to celebrate Geoff’s tenure with the band, here again is a link to the gorgeous video he created for our performance of Christopher Tye’s In pace, the last track on our CD Tudor City.

It has been an absolute pleasure sharing my voice with you as a founding member of New York Polyphony.

Touring the wide open spaces of this great nation with my friends has been an honour and an adventure, and the warm welcome I have received around the country, has been humbling.  But the tug of the home fires is strong and next year I will relocate to the UK.  To that end, over the past few months we have been working on a transition with auditions and planning.  My colleagues have selected and appointed Steven Caldicott Wilson, a tenor with gorgeous colour and versatility, with whom I know the group will scale new heights and continue to grow in musicianship and excellence.

© Joanne Bouknight

I am proud of our achievements these past five years, and my contribution to the NYP partnership.  My favourites include the front page splash in Choir and Organ which we got before we’d sung very many concerts, working with Malcolm Bruno on I sing the Birth, getting a Billboard top ten for Tudor City, and, this year, signing with the fantastic Opus3, and exciting Swedish label, BIS.  The near future has further surprises and innovations in store for NYP, which I look forward to following on Facebook and Twitter.  (Remember that if you tweet them, they will tweet back!)  We have come a long way since the early days when the audience consisted essentially of our partners, and our new manager has some really fun gigs lined up.

It’s a wrench to leave my friends and colleagues, Geoff, Chris and Craig, who have the best voices in their class, and with whom I have grown as a musician and tenor.  I shall miss them.  But I look forward to being able to devote more energy to Acis, my boutique CD label and artist promotional consultancy, and to my clients on both sides of the pond.

– Geoff Silver

This afternoon we fly from JFK to Stockholm.  From there, we drive roughly 80 km northeast to the village of Länna where we’ll spend 8 days recording in a beautiful 14th century stone church.  (It’s referred to as the Länna kyrka, if you’re interested.)  After competing with the noise of New York City on our past two discs, we’re very much looking forward to working in a pristine, uncompromised acoustic environment!  The CD–produced by acclaimed producer/ engineer Jens Braun–will feature the music of the Franco-Flemish Renaissance– works by Crecquillon, Brumel and Clemens.

We are in the process of devising creative ways to share the experience of recording in Länna with you.  If we can get the technology sorted out, we will be sure to let everyone know where to point your browser of choice.  Stay tuned.

It would be a profound understatement to say that we’re very excited to be joining the roster of BIS Records, so I won’t even bother.  I’ll let you read the official press release instead…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BIS Records Signs Acclaimed Classical Vocal Quartet New York Polyphony

New York, New York – September 25, 2011 – Male classical vocal quartet New York Polyphony, who received international acclaim with the CDs I sing the birth (2007) and Tudor City (2010), has signed an exclusive recording contract with BIS Records. Slated for Spring 2012 release, their first album on BIS will feature rare and never-before recorded works from the Franco-Flemish Renaissance by composers Thomas Crecquillon, Antoine Brumel and Jacob Clemens non Papa.

Founded in 2006, New York Polyphony has emerged as one of the preeminent vocal chamber ensembles in the fields of early and new music. Praised for a “rich, natural sound that’s larger and more complex than the sum of its parts” (National Public Radio), the four men scored a hit with their current CD Tudor City, spending three weeks in the Top 10 of Billboard magazine’s classical album chart.

The ensemble maintains an active performing schedule and has participated in major concert series and festivals throughout the U.S. and Europe, including the Miller Theatre Early Music Series at Columbia University, Dallas Chamber Music Series, Ireland’s Pipeworks and Ardee Baroque Festivals, and the Vestfold Festspillene in Tønsberg, Norway. Future engagements include the premiere of Gregory Brown’s Missa Charles Darwin, a secular Mass setting based on Darwin’s On The Origin Of Species at TEDx Woods Hole, Massachusetts; a residency at Dartmouth College November 2011 and an appearance at the Festival de Música de Morelia, Mexico.

In February of this year, New York Polyphony signed a worldwide general management contract with Opus 3 Artists.

BIS Records, founded in 1973 by its current president Robert von Bahr, has developed a reputation for recording eclectic repertoire, including early music as well as works by many contemporary composers, ranging from Kalevi Aho to Christopher Rouse. The more than 1,500 titles in the BIS catalogue also include many mainstays of the concert hall, from a Tchaikovsky cycle with Neeme Järvi to a Bach Cantata cycle with the Bach Collegium Japan, as well as Osmo Vänskä conducting Minnesota Orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphonies. Based in Sweden, the label also has a strong suit in Nordic repertoire, crowned by the recently completed Sibelius Edition, comprising 68 discs with all the music the composer ever wrote. The enterprising choice of repertoire as well as the superior sound quality of its releases has made BIS one of the most highly respected record labels internationally.

Our high hopes were exceeded.  The competition was an enormous success.  We received hundreds of remixes in a dizzying array of styles from musicians all over the world!  So when the four of us began to compare notes on our favorite remixes, it became clear that selecting a grand prize winner was not going to be easy.  The styles represented were too diverse and the techniques employed too varied to apply a simple set of criteria to the 200+ remixes.  So, we listened to them… over and over.  In the end, our choices were based on a combination of technical analysis and “gut” appeal.  (And we argued a lot.)

Throughout the evaluation process, it became clear that our job was absolute cake compared what we were asking the contest entrants to do.  We just threw a couple of tunes into the electronic ether and said “go!”– no accompanying parts, no meter, no rhythm… we didn’t even provide any guidelines!  Against the odds, everyone managed to thread the needle in their own way and in their own style.  Hear for yourself– you can still listen to all of the entries on the Indaba website:

Victimae paschali laudes remixes
Gaudeamus in omnes domino remixes
Beati mundo corde remixes

I can’t tell you how cool it was to hear everything from Richard Walker’s hypnotic soundscapes and Wes Bender’s cinematic interpretation to Ken Andruk’s tree frogs (yes, tree frogs!) and AlexB’s epic guitar solo at 4:52.  And if you haven’t listened to The Cheese Factory’s gospel-tinged remix of Gaudeamus, do yourself a favor.

The end result?  The EP Devices & Desires, a 9-track, digital-only release.  To kick it up a notch, Ariama.com, Sony Music’s new online classical music store, signed on as our EXCLUSIVE retailer.  Purchase a copy today for only $4.99 by clicking HERE.

Because the winning remixes were so creative, we wanted to give their creators an opportunity to explain how they went about their work.  Here are their stories:

DAVID MINNICK (Victimae paschali laudes): ”I used no sound sources other than New York Polyphony’s vocals to make this. I kept the chant melody in tact and went crazy with editing, filters and effects. I used very short segments of the vocals to make drums, bass and other sounds. This was more fun than anyone should be allowed to have!”

ANDREW BROADWATER (Victimae paschali laudes): ”The mix was created using Logic Studio. Instrumental parts were performed by Peabody Conservatory and NYU alumnus, Andrew Broadwater. Instruments include alto and bass recorders, tin whistle, and violin.”

EILEEN CARPIO (Gaudeamus omnes gentes): ”The whole process was very instinctive and I did it one afternoon. I had wanted to try Paul’s Extreme Sound Stretch, an open source software. I used this to time stretch the original full recording. I chose a segment which most appealed to me sonically and laid it alongside the original track. Then I simply improvised 4 tracks of harmonies, not allowing myself time to think too much about it. When I entered the competition I thought that my piece would at best just go unnoticed. I’m delighted with the comments and feedback and the amazing community on Indaba.”

MIKE LIST (Gaudeamus omnes gentes): ”I work with Igor Houwat (oud) in a group called Wisaal that combines Arabic music with other influences including western art music, klezmer music and a bit of Indian and South American sounds.  When I heard about the Devices and Desires contest I had an idea for a remix influenced by some of the Aisian Underground music I have listened to.  I mentioned the idea to Igor and one week after a Wisaal rehearsal I explained to him what I was looking for and he laid down the ‘oud part.

In western music the lute is regularly associated with early music and the fluid rhythmic style of Arabic improvisation easily complimented the fluid rhythm of the chant.  I’m really happy with how all the pieces of this came together to be something that hopefully feels ancient, yet exotic and meditative.”

INGE SKALAND (Beati mundo corde): ”When I work on projects like this I usually start with listening through the vocal track a couple of times, then I import it into Ableton Live to “time it up”, I use Warp markers to stretch the audio stems i choose to use so it will fit the timing in the project and with beats.

The NYP tracks was a little tricky, chopping with warp markers usually makes artifacts to the audio. Especially if you increase the BPM to much. The reverb tail on the vocals is very delicate and may easily have been destroyed. I chose to start in 96 BMP and then after about 50 seconds silently increase the BPM to 120 to get it inn the beat.

I ended up with supporting the voices with two basic layers of synth pads, and made it as smooth as possible and to have a movement in the sound. To prepare and reveal the beat I used a soft deep bass sound for then fade inn the beat.  I filled inn some extra vocal samples, some recorded and some choir sound from the soft synth Omnisphere. For the synth solo part I found a lead sound that I liked and made an intro – solo and ending, I find it most easy to play the solo parts when the chords are there and the beat is going. When I find the basic moods, sounds and the chords, I try to stick to it and make additional elements support and fit to the basic sounds.”

BARRY PHILLIPS (Beati mundo corde): “I wish I had a snappy story about arranging the music, but it’s pretty straight forward. Since the chant is in free rhythm and since harmony is usually my first thought in music composition, I harmonized the chant in fairly modern homophonic style first. Then I arranged the map of the arrangement as solo lines with drone, solo followed by the harmonization that could have happened simultaneously but didn’t, and lastly the chant paired with it’s harmonization. Deciding those arrangement details took most of the time I spent on the arrangement.”

And, lastly, we couldn’t have pulled off this project without help.  Here are the people behind the scenes:

Audio editing: Acis Productions
Mastering: Tom Durack
Engineer: Jason Slote
Assistant engineer: Alden Slote
Design consultant: 125mg Design
Recorded at Grace Cathedral, Topeka, Kansas – December 2010

Special thanks to the Indaba Music staff and Craig Zeichner at Ariama.com for taking a chance with this out-there project!

A little post-mortem (literally) about our premiere tonight of “Notatar for eit Rekviem” (Notes for a Requiem).  In short, it’s a stage adaptation of  Odd Klippenvåg ’s novel about Don Carlo Gesualdo, the innovative composer and Prince of Venosa most famous for murdering his wife and her lover. While his noble status shielded him from punishment, he spent the rest of his life tormented by his crimes.

The face of an ancient grave beneath Horten kirke in Larvik, Norway.

Our friend and frequent collaborator Andrew Smith has written musical settings of Psalm 55 to pair with five motets by the murderous Prince himself.  Andrew has really outdone himself this time.  The pieces he’s written for this show are beautiful and chilling.  So much growth in his writing, as well as his expertise in scoring music for of our vocal lineup of alto, tenor, baritone, and bass.

The stagecraft is handled entirely by a single actor– Svein Tindberg, a well-known Norwegian actor of stage and screen. Svein portrays the tormented Gesualdo as well as the other lives he destroys… alternating between characters with consummate skill.  A female dancer, Marte Blom Onshuus, silently portrays the roles of Gesualdo’s two wives in a powerful and beautifully understated performance.  The director and librettist Terje Tveit is an Ibsen scholar living in London.  He has brilliantly taken the script (which he adapted from the original novel), actor, dancer, music, and we singers (NYP and guest Ebba Rydh) and created a vivid picture of this tormented character.

This is a piece we hope to continue to program, in Norwegian, perhaps then to Italian and certainly into English.  It’s a powerful piece of musical drama.  Click HERE to learn more about the program.

After a nice sleep, we leave the lovely town of Larvik tomorrow to head to Tønsberg, the center of the Vestfold Festspillen.  We sing three performances in the Haugar Vestfold Kunstmuseum for their “Gloria Mundi” exhibition of local medieval church art.  Of special note is a portion of a Cranach altarpiece which was recently stolen from the church in Larvik and is now wonderfully restored for the exhibit.  After a brief introduction by the museum’s curator, we will take the audience on a travelling concert through the 5 gallery exhibit with musical examples contemporary to the artwork from Gothic and early Medieval sounds of Perotin and the Worcester Fragments through the middle and high Renaissance to some modern polyphony as an accompaniment to the paintings and wood-carviings to truly make this a “living art” exhibition.

After this a second performance of “Notatar”, our own performance of our Tudor City program in the Dom kirke and a festival finale of a chamber performance of Mozart’s Requiem.

More soon!

The week before leaving New York for Norway, I did an exact count of how many diapers Grace uses on a weekly basis. The number was 49: 7 a day. So, for 11 days, I packed 95 (just to be safe) plus an extra few in the diaper bag. I also calculated 3 outfits a day, 9 “binkies”, two changing pads, baby carrier, car seat, stroller, two giraffe teethers… the list goes on. I researched weather in Norway, sleep accommodations, flight bassinet, and infant jet lag. I began packing in earnest a full three days in advance, adding little things as I remembered them. Norway was to be our first trip as new parents, and with Grace just under 6 months old, we are still getting the hang of, well, everything. Travelling with NYP was new, too; I had never been with the guys on a trip further away than Greenwich, CT.

Craig and I calculated that from our home in Jackson Heights, Queens, the trip to Newark International would take (with traffic) 90 minutes. To give ourselves plenty of time, we decided to leave at 2:30pm for our 7pm flight. In the morning, Grace had a last-minute photo shoot with Sing for Hope on the pop-up piano in Jackson Heights. We still managed to board our dog, pack the car, and get on the road on time. We left at 2:42 with a brief stop for a poopy diaper three minutes down the road.

As we got on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) and headed toward Brooklyn, we had to make a decision: take the Williamsburg Bridge to Manhattan and the Holland Tunnel (definitely shorter on the map) or take BQE around Manhattan through Staten Island and up 95N to Newark. Craig hates the BQE; he opted for the tunnel. I had misgivings, but I figured, it’s still early– let’s go for it.

We got into Manhattan easily but things slowed as we reached Soho and headed to the tunnel. Then they slowed some more. Then they stopped. I mean, they really stopped. We were in the middle of a block of traffic, and the lights were cycling through and no one was moving. Over and over. This was frustrating at first, then annoying, then, as we watched minutes tick by, absolutely maddening. 4:30. 4:38. Nothing, with cars stopped as far as we could see. I called the airline. We had to check in by 5:30. The call service was located in Estonia; they were no help. We moved one car length. Ten more minutes went by. When we were finally the ones approaching the box, I told Craig to gun it. The reason typically aggressive New York drivers weren’t going through the intersection? Two cops on every corner. I had missed them. They approached our window and I literally burst into tears. “We’re going to miss our flight! We’re travelling with an infant.” The officer looked amused– “I’m just doing my job.” $115 later, he informed us that it was still another 30 minutes to the tunnel. “What were you thinking, the Holland Tunnel on a Friday afternoon?”

I called the airline. Changing our flights: $762 each. I wouldn’t be able to go. Craig would have to go without me and Grace… on our first post-baby vacation.  I cried some more.

I called the airline back and spoke with a slightly more helpful Estonian. If we could check-in online by 5:30 and ask Craig’s bandmates (the other 3 NYP guys had taken the train to the airport) to speak with the airline staff on our behalf, they MIGHT make an exception for us. So, with reservation numbers in hand, I tried to use Craig’s smartphone (I’m a technology Luddite) to check-in online in the remaining minutes. As I was absorbed in this task, we somehow got through the tunnel. It was 5:08. When I’d finally figured out the online form, (feeling like I was working on a ticking bomb) it was rejected.

Suddenly, the pace of traffic started to pick-up and we were faced with make-or-break decisions about which way to go.  It was 5:18. We decided that the best plan was to bypass parking and drive straight the terminal. Craig would then race in with all of our big bags, beg their mercy, and try to check us all in. Meanwhile, I would take the baby, park the car and race back to the terminal to meet up with Craig. 5:24.

I circled the airport three times to find the long-term parking (cleverly marketed as Economy parking), parked the car, and ran to the 1980s-era bus sign where I waited for the bus. It started to rain. No bus. It started to pour. Still no bus. I reached for my phone to let Craig know I was delayed… but I couldn’t find it. Did I leave it in the car? How would I find him in the airport if he needed to board the plane without me?! No choice, I had to get back to the car before the bus came. For the trip, we packed an older stroller, because we didn’t want to damage our new one. Good thinking except that the older stroller is impossible to maneuver, doesn’t fit between the cars, and can’t be pushed with one hand…which, since I was also lugging a suitcase I had forgotten to leave with Craig, made things much worse. So, I made a panic-induced decision to leave Grace in the stroller at the bus stop and turn back to look at her every ten seconds while I searched for the car. I found the car. No phone. I gave up and ran back to Grace. I was losing it.

After fifteen minutes of waiting for the bus, I saw a bus approach the Air Tram but then stop and go no further. I made a run for it in the rain. A weird crying-wheezing sound was coming out of my mouth. When I asked if she would take me to the terminal, the bus driver looked at me like I was absolutely crazy. The Air Tram. I was supposed to take the Air Tram. Yes, it turns out they’ve updated the Newark airport transportation system, but neglected to let anyone know this, leaving travelers to figure things out for themselves. I got on the Air Tram with Grace and suitcase. At this point, Grace was whimpering so I pulled it together and talked to her in a happy voice. I got off at Terminal B. It was 6:15.

Then I heard my phone ring….in my purse? Craig was in the check-in line in the terminal. Apparently, there had been a computer glitch, so no one (not even the pilot) was able to check-in. Soaking wet, I found the guys, calm as cucumbers. Craig was never so happy to see me. We sped through priority security, got on the plane as it was already boarding, and sank into our seats. It was 7pm.

On the plane, we had everything we needed for a comfortable flight, due to my impeccable planning.  Grace slept like a baby.

CHRIS has a few solo projects on the horizon including a performance with Ensemble for the Romantic Century at Symphony Space on March 24 and a recital with Thomas Bagwell at Christ and St. Stephen’s Church in Manhattan in May. He’s also working furiously to place 88 street pianos all over New York City – the project is called Sing for Hope’s Pop-Up Pianos. When he’s not traversing the 5 boroughs or singing he can be found at the park or at home with his husband Tim and his dog Pumpkin.

GEOFF WILLIAMS began the month of March with a solo recital (“with some fine instrumentalists”) at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Oklahoma City singing music by Bach, Purcell, and “Three Songs for Countertenor” by, friend of the band, Gregory Brown.  Last week, he represented NYP at the National Convention of the American Choral Director’s Association in Chicago and returned to New York City in time to lead another stellar early music ensemble, TENET in a program of Spanish Renaissance polyphony. This summer, Geoff joins the faculty of Amherst Early Music Festival’s Ensemble Singing Collective . (And on a side note, he’s very happy that baseball season is almost here. “GO CUBS!”)

GEOFF SILVER is currently editing a CD of organ works by Rachel Laurin, performed by rising star, Isabelle Demers on a gorgeous Casavant in Montreal. The CD will be released on his label Acis Productions. He has other editing projects in the pipeline, including chant for NYP, a double disc of Reger Choral Fantasies (also Demers) and a project with Margaret Lacey– the first CD to feature the newly installed Aeolian-Skinner at Amarillo, Texas. He’s considering sound proofing his apartment. Other work on the horizon includes calling the camera shots for the Trinity Wall Street Matthew Passion webcast, and a Lent and Holy Week spent produing a music education book. Recent (and future) extra-curricular activities include cheering Celtic Women friends on at Radio City on St Paddy’s day, cheering Cambridge on in the boat race (March 26, 1pm EST), and attending his only 500th anniversary reunion of the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge.

CRAIG continues to aggravate his god complex by singing the role of Jesus in Bach’s Saint John Passion next month at Washington National Cathedral. But most of his time is spent managing two major projects: his 9-week old baby Grace and a kitchen renovation slated for August.

…