From Farrah Kalleja (23.10.10)
Dear Dr. Curtis and Choir,
I can't believe I wasn't able to perform Carmina Burana with you guys! I heard it was good though. I joined another choir here at my college and it is lots of fun. The choir director is great. In my first week of college I, and the rest of the choir, had 90 minutes to learn two songs and then had to perform those at a concert! Because of the director, and of course us, the talented students, we managed to pull it off. It actually sounded really professional. All the students that are in the choir sing really well. Oh and I sing in the women's choir; sometimes the men's choir joins us though.
In general, college is lots of fun too. It is not that bad, so prospective college students don't worry. You just have to master their system of teaching and learning. So, you basically have to read, take notes, study, and then take an exam; that is how easy it is. The professors basically lecture to you again what is in the book, unless you get a really cool professor who doesn't make you fall asleep in class and speaks about other things that are not mentioned in the book.
Oh, did you know that Amish children only go to school till 8th grade. I see them all over the place. They drive their buggies through campus and leave behind their horses droppings. Isn't that rude; they leave it on our campus, so that we have to clean it up! In the area I am in, the Amish even have a street lane right next to the cars.
Well, that is what is happening here in Pennsylvania. I might see you all when I come back for Christmas break.
Farrah Kalleja
P.S.: I hope Julien told you about the music he was supposed to recommend to you: Les Choristes (Die Kinder des Monsier Mathieu)
P.S.S.: Here is the music I have sung until now. They are all very pretty pieces, so I recommend them as well.
All That Hath Life and Breath Praise Ye the Lord (René Clausen)
Alleluia (Paul Basler)
3 Nightsongs (Hilda Conkling)
Sanctus (Jan Sandstöm)
Amazing Grace (John Coates)
Cantique De Jean Racine (Gabriel Fauré)
Koka (Stephen Hatfield)
Amazing Grace (Michael Hanawalt)
Ave, Regina Coelorum (Larysa Kuzmenko)
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Tatiana Bühler (10.9.10)
Dear Dr. Curtis and Choir,
I hope that you are all doing great and that your voices have not failed youJ!
Currently I’m sitting in my living room in Santiago de Chile. I arrived in Chile about 1 ½ weeks ago on Friday the 27th of august and up to know I have had a great time here, though sadly I don’t have much time to join a choir since I have to work from 8:30 in the morning until 5:30 in the evening. I work with little kids in the poor part of the city in a salacuna. The whole complex is called naciente. There is a kinder garden, a salacuna and the Hogar (a place where mentally and physically challenged people can go). The ages of the kids in the kinder garden range from 3-5years and in the salcuna from 0,5 -3 years. The kids I help with are about 1-2 years old and are really cute. One can’t tell at the first moment that the kids are poor because they have nice close on and look very pretty, however one can smell. For example the hair of some of the kids smells like cigarettes and drugs that the parents smoke. Also the kids seem to need a lot of love because they always want hugs and kisses. It’s also scary to see how young the parents sometimes are. Many of them come to the kinder garden in their school uniforms, on their way to school.
I live about twenty minutes away from the salcuna. In the drug district of the Santiago. Sometimes it’s is rather scary, because there are flights and drug dealers that sometime attack and rob. So we are not allowed to go on the street alone at night. We have to be at least two people, if not more. Sometimes there are even fights in the streets. For example we heard gone shots the other night, in our street. However during the day one can walk around without worry. It happens frequently that we are whistled at by men or that they throw us kisses, because we are women from Europe and we look different than all the other women here. Most Women here have black hair and a little darker skin from the sun (it’s not really black skin, but it’s darker than the color we have). Sometimes it happens that we are followed by men, however nothing happened jet, because we have always been very careful. Otherwise than those few things living here is really nice. Our neighbors are nice, even though I can’t talk with them yet (my Spanish is getting better and I understand a lot, but the speaking part is still giving me trouble) and the people one meets always say “hola” or “buenas dias”, which is really nice. During the day the kids play on the street with their kites and balls and other toys. It’s really nice to see because the street and the neighborhood is alive. I miss that in Germany.
The house I live in is very big. I live with two other volunteers: Almuth and Camila. They are both very nice and we get along very well. The only funny thing, that I’m not used to, is that everything works on gas here. To get warm water one has to turn on the calefon that basically works like a bunsebrenner: turn on the gas and set it on fire. Than we have to wait until the water is warm. We have to do the same with the oven. It’s very weird when one comes from Germany where everything works with electricity, especially when we have to buy gas bottles when they are empty.
Ok, so I have to finish the cake I made for a volunteer, whose birthday is tomorrow. I wish you much fun singing and hope that you have many great concerts. For those of you who want to know more about what happens to me in Chile I have a blog: tatiana-buehler.blogspot.com
Greetings
Besos y abrazos (küsse und umarmungen)
Tatiana
P.S. Sorry form y bad English, but I only speak German and Spanish here.
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From Erik Wiedenmann (30.11.09)
Hello Dr. Curtis (and Choir)!
I must say, I was hardly surprised to surprised to find an email from "Joseph Curtis" on my birthday. You are hardly one to forget something--even a JFKS alum's birthday (wow, that makes me sound old)!
I've meant to send an email to you for some time now. It's not that I didn't have the time, I just didn't quite know what to say. I remember sitting in choir and occasionally hearing stories of former choir members resound through you. That other world always sounded so distant, and yet here I am now, a hop over the big pond and many miles from G102.
So what can I say, without sounding like I'm writing a Christmas Card to my Oma?
Well, let me begin by saying this, life beyond JFKS is not as harsh as people try to make it sound.
From what I've encountered at Tufts University, situated in Medford, MA--what I sometimes call the "Zehlendorf suburb of Boston"--there's always work, but there's also time for fun--you just have to manage your time properly.
So knowing that I wanted to do something besides read and write, I auditioned for the Tufts Concert Choir. The audition was pretty informal. Besides some sight-singing and matching pitches, the fact that I was asked to sing the German national anthem should go to show what I mean. I'm sure everyone in the choir also knows a few lines, am I right? No, "Deutschland über alles" is not one of them.
Needless to say, my recitation of the German virtues impressed the American conductor. And so, since the beginning of this semester I've been singing with the choir, which consists of some 60 people.
We also already had our first concert, where we performed "The Koro Sutro," an arrangement composed by Lou Harrison. The text is a traditional Buddhist hymn, but translated to Esperanto--what the hell?? But it gets better. Harrison, who also had studied with Arnold Schoenberg (read atonal music), conceptualized his own American Gamelan, consisting of various drums and bells. These instruments had to be sent to us in huge wooden boxes from Indiana. Fortunately, we didn't have to worry about playing those things, as members hired from the Boston Modern Orchestra Project took over that part. The most challenging part for us members of the choir was that this piece is tuned in just intonation instead of conventional western tuning as with the piano. Sounds intense--it was! But it was also fun to do something so radically different.
Tomorrow there is a dress rehearsal for our christmas concert. On a sidenote, for all those that thought concert attire at JFKS is strict, i should add that for our actual concert all men have to wear a tux. James Bond would be impressed.
But yes, we're back to those old christmas carols again. I don't know why, but I feel like I am becoming more like Scrooge every year. It's those colorful christmas lights! Bah humbug!
So in this festive spirit (frohlocket, frohlocket!), have a great school year!
Oh, that reminds me... i also want to wish all those traveling to Turkey for Honor Choir a great time, which I'm sure you will have. Looking back to when we traveled to Qatar for Honor Choir, I can only encourage everyone to give it a shot, especially those hesitant about recording tapes to send in. All those in choir who went on one of these trips will tell you how great those festivals are.
On that note, that take all the opportunities you can to suck the marrow out of the bones of JFKS, or to put it in less morbid terms (because JFKS will hopefully survive for many years more), the nectar from the fruit, if that sounds any better.
Take care,
Erik
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from Katrina Andresen (18.11.08)
Dear Dr. Curtis,
Thank you so much for thinking of me and sending me the
note for my birthday! I've been meaning to write you and the
choir since the beginning of the year but everything has been
so busy.
Anyway, I'll tell you a little about what's been going on in my
life over the past few months since college started.... I'm attending
the Master's College in Santa Clarita, CA right outside of LA. It's
a small Christian Liberal Arts college about the size of our high school.
So classes are small and you begin to recognize almost everyone on
campus. I'm majoring in Communication with an emphasis in Print Media or Journalism. But I
think it would interest you more to know that I’m still very involved in music. I’d signed up
for the general college choir before even coming to college but had heard a lot about the
Master’s Chorale before I’d even gotten here and quite honestly was a bit intimidated. I didn’t
plan on auditioning my first year, but a friend of mine from the chorale told me I should at
least try out, and that there was nothing to lose. So I did, and I got in! The reason I was
scared, is because I knew I would have to do a sight-reading section for the audition but
thankfully, the four years in high school choir over there with you guys helped me to learn how
to sight-sing without really knowing it ☺. Also, this choir sang at Carnegie Hall just a few
years ago and had recorded a CD that I’d already heard, and they are really good! I’m so
thankful to be a part of this 60 person choir myself now, and it’s been so much fun learning new
music and getting to know a bunch of musicians. We’ve already preformed over five times, the
reason being that we premiered the music from the CD they recorded last year, which meant a LOT
of learning and memorizing in the first five weeks of school. Besides that we sing in mixed
position, which is new to me, but the challenge is fun and since then we’ve learned even more
music. Anyway, I don’t want to bore you all with details but I hope to be able to see you in
the summer, before you all get out of school ☺. Work hard and do your best—it’s totally worth
it once you’re singing in the Dom in front of thousands of people, but then again, most of you
already know that. I miss you guys and hope you’re doing well!
Your friend,
Katrina
P.S. Hope my brother’s doing well and all of you keep up the good work!