Here you’ll find a mix of songs with me singing, me playing piano for singers, and in some cases, music sung by the Royal High School without my influence at all :-).
Me singing in choirs
- Kyrie
This and the next three songs are recordings from when I was in All-State Honor Choir back in 1988 in California. I got to sing with about 150 others from Southern California, and then our group joined the Northern Cal group for an awe-inspiring concert. While I don’t have the recording of that final concert, I think these clips from our S. California performance are quite cool 🙂 - Come to Me, My Love
arranged and conducted by the well-renowned choral director William Hall - Let Us Break Bread Together
Yes, all these pieces are a bit on the serious side, and I wish we had been able to do some more “fun” music in Honor Choir this year (as had been done in years past), but I still think this music is beautiful. - Ubi Caritas
Definitely one of my favorites! Oh, and in case you were curious, I’m singing tenor in this ensemble. - Six Chansons (by Hindemith)
Actually, the group I sang with at Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts summer camp only sang four of them and (horrors!) in English instead of French, but for a bunch o’ 15 and 16 year olds, I think we did pretty well. And besides, this is only Hindemith that I think sounds good 🙂 [edited to add later… okay, maybe not only, but have you heard Hindemith’s other stuff? :D]
Royal High School
I was deeply honored to be a guest accompanist for this amazingly talented and mature set of Royal High School Choirs, then headed by the much-loved Jim Wilbur (who has sadly retired from choir directing).
I look back on this short time with amazement; in my young 20s I got to play and listen to beautiful music, hang out (and sometimes travel) with a very fun bunch of dedicated students, and get paid good money while doing so. How I’d like to find a gig like that again!
Me accompanying the Royal High School choirs on piano
Alas, I digitized this from an already-bad-quality cassette tape recording of a concert, so the sound quality is pretty awful. Even so, I think and hope you’ll enjoy listening to the beautiful voices of these kids. Such a mature repetoire for high schoolers!
- Christ is Made the Sure Foundation
- Wilt Thou Forgive
- Jabberwocky
- The Lark Ascending
- Nostra something or other [Unsure of the title]
ROYAL SINGING A CAPPELLA
(sadly without me!)
The Birthday Brigade
When I was in high school, I was voted “Most Studious.” What a joke! I spent far more time in extra-curricular pursuits than studying, and to this day I wonder if my fellow students did indeed nominate me for the award as a joke :).
In particular, I was spending many hours a week on “The Birthday Brigade” — a singing telegram group I created that sung songs for fellow students (and teachers and administrators!) and raised money for the school library.
We sang everything from “Love Me Tender” to “A Beethoven Birthday” and everything in between; as long as it fit in under 60 seconds and wasn’t offensive, all was good :).
To hear our wacky songs (nearly all of which I arranged) and learn more about this group, check out this birthday brigade post 🙂
What do you think?