The process of preparing for this set of concerts has many aspects. We really enjoyed doing the Poet Sings summer concert series last year, and we felt we wanted to reprise the idea. Once we decided to go ahead with this project, we had some discussion regarding dates. Should we do four concerts weekly as we did last year, or perhaps focus in on fewer dates? Should we keep the same timeslot (11am) so that theatre-goers can still make it to lunch before seeing a matinee? As all three of us have other commitments, we were able to focus in on the dates quite easily. We decided to go with just three times a week this year: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, (July 9-25) and we felt that keeping concerts to 50 minutes in length as we did last year would also work well again.
Then came the fun part: deciding on repertoire! As the Poet Sings has performed together many times in the past year or two, we are enjoying a rapidly increasing list of songs to choose from, but all the same, we are adding many new pieces to our repertoire this summer. Please see Catherine's and Mark's posts below for some of their thoughts on choosing songs. I really enjoy the process of crafting the programs; building an event that has a feeling of flow, unity, and sufficient contrast is something I never tire of doing. As I observed the other day in one of our rehearsals, because of the particular styles and personalities of both Catherine and Mark as artists, we have a built-in sense of balance as a starting point in all of our programs. As you read in their posts below, Catherine tends to favour the slower tempo, lyrical, and expressive. To this "yin" tendency, Mark brings the "yang", strong and character-filled, masculine aspect. For the first two weeks of concerts, the audience will hear Mark and Catherine alternating throughout each program, and finishing each program with a duet or two.
Today we meet to rehearse a little more, and I believe we'll be focusing on some of the Musical Theatre duets. We'll tell you more about these wonderful pieces a little later.
Another aspect of putting together this project is, of course, the matter of promotion and advertising. In this time and place, many artists have to double as their own managers and PR people. This is a bit challenging as we really have so much to do in just preparing the music. So, please tell your friends and ask them to tell their friends...
We look forward to sharing all of this great music with you soon!
Sandra
Fantastic idea for both a concert series and a blog. Bravissimi!!
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