Our Month of Music

December is the month of music in our house. Between Kathleen and me, we have at least five concerts I can think of, and probably some more I am forgetting about.

The Sacramento Concert Band is playing tonight at Christ Community Church tonight at 7:00. The first half of our concert will be normal music, followed by a short intermission and the obligatory set of Holiday music (really just Xmas and Hanukah). The church is willing to lend us their facilities in return for our requesting food drive donations. As the band’s stage manager, I am very grateful to the church. This is a giant church with great facilities and unbelievable organization that makes my job a lot easier. They have even promoted our concert to their gigantic membership. Without that kind of help, we would likely end up with an audience smaller than the band.

Hopefully we’ll be able to project the animated segment from Allegro Non Troppo for Sibelus’s Valse Triste. This is a very sad and beautiful work of art, and, a rather strong yet subtile anti-war statement. This is good enough that I’ve embedded the youtube video here.



No guarantees that we will be able to show the video, since in addition to the projecting the visuals, we’ll need to set up the click track for our conductor. The church people are pretty confident that we’ll be able to pull this off.

We will repeat the same concert, without the video on Monday, December 8 at the Winterstien Adult Education Center.

This Saturday, December 6, Sine Nomine, my recorder consort, will play between 12:00 and 1:00 PM at the Grand Opening of the New Public Library in Elk Grove. Elk Grove has needed this library for years, and I am happy to be a part of this. I will try to remember to bring a camera and take some pictures. I might even write an article for the American Recorder Society magazine! I’ll be sure to post the article here. Since almost all our music comes from the 14th through 18th centuries, it sounds like Xmas music to our audience. We actually aren’t playing any uniquely holiday pieces.

K’s choir, Schola Cantorum, will give concerts on December 20 and 21 at Sacred Heart Church, and they’ll provide their traditional music before and during Sacred Heart’s Midnight Mass. I usually skip the Midnight Mass, since it runs pretty late.

How much fun can two mediocre musicians have in one month?

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.