Greetings Everyone! I hope you are enjoying the autumn weather wherever you may be reading these words. These past weeks in Seattle have been particularly stunning.
Our September meeting in our new venue was a huge success, at least from my side of the podium. It was truly heartening to see so many happy, familiar faces again, as well as greeting several new players who recently moved to the area. It was so refreshing to have enough room to spread out with folks seated as in days of yore with sopranos and altos on one side, and tenors and basses on the other. Hurrah for new beginnings!
Even though the room is quite spacious, we will continue to have an air purifier running as well as keeping the back door open, so please remember an extra layer as the evenings will get cooler.
The office manager requests that we do not keep the glass doors by the parking lot open and unattended while we are in session, so the easiest and most direct entrance will be through the back door, which is in the alley between 18th and 19th Avenues. There is ample parking on the side streets in addition to the three or four marked slots in the alley.
My selections for our upcoming October meeting were inspired by 400-year anniversaries. Anno 1623 marked the death of the renowned Danish vocal composer, Mogens Pedersøn, and the birth of Austrian composer Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. Pedersøn was one of the talented young composers who served at the court of Christian IV of Denmark. Schmelzer was employed at the Hapbsburg court in Vienna under Leopold I. Neither monarch spared any expense to ensure that their musical courts were among the finest in Europe. We will play some of my personal favorite 3- and 5-part madrigals by Mogens Pedersøn before plunging into the unrivaled Sonata per 7 Flauti by Schmelzer.
Zoom link and pdfs of scores and parts will always be available on the Monday preceding our Friday meetings. I no longer need to know who is attending, but I do need to know (vickiboeckman@comcast.net) if anyone needs hard copies brought.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any other board member if you have questions or concerns.