This past Saturday morning (October 29th), Penthelia had the opportunity to do a workshop with the very talented Mitchell Pady. Mitchell, a tenor and choral clinician, collaborated with us last spring and our resulting concert, A Night at the Opera, was highly successful. We were all looking forward to his thoughts and feedback on the madrigals we are working on for Vocal Treasures, our upcoming concert in December.
One thing about Mitchell is that he is extremely exacting. Before we knew it, an hour had gone by and we were still working on the first piece, Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina’s “Ahi che quest’occhi miei” (Ah, sad that these mine eyes). Palestrina was a 16th century Renaissance composer of sacred music, who was well known during his life. There are several excellent versions of this piece on YouTube, for those who might like a sneak peek.
Several of our past concerts have featured members of the choir singing together in small groups; for Vocal Treasures this will be a main focus as each singer is part of a trio or quartet. Each group chose a madrigal and has been sneaking in quick practices before and after rehearsals.
For the second half of the workshop, Alice and Mitchell coached each group, working on intonation, phrasing, and expression. This was an extremely valuable experience and has given the pieces a new depth and dimension. They are sounding fantastic and we can’t wait to share them with you on December 4th.
Debs sings Soprano I with the Penthelia Singers.
