Liz Bacon 6/1/15 Liz Bacon 6/1/15

This Will be Our Reply to Violence

One of my mentors once said that people who have seen war are often the gentlest, most peaceful people. Some are committed to leading lives that foster understanding, even while haunted by the horrors of war. Some seek to draw attention to tyranny and hypocrisy, to prevent the abuse of power and the oppression of innocents. I think of my father, a gentle Vietnam veteran who served as a Green Beret, who then devoted his career to international legal reform, working to ensure the rule of law in developing democracies. I was always moved by my dad's work for education and the rule of law, a commitment that seemed to have been both forged through his experiences in Vietnam and, to Dad, part of the same desire to help make the world a better place that caused him to go to West Point in the first place.

Our responses to war seem both universal and highly individual. My father is one example. Francis Poulenc is another. It's incredible that, amidst the chaos and cruelty of Nazi-occupied France during the second world war, Poulenc received the rebellious poems of Paul Eluard and set them to such exquisite music as Figure humaine. He was taking tremendous risk by writing this subversive work, but he responded to war as an artist can, with a thought-provoking, powerful work that transforms the audience.

The works on our upcoming War and Peace Concert this weekend seek to illuminate the deepest of human questions. Why do wars exist? How can we, as individuals, hold on to our humanity and our free will under a dictatorship? What is the personal and family cost of honored military service? Can there ever be peace on earth?

I am struck, as before, by Leonard Bernstein's inspiring quote, "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before." Resonance may not be able to answer these human questions, but we can explore them through music. The music you will hear at these particular Resonance concerts will remind us all that we can hold on to ideas of freedom, family, and peace.

I really hope you will join us for one of these concerts. The show on Saturday, June 13, at 7:30 pm will be held in the wonderful acoustic of Lincoln Recital Hall at Portland State University. We will close with a 2 pm Sunday matinee at First Presbyterian Church as part of the Celebration Works Concert Series.

Be well,
Kathy

Kathy's Dad, Daniel Fitzgibbon (right).  Mr. Fitzgibbon attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, receiving a B.S. in Engineering in 1964. After graduation, he served over five years as an Army infantry officer, rising to the r… — **Kathy's Dad, Daniel Fitzgibbon** (right).
Mr. Fitzgibbon attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, receiving a B.S. in Engineering in 1964. After graduation, he served over five years as an Army infantry officer, rising to the rank of Captain. He successfully completed the Army's Airborne and Ranger schools and was first in his class at its Special Forces qualification course. He served nearly three years in West Berlin, Germany, and then spent 19 months, including 10 months as an A Team leader, with the Fifth Special Forces Group (ABN) in Vietnam during 1968-69.

Liz Bacon 2/1/15 Liz Bacon 2/1/15

What Does It Take To Be a "Resonance Singer"?

We are so lucky in Portland to have incredibly talented singers who are also some of the loveliest people around!

I have come to feel that we have a musical family here, with top-notch singers and instrumentalists who are not only technically able but who commit wholeheartedly to the musical process. They are adventurous and versatile, able to do early music through wild new music.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m able to choose specific singers for a project based on the vocal color and musical demands of the project. These singers come from a list of people who I have already collaborated with or have heard audition. While our roster may vary by concert, there are skills that make a “Resonance singer.”

These musicians are:

technically proficient, with flawless intonation, the ability to sing with and without vibrato, and dynamic range and control
emotionally expressive through their voices
able to read and learn complex, challenging music

But there’s an ineffable quality of our most successful Resonance musicians, too – they are gutsy and excited about doing wildly varied music. They “geek out” on early music and Schoenberg and jazz. They like the challenge of singing with Resonance, with a group of people who are asked to come to their first rehearsal having mastered the music in advance so that we can spend our rehearsal time focusing on nuance.

And, most important, they have heart.

Kathy

Liz Bacon 12/1/14 Liz Bacon 12/1/14

Let's Talk about Repertoire!

When we announced this blog on Facebook, several of our supporters said they would love to hear more about the behind-the-scenes process for Resonance Ensemble events. How do the creative juices get flowing? How do our concerts come together?

So, today, I’d like to talk about repertoire! Usually there is some kernel of an idea that comes first, that gets me really excited, and everything spins forth from that seed. Sometimes the idea is for a specific theme (“Back in the U.S.S.R.”), and then I brainstorm and research particular works that could fit that theme.

Or sometimes there is a particular vocal work that I have been dreaming of doing (Stravinsky’s Les Noces was like this). I reflect on what makes that work special (musically, emotionally, poetically) and consider what other works could be a good fit on a program. Here I like to think about what works would be interesting contrasts for the audience. I want each concert to have a rewarding arc for the listeners, so the program order needs to be just right. And, practically speaking, if the main work on a concert is going to be extraordinarily challenging for the musicians and need a lot of rehearsal time, I pair it with works that can be rehearsed more quickly.

When I know the repertoire for the concert, I can start thinking about the palette of vocal color that would be ideal for that music. The beauty of Resonance Ensemble is that we have a roster of singers with different vocal colors, so that we can tailor the roster for any given performance to the exact demands of the concert. If we are doing “Dirty, Stupid Music,” we can choose singers who are dirty and stupid! (Just kidding…) But I’ll leave off the discussion of choosing singers until our NEXT blog post!

Kathy

Liz Bacon 11/1/14 Liz Bacon 11/1/14

On Resonance Ensemble + Gratitude

In December 2009, I sat down with two musical friends and started to daydream about a kind of vocal ensemble we envisioned. We dreamed of working with Portland's finest singers and instrumentalists, creating an ensemble to perform innovative, thematic, multidisciplinary programs. We wanted the ensemble to perform everything from medieval chant to cutting-edge new music, with changes in color and style to match the repertoire.

After a few truly terrible name brainstorms (while I would never name a choir after myself, we joked that the Kathy FitzGibbon Chorale would hilariously be abbreviated KFC), we opted for Resonance Ensemble, because we wanted to explore music's resonance with other art forms and with our audience.

Now, in our fifth season, we have performed dozens of concerts, including in partnerships with other Portland arts organizations (Third Angle New Music, Portland Chamber Orchestra, the Portland Art Museum, and March Music Moderne) and with guest artists including the Oregon Poet Laureate and Venerable Showers of Beauty Gamelan Ensemble.

Recently, one of Resonance's long-time singers asked me to start a blog. She suggested that our audiences might enjoy hearing more about the process of creating Resonance's programs, having some "inside scoop" on some of the composers and artists in a more regular form rather than having to wait for the concert, and our program notes, to learn more!

So here it is, my first blog post. For this first trip to the blogosphere, I'd like to express my gratitude to all of you. I'm grateful for the support of our Portland community, especially our musicians and our Board of Directors. I'm grateful that we are able to make music ranging from the naughty (this fall's hilarious "Dirty, Stupid Music," or 2013's "The Big Oh!") to the deepest kinds of feelings that music can express ("War and Peace" coming up in June, for example). (Do you like how I was able to get a plug for our June concert into a discussion of gratitude? I'm grateful that you are bearing with me, nonetheless!)

And I'm grateful to our donors who make this all possible. Working with these musicians and connecting with our audiences are really dreams come true, and it is thanks to your support that we can continue to make this vision a reality. Thank you, and I look forward to connecting with you in the blog over the months to come.