Monday, June 12, 2006

My Janome and the Chorus America Conference!


Hello all! I've been away at my job's annual conference all week and things have been crazy! I did have to let Ol' Singer go, and I bought a Janome 6260QC. I got a great deal on a floor model and I'm so happy with it. My husband was right...my slide rule days are over! LOL. I love it! It came with me to the hotel and worked beautifully! And yes, that's Wonder Woman, Yoda, and Ben Stiller w/braces, lol.

I can tell you where I work because I'll end up on their homepage and it'll be public knowledge anyway, lol. I work for a wonderful arts organization called Chorus America, and we promote/support choral music in the U.S. and Canada. All week long I have been exposed to beautiful choral music, including a rare performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand") at the Kennedy Center. It's rarely performed because it usually requires 1000 musicians. At this performance, there were 500! It was fabulous and moving to be surrounded by the chorus and the orchestra. I could literally feel it! It culminated with a major performance in conjunction with the NEA called "America Sings!", which is kicking off their choral music initiative and covered over 300 years of American choral music.

I also got to hear some of the best local and national choruses, such as The Young People's Chorus of NYC, VocalEssence (from Minneapolis), The Washington Chorus, The Heritage Signature Chorale (D.C.), The Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, and so many more! It was fantastic!! Support your local choruses! You won't regret it. I'll talk more about how inspiring of a week this has been for me (and the fate of my quilt) tomorrow. I'll just say that Alice Parker, one of choral music's most beloved figures, loved my quilt and helped me pin it up for the display. I'm so tickled by that, but it's even more meaningful to me who actually ended up buying it!

Oooo...The suspense! The excitement! Can't you feel it?!

4 comments:

Deborah Boschert said...

Oh you tease! (Congratulations, of course!)

Karoda said...

Great on getting the deal on the new machine and your job sounds wonderful!

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful job.

I have to day tho, I was highly disappointed in the Kennedy Center when we were there. It is in desperate need of major renovation but a really good cleaning would help...it was filthy! However, I was very impressed with the rest of DC despite all the construction. It is a beautiful and fascinating city.

teri

Gerrie said...

We love choral music in this house! Congrats on the new Janome! may you create many award winning quilts with it!!