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| Peter J. Sculthorpe 4/29/1929 |
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Mark Your Calendars
Music At Noon -
William McCorkle, organist, 12 PM,
April 17 and April 24,
Lexington
Presbyterian Church
Spring Concert -
Rockbridge
Youth Chorale,
with
Rockbridge County High School Choir, April 23, 2019, 7 PM, Lexington Presbyterian Church
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A Rock
Sta
r Meets
New Horizons
Brian May played guitar for the rock band Queen. But before Queen, he studied astrophysics. In 2007, some 30 years after he began those studies, he finally finished his thesis and received his PhD from Imperial College, London. In 2018 the head of NASA's New Horizons space exploration team contacted May and asked him to write a song for the spacecraft's flyby of Ultima Thule, a binary body belonging to a group of Kuiper belt objects known as the "Cold Classicals" whose circular orbits beyond Pluto have not been disturbed since their formation 4.6 billion years ago. The New Horizons spacecraft had enough fuel to fly by Ultima Thule on January 1, 2019 taking photographs of what is the most primitive planetary object yet explored, making this feat the most distant planetary flyby in history. Well why not ask a rock star/astrophysicist to write a song to commemorate such an event? And he did. Watch this cool video here. |
What It
Wants to Hear
Can you guess what piece of music most often gives listeners goose bumps? It's Samuel Barber's
Adagio for Strings
, Op 11 Watch here. which stretches, wanders and builds to resolution in a way that few others do. It could be why the
Adagio for Strings
is so often used for funerals or to commemorate tragic events or why people listen to it when they feel sad. Many report that it makes them feel better to listen to 'sad music'. So, why do we like the music we like? Neuropsychologist and opera singer Indre Viskontas muses on these questions and more with her fascinating podcast that deals with music and the brain.
Listen here.
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The Charitable and the Good
The Rockbridge Choral Society wound up its 2018/2019 performance season on April 7 with Hallelujah Handel! As always, we could not do it without our loyal donors, supporters, and volunteers who year after year enable us to bring superb professional musicians into our performance orbit. As we ended this season we dedicated our Handel evening to the memory of one of our most loyal friends and long-time donors, Grant Griswold. Grant and his wife, Josephine, have given us unwavering support for many years. "The Charitable shall be had in everlasting remembrance and the good will shine as the brightness of the firmament." Psalm 112, v.6. Our gratitude is boundless.
Again this season, our donors made it possible for us to fully underwrite our players, soloists, and "ringer singers" through our Adopt a Musician directed-giving program. Our singers know that good players make us sing better, so this spring they really stepped up to fully underwrite "the band". Many of our professional musicians return to perform with us year after year. They recruit others to come and play with us, and we are grateful. Thanks to all of you for your support. You raise our voices! We will be back next season with more wonderful choral music. Stay tuned.
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William McCorkle and Concert Master Risa Browder
Ned Oliver/photo
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