A Seasonal Saturday

New for me was caroling in Greenwich Village, sponsored (?) by the West Village Chorale, with caroling based out of Judson Memorial Church, with ConcertMeister as performer. First, there’s a lot going on at that church—children’s programming, a theater group, etc. Not being sure whether I was in the right place, I walked in the door and a gal in a Santa hat said, “You’re in the right place.”

I asked, “How did you know?”

“I can see your inner child,” she replied.

There were a lot of carolers—I was in Group 5 and there were about 40 to 50 of us. It was almost too large a group but we made it work. They supplied lyrics booklets and a pair of leaders, to start us off on pitch and try to keep us together. It was mostly unison singing (I added some harmony and so did a few others), but the important thing was that we had fun. And got positive feedback from New Yorkers (thunk! sorry, I fainted there for a second)—on the street, in some of the pubs and restaurants, and even from folks who opened their windows, leaned out and listened, and thanked us.

A few people bailed out before we got back to the church (the wind picked up quite a bit, and that made it feel even colder than it was). I didn’t, because I always get lost when I go to the Village, so I needed an anchor point in order to get me back to the subway to get home.

Once I was home and warmed up with a bowl of leftover chili and a slice of supermarket frozen pizza doctored up and heated up, I tuned in to WQXR for a broadcast of their radio play of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. This was recorded live recently and I was really looking forward to it. An actor was hired to play Scrooge, radio broadcasters (from both WQXR and WNYC) played various supporting roles, sound effects were by a Prairie Home Companion guy, and a 10-year-old from Brooklyn played Tiny Tim (plus a few other child roles).

This was a wonderful one-hour (approx.) version of Dickens’ tale, very nicely performed with just the right touch of old-fashioned radio play feeling, almost-amateur-theatricals and, once again, just plain fun.

Seasonal Saturday—check!

ConcertMeister