Happy New Year!

Lafayette Orinda Presbyterian Church
Sunday Worship Services

What a wonderful way to start the new year.  I’ll be playing both the 9am and 11am services, and also a prelude for the 10:30am Chapel service.

Merry Christmas!

St. Veronica’s and Christopher Lindstrom has invited us back to play Christmas morning services.  Joining me will be Dan Barker, cello; and Aaron Priskorn, trumpet.  Come by and let us wish you a Merry Christmas morning with music!

Dashing through the snow…make that fog…on to the next service!

Midnight Mass

Technically, this is on December 25, but I will call it the 24th as I won’t have slept before this playing this Mass (nor will I have slept much before the morning services on Christmas morning!  -_- zzz).  Plus, there will be Christmas caroling before the Mass, so make sure to come early (even though it’s late).

What can I say, I love to play!

Tony Eiras, music director/piano, Holy Name Choir, Marian Concus, flute;  Alina Polonskaya, viola; Dan Barker, cello; me on violin, along with other guest musicians.  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve services at Lafayette Orinda Presbyterian Church

www.lopc.org

The music here is always good!  Greg Murai and Julie Ford will put together something beautiful for these special services.  Joining me on strings will be Micah Naler, violin; and Dawn Foster-Dodson, cello.

Circling the Bay for Mary
Tota Pulchra, the ‘All Beautiful’

http://www.ccwf.org/totapulchra/email/english/Op027_english.html

A CONCERT: To commemorate Blessed Pope John Paul II, and to honor Mary, the love of his life, California Catholic Women’s Forum presents Tota Pulchra, a concert drawing from 1700 years of music celebrating what Mary means to Christianity: true beauty, unconditional love, vast wisdom, joyful hope and peace.

With songs from Mexico, Spain, Vietnam, France, Portugal, Italy, England, America, and Germany, all sung in their original language; Tota Pulchra takes the audience on a journey around the most important events of of Mary’s life. The concert includes pieces from throughout the Christian era with Tota Pulchra Es, a poem from the 300′s, along the road to Santiago de Compostela in the Middles Ages, ending in our era with songs such as Mary, Did You Know? Meditation Meet Mary by Christine Watkins.

Performed by well known local and international artists such as Liliane Cromer, Anna Maria Mendieta, Frances Peterson, Dana Couey, Elizabeth Campisi, Doug and James Harmon, Tony Gomez … pieces with harp, organ and more (some pieces include me on violin ^_^).

Admission:  Free will donation

Calvary Christmas Cantata

Calvary Lutheran Church
www.calvarylutheran-millbrae.org
401 Santa Lucia Avenue
Millbrae, CA 94030

Michael Matson, music/choir director, has organized a beautiful selection of carols both traditional and from around the world for the Calvary Lutheran choir.  Guest musicians (including myself) will be joining in the performance prior to the church service this Sunday morning.

WomenSing Holiday Concert- Descends the Snow
http://womensing.org/2011/11/descends-the-snow-holiday-concert/

Under the direction of conductor Martin Benvenuto, The East Bay’s award-winning WomenSing will perform a broad range of seasonal favorites and music celebrating the mystery and beauty of the winter landscape. Descends the Snow includes two pieces by internationally acclaimed Australian composer Sandra Milliken, the featured composer throughout WomenSing’s 2011-2012 concert season. Ms. Milliken’s composition, Snowflakes, is an evocative and haunting musical interpretation of the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem. WomenSing is pleased to be one of the first choruses to perform Ms. Milliken’s lively Hodie Christus Natus Est, just composed and published within the past year. Also on the program is Five Hebrew Love Songs by well-known American composer, Eric Whitacre. Composed while Whitacre was living in the Swiss Alps, the piece is a sentimental setting of several Hebrew love poems written by Whitacre’s wife, Hila Plitmann, and features stunning harmonies for violin and choir. Along with other beautiful pieces depicting a winter landscape, WomenSing will present David Conte’s delightful Christmas Intrada, a festive medley of carols for treble chorus and four-hand piano.

$25 for premium seats, $20 for general admission, $18 for seniors, and $10 for students/youth 18 and under.

*There are two concerts, but I will be performing only at the December 14th concert at LOPC.  The other WomenSing concert is on December 11, 4:00, at the First Congregational Church at 2345 Channing Way in Berkeley.

The Shining Night:  Christmas Concerts at LOPC

www.lopc.org

The LOPC Festival choir performs ‘This Shining Night” in two performances. Admission is free, however tickets are required. Seating is limited.  Musicians include Joyce Lee and Elizabeth Choi, violins; Alina Polonskaya, viola; Samsun van Loon, cello; Janet Archibald, oboe; David Wells, bassoon; Sharon Lee Kim, piano;

Diablo Valley College Philharmonic
http://calendar.dvc.edu/cal/event/showEventMore.rdo

Winter Concert

Mahler Symphony No. 4

Through the Night

Advent Sundays at LOPC

from www.lopc.org:
You will hear a wide variety of styles through an equally wide variety of instruments and groups. The church has a strong commitment to traditional hymns and classical music. But there is an equally strong commitment to more contemporary styles, especially gospel and jazz.