Nell

Conductor Notes:

This is simply the solo song with piano, which we performed as an encore in the June 2010 “Romance” concert. All of two minutes long, I had used it as part of our warmup at most rehearsals throughout the year. As a warmup, I felt it put all singers on an equal footing in terms of engaging a good range in their voices. My altos felt challenged and invigorated and I think our tone really took on an added core strength. I took the tempo much faster than indicated, more like the Philippe Jaroussky tempo (see YouTube). When we did this as the encore at the end of the Romance concert, I didn’t conduct. Instead, I asked the singers to fan out into one long arch and personally sing the song to someone in the audience. It worked really well.