An Afro-Celtic Christmas Concert

12/14/19 City Cantabile Choir at Green Lake Methodist Church

Attending a chorale concert at a neighborhood church is one of our favorite holiday traditions. City Cantabile Choir always puts on a lively, creative concert with innovative musical interpretations, and this year was no exception. Collaborating with Shades of Praise Gospel Choir, City Cantabile presented a spirited mix of traditional Celtic, jazz and gospel Christmas music last weekend.

12/14/19 Members of City Cantabile and Shades of Praise Gospel choirs

I’ve brought along my sketchbook every time we’ve attended, and I remembered that the liturgical drape on the cross is always purple. The choir members usually wear traditional black with a red accessory – often just a scarf or necktie. Our seats were further back than usual, so I couldn’t see much detail, but I could count on those tiny touches of color.

The highlight of the concert was two teenage girls (twins, in fact) who performed a traditional Irish stepdance. For me, it was frustrating because I could barely see their legs, but I tried my best to capture their moves. (It was a good warmup for the next day, however, when I had more opportunities to sketch dancers at Winterfest.)

12/14/19 Irish stepdancers

12/14/19 a drummer and a few gestures of the
choir director

A Celtic Magnificat

12/8/18 City Cantabile Choir performing at Green Lake United Methodist Church

One of our annual holiday traditions is to attend a chorale concert or two in one of the neighborhood churches. The past several years, we’ve been following City Cantabile Choir, whose director develops creative and unusual collaborations or interpretations of holiday music that always incorporate traditional Irish songs. (You can see my posts and sketches from previous years.) This year’s concert, “A Celtic Magnificat,” was no exception: It was an imaginative meeting of Bach and harpist Turlough O’Carolan last Saturday evening at Green Lake United Methodist Church (an old stone church that I sketched several years ago).

Sketching in a darkened church is always an interesting challenge (I’ve sometimes used a book light, but I decided to keep it simple this year), especially when the choir, orchestra and conductor are all dressed in black. I was delighted to see conductor Fred West wearing a bright red shirt this year, and all the choir members wore matching red scarves, which made the sketching more fun.

City Cantabile Choir

12/15/12 Platinum Carbon Black ink, Hand Book sketchbook

In the mood for holiday music, we attended the City Cantabile Choir’s Celtic Christmas Concert at the Green Lake United Methodist Church (which, despite being in my neighborhood, I was not familiar with. I made a mental note to come back in warmer weather to sketch the church itself, which looks like it’s made of stone). I had not yet attempted sketching during a musical concert (unless you count bluegrass bands and buskers at farmer’s markets), which undoubtedly would be semi-dark, so I wanted to give that challenge a try.

 

Sketching the choir was manageable as long as I didn’t try to include individual faces or other details. More in my comfort zone was sketching Tom Creegan playing the uilleann pipes. Similar to bagpipes in sound, the instrument is played by pumping bellows held under his arms.

 

12/15/12 Diamine Eclipse ink, Hand Book sketchbook

Now that I’ve sketched my first concert, I’m happy to report that sketching does not in any way detract from the experience of enjoying the music, which was a lively, festive arrangement of traditional Celtic tunes. I’ll be bringing my sketchbook along to future concerts!

The Messiah and Irish Music by City Cantabile Choir

12/13/14 Super5 Frankfurt and Diamine Twilight inks, Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencil, Canon XL
140 lb. paper

Probably most of us are familiar with George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah.” But who knew that the now-famous oratorio had its world premiere in Dublin in 1742?

12/13/14 Pilot Iroshizuku Take-sumi

The City Cantabile Choir performed “Handel Meets the Irish,” a unique mix of traditional Celtic music and Christmas solos and choruses from the Messiah, at their annual holiday concert last night. We really enjoyed the choir’s Celtic-themed concert a couple of years ago, and this year’s concert at University Christian Church was even better. To round off the lively Irish music, a couple of teenagers performed step dances. Their legs moved so fast, but my sketch makes them look like they were just standing there!

12/13/14 Super5 Frankfurt ink

Technical note: Sketching dark concerts is now a breeze with my Mighty Bright XtraFlex2 lamp clamped onto my sketchbook! I’ve had a chance to use it only a couple of times since I got it a year ago, so it was fun to use it again.

Duke Ellington’s Sacred Music

5/7/16 ink, colored pencil

Two local choral groups, the Phinney Ridge Gospel Choir and the City Cantabile Choir, gave a joint performance last night called “Duke and the Divine,” a celebration of Duke Ellington’s sacred music. It was a lively evening of not only spirited music but tap dancing and singalong, too. There’s something about sketching while listening to live music that enhances both experiences!

After filling several pages of my sketchbook with small sketches, I suddenly realized I was on the last page – but I wasn’t done sketching! Luckily, I had my red Field Notes with me. It serves its own purposes, but it’s also a good backup book.

5/7/16 ink

5/7/16 brush pen

5/7/16 brush pen

5/7/16 brush pen, white gel pen

5/7/16 brush pen

5/7/16 brush pen, colored pencil

Kronos Quartet (and Test of Book Light)

11/16/13 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

The first time I tried sketching in the mostly-dark was at a concert by City Cantabile Choir last holiday season. It was challenging, but the stage was well-lighted, so I did OK with ambient light. To celebrate my birthday yesterday, my friend Linda invited me to a concert by Kronos Quartet performing at the Neptune Theatre. This time, I wanted to be better prepared for sketching in the dark, so I got a couple of book lights from Amazon.com to try out.

11/16/13 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

One is the GT Max LED Clip-on Light, which is so cheaply made that. . . let’s just say that it’s not worth discussing here. On the other hand, the Mighty Bright Ultra Thin Book Light, while not being of much higher quality, at least has a serviceable clip that attaches firmly to the cover of my “Stefano.” Very compact and lightweight, it can easily be carried in my bag without adding any noticeable weight or bulk. Its mighty brightness is so much so that I was afraid I’d annoy people sitting around me at the concert, so I applied two layers of white tape to the LED bulb, which dimmed it down to the appropriate level. Unfortunately, it casts such a narrow beam of light that I could only clearly see the top third of the page. Still, it was better than nothing, especially since my lighting issues were further exacerbated by the Kronos Quartet apparently preferring to perform on a mostly dark stage. Not to mention that the quartet members formed a semi-circle, and I could see only one member clearly – and only his back.

Nonetheless, the concert was fantastic – eclectic, Avant-garde music that defies categorization.

The Mighty Bright Ultra Thin Book Light was – less than fantastic. I’m going to keep looking. If you have a book light you love that would work while sketching in concert halls, I’m all ears.

November-December Sketchbook

My November-December sketchbook

Here’s my completed November-December sketchbook. On the covers are the Gingerbread Village that I sketched with the Friday sketchers last month and the City Cantabile Choir, also sketched during the holidays.

I was impressed by Liz Steel’s stack of sketchbooks as well as Kate Buike’s, so I had to follow suit and take a photo of my sketchbooks from 2014. (Not included in the photo are various Stillman & Birn sketchbooks I use in my studio and larger mixed-media sketchbooks I take to life drawing sessions. Since I don’t use them regularly, it takes a while to fill them, but I’ll eventually put them on the bookshelf to join the others.)

2014's sketchbook collection!

Green Lake United Methodist Church

4/10/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

Ever since last December when I went to hear a holiday concert there by the City Cantabile Choir, I’ve been meaning to go back to Green Lake United Methodist Church on a rainless day to sketch it. More than a hundred years old, it’s an amazing stone building that resembles a castle. Even the top of the tower has what looks like a battlement.

 

Although it had been pouring all morning, the sun came out for my noon walk around Green Lake. By the time I finished lunch, it looked like it was going to stay out for a while, so I headed out for the church. By the time I got there 10 minutes later, it was starting to sprinkle. I spotted a convenient overhang around the school directly across the street from the church, so I ducked under it. It took me a little more than an hour to finish the sketch, and during that short time, I saw a downpour of rain, hail, a little sunshine and more rain. But thanks to that overhang, my sketch and I stayed dry.