MCC Concert

The chorus sounded great in our concert yesterday.  Here we are on our new risers.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

We went to the Bell Works cafe for lunch today.  We thought we needed an excuse to get into what once was the Bell Laboratories building in Holmdel, where we both used to work.  It turns out anyone can just walk in and snoop around, which is a little strange given how much construction is going on.  It was fun to explore.  We learned that over half of the over 2 million square feet of space is already contracted for, which is good news for the developers who bought the building.




We also explored the Toll Brothers construction going on in the surrounding land, including a small 55+ community.

Then we went for a walk in Holmdel Park, which is another of our old stomping grounds.  The distances seemed smaller than when we had two young children to accompany us on our hikes.

Concert at NJPAC

Today's concert in Newark was the Orchestra National De Lyon, conducted by Leonard Slatkin.  They played

• Ravel - Sheherazade, Ouverture de féerie
• Slatkin - Kinah
• Liszt - Piano Concerto #1 featuring George Li at the piano
• Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique

It was a great concert as usual.  The orchestra played a couple of short pieces from Carmen as an encore that was just wonderful.

A Typical Week

I thought I'd post my activities for the week so when I look back I can "remember" what my winter was like.  This week is especially busy, but not atypical for this time of year.

• Monday: An hour of aerobics in the morning, one and one half hours of line dancing in the evening with chores and lots of genealogy investigation in between.
• Tuesday: An exercise class in the morning, which was a bit much after dancing the evening before, a concert in Princeton in the evening.  In between, I sandwiched a quilt so I'd have something to sew on Wednesday, and did more genealogy.
• Wednesday: Open sew with friends from the guild.  I don't have my own quilting project to do at the moment, so I'm using up some of my stash to make a quilt for charity.  A long walk for exercise in the afternoon.  Chorus rehearsal in the evening.
• Thursday: A 55Plus lecture in Princeton in the morning.  A genealogy webinar in the afternoon, and I'll need to fit in a walk as well.
• Friday: To the Family History Center for more genealogy research.  Do something for exercise.
• Saturday:  A "day off".  We'll go somewhere for a walk since the weather is supposed to be nice.
• Sunday: Drive to Newark for a concert.

Another Concert in Princeton

We had a great "theater in the round" experience last evening.  We went to Richardson Auditorium in Princeton to see the percussionist Colin Currie.  All the audience was onstage along with the performer.  We were in the first row just 10 feet from the marimba, which is the instrument he played the most.

Philadelphia Orchestra at McCarter

The Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #3 with soloist Denis Kozhukhin was spectacular.
And Beethoven's Symphony #7 was good too, of course.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has even more string players than the NJSO.  I prefer the balance of instruments of the NJSO and I think they are just as good.  We are so lucky to have them close by.  Of course next season we have elected to drive to NJPAC for most of our concerts because they are during the day instead of in the evening.  The older I get, the less I like going out at night.

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir

What a great concert last evening in the Princeton University chapel with its wonderful acoustics.  We heard music by Arvo Part, Tchaikovsky, Veljo Tormis and Sibelius.

We had a snowstorm last night and this morning so we were worried we might not make it to the concert.  The roads weren't too bad, the worst part being blowing snow.  But the crews here in the neighborhood still hadn't made it to our drive so it is a good thing that W shoveled it.

Indexing for the NYGBS

I have finally found a volunteer opportunity that suits me.  Several weeks ago the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society asked for volunteers to index part of their collection.  That is something I could do at home.  They also had folks in NYC scanning documents.  The initial push is done but some of us are continuing to index.  They send me a set of files and I access their cool indexing system and input the data.  Given how much I rely on online resources for my genealogical work, it is great to be able to contribute in that way.  Last week I went to the local Family History Center to look at some microfilms I had requested.  I had forgotten what a painful process that is.  I'm happy to do anything I can to make data more accessible.

Kremerata Baltica Concert

When I decided to post about the concerts we attend, I didn't realize what a large fraction of the posts would be about them during the winter time.  But that is one of the reasons we stay here at this time of year, to take advantage of the great selection of musical events.
Last evening we went to Princeton's McCarter Theater for a concert by the Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra.  They played

• Arvo Part - Fratres
• Weinberg - Chamber Symphony No 4
• Tchaikovsky - Serenade Mélancolique
• Mussorgsky - Pictures from an Exhibition
• Silvestrov - Serenade