Saturday, January 11, 2014

2014 Now Underway

I know that I have a number of new readers and subscribers who joined to follow my Musical Advent Calendar last month, so I thought it was time for a more personal blog post, outlining the major projects ahead of me during these first few months of 2014. Our record-setting cold earlier this week halted the resumption of parts of my work, but I am now back to a full schedule.

At church, planning is underway for Holy Week and Easter. I meet the Chamber Orchestra for our first rehearsal of the new year in two weeks, and right away we will begin looking at some of the music for Easter in particular. Before that, I am also really looking forward to February, when the orchestra will collaborate with the Sanctuary Choir to perform a Bruce Greer arrangement of "Wonderful, Merciful Savior" that I found in our music library.

In my teaching post at Faith Christian Academy, the next two months will be particularly busy for me in the band program. In February, many of my students individually and my honors wind ensemble as a group will perform for a regional solo and ensemble festival. The students have been working hard on their repertoire since just before Christmas and I anticipate a satisfying experience for all. Then in March is our spring concert at the school. The Concert Band will perform works by Copland and Khachaturian, and will collaborate with the Concert Choir to perform "In Christ Alone" by the Gettys.

In my arts management role at Wheaton College, we are now just two weeks away from our next concert event. On Saturday, January 25, we will present the baroque quartet Red Priest. The rest of the season will feature a choir, a chamber orchestra, and a solo pianist, and in the midst of all that we are in the initial stages of planning all the concerts and ancillary events for 2014-2015.

And I am almost done with my first book of 2014, J.I. Packer's Knowing God (I hope to finish that today or tomorrow). Next up will be Mike Cosper's Rhythms of Grace. I hope to post my reactions to at least some of the books I read here, as I have not written book reviews for my blog in a while.

How is 2014 so far for you?

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