An Advent Event

Come celebrate the completion of recordings

by soprano Catherine Morrow

of the music of Norman Gabriel Nurmi

 Sunday afternoon 4 p.m. on 28 November

Rosedale United Church 159 Roxborough at Glen Road

Catherine Morrow (soprano)      Ross Inglis (piano)

spelled off by composer Norman Gabriel Nurmi

at the piano and on the occasional vocal

&

Special guest artist – renowned violinist Moshe Hammer

Please come for a celebratory afternoon concert, tea, and CD launch of

 A Child Born There

a new recording of Christmas songs by Norman Gabriel Nurmi,

 &

All I See Is You

a pastiche of love songs, comic cabaret repertoire and sacred songs

An hour of seasonal serenity at the start of a busy time of year.

 Tickets $20 (a portion supporting Rosedale United Church Women charities)

Available at the church or from Catherine and Norman

CDs available for just $10

Norm and I are thrilled that we are invited by the Choir of Knox United Church to perform pieces from our two CDs recorded there and at Tapestry New Opera Works. The concert – featuring pianist Ross Inglis and violinist extraordinaire Moshe Hammer – is Saturday 23 October at 7:30. Tickets are available at the door – just $20, and CDs for sale for $10! We hope you can come. The church is at 2569 Midland Avenue – corner of Midland and Sheppard East. 416 293-4424 x 10 to pre-order tickets – or just come on Saturday. It will be a beautiful mix of songs from our most recent recordings.

Best-laid plans! We all arrived at the church, traffic tie-ups notwithstanding, and the weather could not have been better – mild (at least till sundown) and dry. Now if we could just arrange for the TTC to find another way around that corner…

Poor Ross arrived with his game face on despite the neck brace – from an intermittent chronic condition. He assured me it was not Norm and I just being a pain in the neck. (Although we are I guess.) He knew to stay away from part of my lovely snack tray – I forgot his allergy to fowl! He played beautifully anyway.

The second session was vocally a little easier and not only because I was a little more familiar with the room and the whole set up but also because the range and nature of the songs – a little less aria and a little more intimacy. Fortunately our Sound Wizard, Doug Blais from Juggling Realities, was able to pick up every nuance. For the first time in our recordings, Norm and I sang together, Norm at the piano hammering out a Finnish tango and both of us having fun with his spoof dedicated to a certain nameless maestro (who shall remain so). That was just just fun.

Next week – back to Knox United to wrap it up with SIX pieces with the inimitable Moshe Hammer on violin and Ross on piano. Norm at the head set making sure we get it right – or turning pages to make sure we keep going.

Large glass of wine for anyone still standing at the end of that session!

Putting music together can be like herding cats – and putting 14 or more songs together has been a challenge – almost before we’ve begun.

First there was the Herculean task of finding times when four – and then five – busy people could get together for a rehearsal and a three-session recording schedule.

We got one session down – more or less – (ok, only three songs out of six on my list (!) which I admit sounds kind of, well, insufficient), but I take comfort that one of them was the first one (well, yes, of course – but that’s hard as we all adjust to the room:  my story – sticking to) and the other two the most vocally challenging for this recording - or at least I think so now. As I move down my list at future sessions I may beg leave to disagree with myself…

Then there was the inevitable postponement, and ultimate cancellation, first of one recording session then of the second, as a virus – as tenacious as any I’d dealt with – ever – settled in for the duration. It survived my subsequent bout with a bronchial infection on top of it all and emerged – unscathed – for another three weeks of respiratory misery, leaving me a lot closer to baritone than soprano and then, more or less, mute.

Then it was Christmas.

Well, now it’s winter in mid-town Toronto (and Agincourt – where the lovely old church is), or as wintry as it seems likely to get in this oddly snowless year, and we were back to the First Task again! Only four weeks, three schedule-changes, and one hacked e-mail account later, and we’re all crossing our fingers for health, dry weather (rain, even snow, makes noise!) and for a soprano who can keep her wits together to get seven songs down in the first session and five in the second, that latter set with none other than Moshe Hammer. Dream gig. Or it should be!

Working in the meantime on (re-)learning the repertoire – I don’t seem to retain everything these days – except viruses. And working on or at least contemplating the possible album order, design, artwork etc. It’s all up in the air really – even the title – although I have a decided preference. Norman is not entirely persuaded – even though it’s one of his beautiful titles I want to use.

Think about us on Saturday 6th March at Knox United and I’ll keep you posted.

- Catherine

Chief Cat-Herder and Musician-Tamer