vividreports: Tamar in Collegiate A Cappella Concert.

Tamar's a cappella singing group, the Northamptones, had the fun and privilege of opening the Northampton Collegiate A Cappella Concert, called the Silver Chord Bowl, at the Academy of Music yesterday (Sunday afternoon). This is a big deal! This is the oldest such concert in the country, going back 39 years, I think they said. There were groups on the program from, e.g., MIT, Vassar, Bates, Tufts, UMass, and the Berklee School of Music in Boston. The Berklee group was especially good - they just won a national contest at the Los Angeles A Cappella Fsstival. Collegiate A Cappella Music is a genre unto itself, as Ellen keeps reminding me. I want it to include a broader range of a cappella music and include motets by Gesualdo (1566-1613), madrigals by John Dowland (1563-1626) or even Georgian music, which is perhaps the oldest harmonic a cappella music in the world. These young people have fantastic voices and I want them to tackle these older forms of a cappella music that are very difficult and rarely heard, but all very beautiful. But of course they don't. This genre of a cappella music is quite recent. It has a great deal of diversity within itself, to be sure. We heard some old favorites yesterday like "Say a Little Prayer for Me." But mostly it is fairly recent pop music, unfamiliar to me (though probably well-known to a youthful audience), and featuring percussive mouth sounds, which is what gives this genre its special sound. I think all the groups had, e.g., two guys with microphones close to their mouths, creating a rhythm section for the group. It's fun music, and the groups were all very good - including the Northamptones, who held their own very well in this august company. One of the Vassar singers (the "Vassar Devils"!), even proudly announced that he was a former "Northamptone." The hall was packed - the Academy of Music is an architectural gem and worth the trip just to see - and it was just very enjoyable. I'm sure I would have loved being in a group like these when I was in high school or college, but they didn't exist then. We had glee clubs and quartets (I was in both and went to state music contests in both), but nothing like this. But I can't complain - I've had a wonderful life of singing as an amateur, the highpoint being my 30+ years in the Blanche Moyse Chorale. One year the Chorale competed - by submitting a tape - in a national contest for choral groups sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, and we were ranked #1 in the country - we beat the Robert Shaw Chorale! This little group of amateurs in Bratttleboro, Vermont, # 1 in the country! Another year we performed the St. Matthew Passion of J.S. Bach in Carnegie Hall, and a reviewer in the Wall Street Journal said that we had given "the most affecting performance of Bach in the city that year." Not that that kind of recognition ultimately matters - what matters was the experience itself, which was consistently transcendent. But it's nice to be known and appreciated. So I'm happy for Tamar that she is getting this chance to sing. She is going to Brandeis University next fall - maybe there will be more opportunities there. After the concert, Tamar had to go to a rehearsal for the high school musical - busy girl! But Ellen, Jerry, Julie and I went to a Chinese restaurant, Oriental Tastes, and we were joined by Paul! He had flown out to Philedelphia last week and visited his dad, Bill Baker, and some friends, and then driven up to Northampton yesterday! It was so great to see him! Oriental Tastes is Julie's favorite Chinese restaurant in Northampton, and it was good, but in my opinion, doesn't hold a candle to Panda North, in Brattleboro. Sorry, I'm sort of tooting the horn for Brattleboro more than I probably should, but it's true! I asked for "Mala Tofu," which is my favorite dish at Panda North, and what I got was sort of limp by comparison. But I was hungry, and I ate it, along with some of Ellen's ginger green beans and some scallion pancakes, and I enjoyed it. But it made Ellen and I really appreciate what we have in Panda North.