Nearer My God To Thee

The fabulously talented mezzo-soprano Anna Egan gave her Junior Recital yesterday. As it happened to be the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, she chose an encore piece that was reputed to be played by the band as the ship sank: Nearer My God To Thee. And since she has a number of siblings who would do anything to oblige her, she was able to get some four-part harmony going on. Alas, the performance video died, but here is an encore of the encore. You know it's at my dad's house because the Christmas tree is still up in April.

(Anna, as faithful readers will know, is the cute one with the curl in the middle of her forehead.)

You're Gonna Make Me Lonely When You Go

More Anna, more music from Christmas. She and my younger brother play at coffeehouses under the name The Lonely Oranges, and here's one of their standards, a cover of a Bob Dylan song.

The Return of Anna

Happiness is having all six siblings in the same house.

And here's the sort of thing that happens when we all get together: music breaks out. Here's the famous Anna Egan singing Lied Der Braut at 1 AM.



Featuring Pidge and her expressions.

Six of us, plus my brother-in-law and his twin. There will be Irish music and Christmas music and standards and my brother singing "Don't Stop Believing" in a very creditable falsetto.  Put in a request, and maybe we'll record it and post it for you.

Habanera

Here's the only surviving remnant of last night's late night jam session: my sister Anna and I, with a gin-spired improvisation on Habanera from Carmen. She didn't remember the words, and I didn't know the notes, and we didn't know Darwin was recording.

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Alright, it's pretty rocky. But nothing else from the recording session was saved, so this is our bequest to posterity.

Anna Egan Returns!

Fresh from her Salzburg studies, my operatic sister Anna Egan expresses her gratitude to all the benevolent DarwinCatholic readers who supported her financially and with prayers. Just for you, here are two songs we recorded tonight by the sophisticated method of placing an iPhone under a hat on a chair equidistant from singer and piano. As always, she is accompanied by A Hack.

"Chacun A Son Gout" by Johann Strauss, from Die Fledermaus. Anna workshopped this song in Salzburg.

UPDATE: We re-recorded this morning, experimenting with the phone NOT under a hat, and using the mute pedal on the piano for the first time ever (honestly, who's ever used the mute pedal?), and Anna comes out much clearer. The piano is still lousy, though.

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"When I Am Laid In Earth" by Henry Purcell, from Dido and Aeneas.
UPDATE: re-recorded this morning, but the mute pedal only controls the piano, not the kids. Sorry about the chatter around 2:15.

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My sincere apologies to everyone whose Google Reader keeps showing new posts from DarwinCatholic when it's only me messing with different takes. Recording is an art, not a science.

Anna Egan Sings the Standards

We were fortunate enough to have the famous Anna Egan as our artist-in-residence this weekend. Since many of you have been so generous as to contribute to her Salzburg fund, we decided to make a few bonus videos as a perk for DarwinCatholic readers. Our intimate salon served as the stage for these fine arias, and the audience was properly attentive, howling in appreciation and trying to pound the piano. My phonograph machine was plumb out of whack, so we had to use the dated technology of Anna's laptop to record. Sorry for the hiss.

First up: Come Raggio Di Sol, by Antonio Caldara, Mezzo: Anna Egan; Accompaniment: Jack



It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing), Crooned by Anna Egan; Accompanied by a Hack.

An Opera-tunity to Support the Arts

First, listen: "I'd Like To Go Away Alone", composed by Philip Koplow as part of the cantata "We Are Here!" The lyrics come from a poem by Alena Synkova, an inmate of the Theresienstadt concentration camp. This recording is from the world premiere on May 2, 2010, in Cincinnati.

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I'd like to go away alone.
Where there are other, nicer people,
Somewhere into the far unknown,
There, where no one kills another.

Maybe more of us,
A thousand strong,
Will reach this goal
Before too long.

Now, meet the singer:


This is Anna Egan, a 20-year-old soprano studying Vocal Performance at Northern Kentucky University. She's taking that voice on the road, too: this May, she's heading to Salzburg, Austria for a six-week summer session in Opera, Music History, and all the other esoterica the young artist needs to be rounded. Though the program covers the cost of tuition, she has to raise more than $4000 for plane fare, room and board, meals, etc. And the first $1000 is due by March 15!

So if you've ever wanted to be a patron of the arts but didn't know where to begin, here's your chance: a real live starving artist!

There are approximately 51 meals that are not covered for the duration of our trip. That's a lot of food to make up for, so I need to call for reinforcements.

For 15$, you can sponsor a meal that I eat in Austria. You can even get a group together and sponsor multiple meals or just send a donation towards the total cost of my trip. (Either way you have my love and undying belief in your awesomeness, which I already have. ;) )

For 20$, you can sponsor an entire day, and any sight-seeing or activities that I do I will take photos of, especially for you!

For every meal or thing that you sponsor, I will send you a photo of that meal, as well as an anecdote of my time in a foreign culture and a progress update as to my studies and performances. You will have a direct impact on the life of a budding young artist, as well as a little "taste" of life in Europe.

Every little bit helps. Even a dollar adds up when there are many of them.

Read more about her trip here, including details of how to contribute.

(Full and honest disclosure: this is my little sister, guys. But the girl can sing.)