Performance Schedule

My performance schedule for this year is always fluctuating.  Now, when you come to my blog, you can just click on the link in the black bar above to check out what concerts I have coming up!  As always, I will be singing at Village Presbyterian Church every Sunday morning - but this would be a very long post if I included all of that!

Behold...

Saturday, January 26

Horse, "How the Camel Got His Hump" opera
WORLD PREMIERE
White Recital Hall, KC, MO
10:00am - $10

Sunday, February 10

55th Annual Grammy Awards
Los Angeles Convention Center and Staples Center
Los Angeles, CA
7:00pm CT - CBS

KC Chorale nominated for "Best Choral Performance" and "Best Engineered Album, Classical"

Sunday, February 24

Conservatory Choir Concert
White Recital Hall, KC, MO
7:30pm - Ticket info not available

Monday, February 25

Kansas City Chorale and The Concordia Choir
Village Presbyterian Church, Prairie Village, KS
7:30pm - $10-$25
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

Saturday, March 2

Conservatory Choirs
A Celebration of Peace
Community of Christ Temple
Independence, MO
FREE

Saturday, March 9

Rock of Ages
Kansas City Chorale
St. Michael the Archangel, Leawood, KS
7:30pm - Price $30 (student $10) 
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

Sunday, March 10

Rock of Ages
Kansas City Chorale
Visitation Church, KC, MO
2pm - Price $30 (student $10)
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

Tuesday, March 12

Rock of Ages
Kansas City Chorale
Asbury Methodist, Prairie Village, KS
7:30 - Price $30 (student $10) 
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

Sunday, March 17

Rock of Ages
Kansas City Chorale
Liberty United Methodist, Liberty, MO
7:30 - Price $30 (student $10) 
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

Saturday, April 6

Rock of Ages
Kansas City Chorale
Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
Ticket info to come...

Sunday, April 14
Evangelist, St. John Passion - J.S. Bach

with UMKC Conservatory Singers
Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, KC, MO
7:30pm - FREE

Sunday, April 28
Soloist, B Minor Mass - J.S. Bach

Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, KC, MO
7pm - FREE
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

Monday, May 6

Beethoven Symphony No. 9
UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, KC, MO
 7:30pm - Price $31 
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

Saturday, May 18

Conservatory Commencement
Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, KC, MO
10am - FREE
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

Friday, May 24

The Chorale at the Kauffman: the Durufle "Requiem"
Kansas City Chorale (with great friend, Jan Kraybill) Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, KC, MO
8pm - Price $46 
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

PREVIOUS CONCERTS

Sunday, October 7

Northern Lights
Kansas City Chorale
Redemptorist Church, KC, MO
2pm - Price $30 ($10 student) CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS

Sunday, October 7

CANTATE!
UMKC Conservatory Singers
White Recital Hall, KC, MO
5pm - Not Open to the Public

Tuesday, October 9

Northern Lights
Kansas City Chorale
Asbury Methodist Church, Prairie Village, KS
7:30pm - Price $30 ($10 student) CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS

Sunday, October 14

UMKC Conservatory Singers Concert
Village Presbyterian Church, Prairie Village, KS
3pm - FREE

Sunday, October 28 - Soloist, Mass in C - Beethoven

Beethoven in the Village
Village Orchestra, Village Choir, JCCC Chamber Choir, Valley View UMC Chamber Choir
Village Presbyterian Church, Prairie Village, KS
5pm - FREE

Tuesday, October 30

David Farwig recital
UMKC Conservatory Singers
Old Mission UMC, Prairie Village, KS
7:30pm - FREE

Friday, November 2

CRESCENDO
UMKC Conservatory Singers
Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, KC, MO
Invitation Only

Wednesday, November 7

John Corigliano Concert
UMKC Conservatory Singers
White Recital Hall, KC, MO
7:30pm - Price $9 (free for students) CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS

Saturday, November 10

The Sacred Around Us
Te Deum Vocal Ensemble
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, KC, MO
7:30pm - FREE

Sunday, November 11
The Sacred Around Us
Te Deum Vocal Ensemble
Village Presbyterian Church, Prairie Village, KS - 3pm - FREE

Monday, November 12

The Sacred Around Us
Te Deum Vocal Ensemble
Corpus Christi Catholic Church, Lawrence, KS
7:30pm - FREE

Saturday, December 1

Harvester's Concert
UMKC Conservatory Singers
Visitation Catholic Church, KC, MO
7pm - FREE

Saturday, December 8

Family Holiday Concert
Kansas City Chorale, 8 High School Choirs
Visitation Church, KC, MO
7pm - Price $10 CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS

Sunday, December 9

The Holidays in Great Britain
Kansas City Chorale
Redemptorist Church, KC, MO
2pm - Price $30 (student $10) CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS

Tuesday, December 11

The Holidays in Great Britain
Kansas City Chorale
Asbury Methodist, Prairie Village, KS
7:30pm - Price $30 (student $10) CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS

Sometime, December 2012

Bryan Pinkall's Doctoral Recital - Village Presbyterian Church (hopefully) - tba

Sunday, December 16

Tidings of Joy
Village Orchestra, Village Choir
Village Presbyterian Church, Prairie Village, KS
3pm & 6pm - FREE

KC Chorale & Yale Wrap-up

Today is my last first day of school.  It also may be the first last day of my car, which wouldn't start after I returned from my fellowship at Yale's Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.

Life on the Estate at Yale's Norfolk Festival

Life on the Estate at Yale's Norfolk Festival

I had an amazing experience with the folks in Connecticut.  The performing went great, but I couldn't tell if I was in Connecticut or in Tolkien's Shire living in my cottage on the Ellen Battell Stoeckel estate (however, the Shire didn't have a chef that could make me gain weight!) It was a perfect week. I was surrounded by brilliant musicians from all over the world, and not to sound too pretentious, but it was nice to not be around "normal" people for awhile.  I cannot wait to meet up with some of my new friends and colleagues in the future.  I have already tried to arrange some recordings when some of us are both in the same part of the world.  Most of all, I am excited about music again.

Before I go any further, I need to say that I will have my upcoming performance schedule available next Monday on my blog - but if you cannot wait to know any concert dates, you can always email me at bryanpinkall@gmail.com.

My schedule in the first half of the year was incredible and torturous, but now I am completely rejuvenated and motivated - thanks, especially to the brilliant Simon Carrington.  This year, as I stated before, I will be performing as a soloist for several concerts: Beethoven's Mass in C, Bach's St. Matthew Passion, and Bach's B Minor Mass at the Kauffman Center.  I am also continuing my internship at Village Presbyterian Church (the third largest Presbyterian church in the nation) and I am loving it - I am still excited about great music performed by enthusiastic singers of any age.

When I was picked up from the train station last week, I was asked, "Where are you from?"  I said, "Kansas City!" The driver responded, "Oh, the Choral Capitol of the World."

Now, I've heard that expression before, but only from people around Kansas City.  However, when a Yale Professor says that; it makes me think a little differently about the comment.  Of course, many great choral directors have and still do direct in the Kansas City metro area, and I am very proud to be a part of the choral community here. In fact, this year, I will be performing as a soloist in several Bach Cantatas at the Conservatory in the monthly Bach's Lunch chamber concerts, which are incredibly fun, especially when there is a room filled like an arena, seating on all sides, with Bach enthusiasts, eating their sandwiches as quietly as possible.  I will also be on scholarship with the Conservatory's top choral ensemble, Conservatory Singers, with Dr. Robert Bode.  As I stated before, I will join the chamber choral group Te Deum for several concerts including the Bach B Minor Mass on my birthday next year at the Kauffman Center with the Kansas City Baroque Consortium. And finally, I am announcing that I will also be performing with Kansas City's premiere vocal ensemble the Kansas City Chorale.

The KC Chorale is a world-famous ensemble, Grammy Award-winning, and passionate about making stellar choral music.  I am very excited to begin working with them, and I cannot wait to see what all the next year will hold, but I do anticipate even more exciting gigs and events.

Many of my upcoming concerts will be held here - Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

Secrets

Today is the first day back at the Conservatory for my second year of my doctoral study.  I am very excited to begin and I have some very exciting things planned - the most exciting of which I am doomed never to speak of.  Oh the torture!!  If you don't already know, I divulged the information of an incredibly exciting opportunity on my blog last week, and a few hours later had to censor most of the post because I got in trouble for sharing some secrets.  Well, I will post the whole thing on September 17, but until then I must continue to wait until I have permission to say anything - you can read the censored version here.

(actually, I received an email hinting that I may be able to announce something soon - oh I am so excited.  There is more about "the secret" later in the blog)

In other news, I will be singing some demonstrations for the Conservatory in September over the recitative in Bach's St. John Passion and the recitative in Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas - obviously singing the role of Aeneas. These are both very old and are sung using specialized baroque performance techniques.

(you really should listen to the whole thing, but if you're lazy, fast forward to about 7:30 and watch to the end)

Also, I have accepted a gig to sing the Evangelist in David Lang's "Little Match Girl Passion" here in Kansas City in May - which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Music, one of the world's most prestigious composition awards.  It is obviously a modern piece, but it is based on the Hans Christian Anderson fable by the same name.  Listen to a little bit of it.

It is, for lack of a better description, a minimalist minimalist piece (or minimalism on steroids).  I mean this because it is built on a significantly small scale, but is a very large work, whose harmonic progression is very slow - this doesn't mean minimalism isn't exciting though, personally I absolutely love it.   It appears really simple - perhaps too simple, but is actually super complex; it requires great precision in tone, pitch, and the hardest part of all for singers - counting!  Minimalism makes for some great ambiance, emotion, and best of all - it glorifies perfection - just like the classical era of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven.  Because minimalist music doesn't quickly evolve - unlike doo-wop or rock musicians playing four chords in relatively quick succession - it is more important for the music to transform between the chord areas over a longer amount of time.  This transforming style works great with the heartbreaking story of the Match Girl: a poor and abused girl, who sells matches, transitioning from life to death, lighting matches so as not to freeze during the night - watch the beautiful Disney animated short film about the story (the music in the Disney film is not from the production we're doing, but it is beautiful as well).

Yesterday, I started my new church job at Village Presbyterian here in Kansas City, the nation's fifth largest Presbyterian Church.  I will be responsible for singing, probably a lot of solo singing, and conducting whatever they need, whenever they need it.  It appears that they will be flexible in working with my INSANE schedule, which I am very thankful for.  I sang for a pot-luck dinner (where the food was so good, you'd think they were Methodists), and met many of the wonderful people that I will be working with, many of whom are highly educated musicians.  They have three choirs, a brass ensemble, three handbell choirs, the Kansas City Wind Symphony, a youth choir, a youth orchestra, and children's choir.  WOW!  I will certainly have a lot of fun.

As to my future schedule, I will of course be doing my cross country audition circus again this fall.  I have selected some exciting things to audition for, and I am very confident - the most confident that I have ever been - going into the new audition season.  I have made a small vocal change over the summer that has brightened and freed my sound very much.

Also the Conservatory will be performing La Nozze di Figaro (the marriage of Figaro) and Carmen coming up, so I may be performing in those.  The auditions will soon take place for those operas and I will give you all the details about that soon.

Okay now, back to some news regarding "the secret":  as you may know, I will be singing with the Kansas City Symphony Chorus during the year, and we have been rehearsing for some coming events, and for a performance of Brahms German Requiem...one of my most favoritest pieces!  However, I was quite humbled last Monday when they announced my news, the same news that I cannot announce publicly yet, in front of all the singers.  I stood and they applauded - I felt so very honored.

But so as to not make too many people upset at my teasing - I have decided to just keep quiet for the moment, trusting that I will be able to simply make a statement at some point beforehand, even if it does not involve any significant details.

Sorry mom, but you probably shouldn't say anything to local newspaper yet...but I won't be able to stop you if your bible study group wants to pray for me, naturally by putting me on the prayer chain...I know some good gossip gets around that way (wink, wink).  

The Pied Piper

If you build it, I will come...evidently...like a child following the pied piper.

EXAMPLE #1

The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts will be opening soon!

As you may know, I auditioned for next year's Lyric Opera season and was not hired, however I have been in touch with them recently and they are very interested in having me with their company in the future.   I was sad that I could not perform in their new opera house this, their first season.

However, I did not give up and have talked to the Kansas City Symphony at least six times about their program with the Symphony Chorus.  Unfortunately their auditions are held at the same time that I am in Chicago in an opera production.   Well, thankfully, they are allowing me to make a special audition on the day that I return to Kansas City from Chicago - which also happens to be my 2nd wedding anniversary to my wonderful wife, Dusti.  Hopefully, the audition will go really well, and hopefully I will be able to sing on their season this coming year in the immaculate new symphony hall.

Click on the picture for a closer look!

From all accounts, it is expected to be one of the greatest halls, acoustically that is - and that's all that matters, in the entire world.  Unfortunately, I do not expect that I will be able to witness the Grand Opening Events for each of the halls.  The events will feature Placido Domingo, one of the greatest tenors in all of history (whom I had the great honor of seeing live, with my dad - by the way, Happy Fathers' Day dad - notice the correct placement of the apostrophe), and Itzhak Perlman, the violin virtuoso.  I can't go because to attend the Grand Opening of the Opera House, tickets range from $1,000 to $50,000!!! Comparably, with a little luck from under your couch cushions, you can attend the much more affordable Grand Opening of the Symphony Hall with tickets ranging from $500 to $30,000 - what a bargain!  Want the best seats in the house for both nights? Well, you get a $10,000 discount if you buy the Platinum Package - you'll get to see both concerts in the best seats for a meager $70,000. Interested? Here's the order form.

SIDENOTE

Nonetheless, I got an audition for the Symphony Chorus.  And, this week I also had an audition to do some solo work for Village Presbyterian Church, the fifth largest Presbyterian Church in the world.  They do almost exclusively major works by the greatest composers (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, etc.) as well as other chamber music of legitimate classical music traditions - which means to me that their congregation must be very well educated and cultured...just my kind of people.

I mention this because (college music students listen up!) as soon as I started the audition, they asked me first to sing a solo.  So, I did.  Then they asked me to sight sing - just like a college proficiency test.  For example: Sing the following example below - you don't get to use an instrument or piano - this is the first time you've seen the music, and you must sing it correctly a capella (alone, solo, without help)

Seems impossible, huh? Well, that is what I had to do.   In college, musicians learn tricks to help us with these kind of things.  Then I did a rhythmic dictation test - it is similar to the example above only if I clapped the notes in rhythm. Lastly, they gave me a German paragraph and Latin paragraph to read, read correctly, with correct diction, and with the correct accents (Americans are horrible at this).  Then we talked for a while about the program.  Well, I just found out hours ago that I got the job.

It should be a great thing.  I feel that they are very anxious to have me on board.  It's nice to feel wanted and needed instead of used, but I haven't felt that way in a long time; the last church I was at, UUMC in Salina, KS was a amazing place for me.  I am lucky to be hired and treated as a professional musician.

SIDENOTE OF THE SIDENOTE

Which brings me to another tangent - I am excited that the job doesn't involve Praise and Worship music!!!  Some I suppose will never understand why most musicians don't enjoy this.  The reason is that we spend years, passionately learning and perfecting music, and then we are required to perform the simplest, and sometimes the most abusive forms of it.  Wouldn't that make you crazy?  To me, art music is an education; popular music is a drug.  It is great to rapturously enjoy music (the drug), I certainly do, but in music we can also experience our mind, character, and stretch the bounds of our natural abilities (the education).

EXAMPLE #2

This last week I visited the new Livestrong Sporting Park to see the US vs. Guadeloupe Soccer match.  Like most things in life, I am wildly passionate about soccer.  And this was my first game in the brand new stadium in Kansas City and my first game seeing the US National Team...my favorite national team of course.

The US National Team won 1-0 and advanced to play Jamaica in our Continental Championship, the Gold Cup - the "World Cup" of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.  But that's not all, I will also be singing at the Sporting KC game at Livestrong Sporting Park this weekend when they play Vancouver.  And since they are playing a Canadian Team, I will be singing O Canada as well as The Star-spangled Banner.  I hope to see you at the game if you can make it - 7:30 on Saturday, June 25.  That's THIS COMING SATURDAY!

And for some special fun for any geeks like myself out there, click here to visit the virtual venue where you can view the stadium from any location.  Can you find out where I was sitting from my picture above?

EXAMPLE #3

My love of sport has begotten my love for sports architecture.  And what is the pinnacle of sports and architecture?  THE OLYMPICS of course.  Now, I have a special place in my heart for the Olympics...better yet, I have a special heart for the Olympics.  It is one of the most exciting times in my life...it is all consuming - be that good or bad - I love it.  And, many don't know this, but I was so captivated by the 1996 Opening Ceremonies in Atlanta, because it was staged almost entirely as an opera depicting the history of the South, that it inspired me to become a musician.  It is just one of those unique events, where money is almost no object, and the imagination and creativity of the world comes together to create a piece of art unmatched in scale and appreciated by everyone on earth.  How often does art effect so many, so effectively?

Anyway, one of my friends from college happens to be an architect at Populous, an architecture firm here in Kansas City.  They used to be called HOK, but they are significantly one of the world's most prestigious sports architecture firms - click here to see a list of their past projects.  And, if you notice, they have designed sports venues including Livestrong Sporting Park and stadiums for every Olympic Games since 1996.

Well, my friend offered to let me take a tour of their work on Thursday.  I am not sure what I will be seeing but I am incredibly excited.  I know that they have been recently working on the Olympic Stadium for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.  They may be working on a different project now, but I will find it all fascinating!

EXAMPLE #4

Dusti and I went to Shakespeare in the Park, in Kansas City and saw Macbeth last night.  It is packed with people and runs for 18 straight days, until July 3.  I am loving the culture of our metro area.  It is so energetic compared to many other places in the US.  

And, lastly, next week we'll take a look at the Art of Singing for tenors.  Here's an example of the glory to come...

UPCOMING PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

June 25 - National Anthem - Sporting KC vs. Vancouver - Livestrong Sporting Park - 7:30pm
July 21-August 7 - Sugar Creek Opera - Daughter of the Regiment - August 4, 5, 7 - Watseka, IL (near Chicago)
August 8 - Audition - Kansas City Symphony Chorus

much, much more to come!...