Lake Junaluska, NC: June 24-25, 2016 - World Famous

It's official: I am now truly World Famous Composer Matt Wetmore.

A while back, I emailed Dr. Melodie Galloway, choir director at UNC Asheville, to send her some of my choral pieces and ask if she would be interested in performing them.  Her response was far more than I ever expected: not only did she want to perform my O Nata Lux, she wanted to take it on tour with a group called The Lake Junaluska Singers, and she wanted me to come to Lake Junaluska to attend a rehearsal and concert.  This, incidentally, is the sort of thing I want to do with my life.  If I could pick any career to just suddenly have, I would pick travelling across the world to work with groups performing my music.  So, obviously, I accepted her invitation.

The Lake Junaluska Singers are a chamber choir made up of 16 people, generally college-aged, from all over the southeastern U.S.  They participate in an few weeks of intensive rehearsal before embarking on a tour, beginning with a number of concerts at Lake Junaluska itself.  They had sung what I believe was their kickoff concert on Monday, at their auditorium, but still had a concert on Friday at the on-site chapel of mostly a cappella works, which is when their first performance of O Nata Lux was.

I drove down Friday morning, arriving right around 3:00 in the afternoon, and called Melodie to guide me to the chapel, where the group was already mid-rehearsal.  

As I walked into the building, the space around me was suddenly permeated with the most resonant perfect fifth I think I have ever heard.  It was soon joined by a pure soprano voice moving meticulously within it.  I had arrived exactly at the beginning of my own piece.

Here are the singers, in a candid shot I furtively grabbed:

The soloist is the girl whose face is cut off by the right edge of the photo.

Anyway, Melodie turned around as I walked forward and introduced me to the group.  She then offered me the podium to run a bit of a rehearsal.  This is when I learned that the Singers had memorized my piece - another first.  It's an interesting feeling, knowing the notes I wrote were committed to memory by a group of people I had never met.  A sort-of intimacy that I think would be hard to manufacture any other way.  Anyway, I ran through the piece, though there was not much to fix - the group is very good.  Exquisite tuning, and an ability to produce a lot of sound for only 16 people.  Guess that's what you get when your choir is made up of the 16 best singers in the entire southeast.

With the rehearsal done, Melodie set me up with the group's manager to get my hotel room squared away, which was at this place:

It was a fancy hotel called Lambuth, at a high point within the surrounding mountains.  Just at the edge of the parking lot was this, which I assume is the main lookout point on the campus:

Quite a view.

I had a few hours to kill until dinner, so I drove and walked around the lake a bit to catch as many of the sights as I possibly could:

Saw the auditorium next to the chapel:

Which had a statue of the Lake's namesake:

Cool.

Also saw the welcome center and two of the entrances to the property:

That was about all I could squeeze in to my free time.  I went back to the hotel and had dinner there, which was included with the room.  A couple of the singers joined me, and I got to know a bit about them and a bit about the group as a whole.  Then it was time to get changed for the evening concert.

I didn't take any photos or videos of the concert itself, since I didn't wanna be that guy holding up his iPhone at a choir concert, although I certainly had the justification to do so if anybody did.  Melodie sort of hyped my piece to the audience, telling them a few in advance that the composer was in the room and that they should listen for depictions of light.  I appreciated that.  Then they performed it, and did a heck of a job.  Especially considering they had only first seen the music that week, and only memorized it the day before.

After the concert, the Singers, Melodie, and I stood outside to shake hands with the concert goers.  I said the phrase "thank you so much!" so many times that it did that thing where it stops sounding like words.  Once the crowd had dispersed, I returned to my hotel room, stopping by the lookout once more to get a few more photos:

The cross lights up at night!

Had a quiet morning the next day.  Packed up and departed at my own pace.  The trip was a little surreal, if I'm honest.  I've dreamt of doing something like this for a long time, and then suddenly it happened in a flash.  I wondered, on the drive back, if I would one day look back on this as the first of many such trips, or if this would simply be the one time I got to play this role I'd been wanting to play.  Hopefully it's the former, but even if it's the latter, it was excellent to have done it at all.

Corydon, IN: April 23, 2016 - Hayswood Nature Reserve

Another short one that took me way too long to compose.  Back in April, I found myself on a warm day with nothing to do, and I decided to pick yet another spot on the map to explore.  Trying to stay within a radius of about half an hour from my apartment, I selected Corydon, Indiana, because it seemed to have a few nice parks.  I guess I like parks.

I didn't realize that Corydon had some actual significance as a historical landmark, it being the first capital of Indiana.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  The first stop, and the bulk of the journey, was the Hayswood Nature Reserve.

It was a pretty big area, with some trails as well as a playground and a structure to house the restrooms and vending machines.

It also had helpful little signs all over:

Gesundheit!

Took this trail:

Got to know the pavement pretty well along the way.  We became close.  Then it popped the question:

I said I was flattered but I just couldn't.  So we broke up and I never saw it again.

Returned to the main area and took the trail in the other direction:

Which led to this area:

Apparently some insurance company decided to sponsor a rock:

Doesn't seem like the best use of those advertising dollars, but whatever.

Continued along the trail:

AND FOUND A BRIDGE:

I guess I like bridges.

Got to the end of the trail:

And turned back.

I decided to go into town after the Nature Reserve, which is where I learned all about its history.  Here are the original and new courthouses:

And the town:

As I was getting ready to get in my car and go, I spotted this place:

and decided I had to go in.  It was a little old-style ice cream shop and candy store:

Got myself a ginger ale float, which I had never had of before.  Guy poured the soda right out of the glass bottle.  I honestly think that this was a brand new flavor to me.  It was really interesting.  I'd go back all the time if it wasn't 35 minutes away.  I recommend the place...y'know, if you're ever in Corydon.

Bardstown, KY: March 16, 2016 - Spring Break Break

Setting a new record for delay in getting this post written up.  I haven't even been that busy.  But I have been that lazy.  So it goes.

Back in March, in the midst of spring break, a friend and I decided to alleviate our boredom by taking a quick jaunt over to Bardstown for the day, a town about 40 minutes from Louisville, which claims to be one of the top 100 small towns in America.  I am not aware of the criteria used to come to that evaluation, but here we are.

I had actually been to Bardstown before, back in September of 2014, for Bourbonfest, but I had mainly stayed in this like roped-off field and didn't get to explore the town that much, so I was interested in going back.  We arrived and parked in the main square, which looks a lot like many other small town main squares:

We then found a little art shop:

Which was quaint and lovely and small-town charmy and all the things like that.

But that was about it for the main square.  We then set off to find a nice park to walk around in.  First, the GPS lead us here:

Which was more of like a campground than anything.  And also wasn't very big.  Attempt number two lead us somewhere a bit more promising, a place called My Old Kentucky Home State Park, which was apparently the location that inspired Stephen Foster to pen that now-famous tune:

Sat under the gazebo and heard it chime out the park's titular song:

But I think we missed the meat of the place here, too, as we soon came upon people's backyards and a golf course, which seemed to demarcate the end of the park.  Looking at it on a map, there seems to be a lot more to the place, so I don't quite know how we missed it so completely.

Anyway, try number three was a success, as we made our way at last to a larger park with some nature trails and things of that sort.

The trail was a bit muddy, and I wasn't exactly wearing the best shoes for the job, but it was nice nonetheless, and it was nice to finally see the town.  We left shortly thereafter, as I had church choir practice to get home to.