Within the span of 7 days Nathan had two major performances that have been in the works since last fall.  And splashed around each of those were some smaller gigs that have altogether made for quite a production potpouri.

Now let me tell you about your next opportunity to attend one of his events:

Saturday, 4/20/13
5:30 Dinner, 7:15 Concert
Cross of Glory Church, 4600 Shady Oak Road, Hopkins, MN
ticket required for dinner *Make reservation by MONDAY April 15*

Nathan and the four other singers in his newly formed NorrSound Vocal Ensemble will be providing the entertainment at this event designed to raise funds for mission trips and local outreach opportunities for the youth at Cross of Glory Church.

Music will consist of a variety of selections from film music to classical to new Christian hymns.  Nathan’s wife Naomi will be accompanying on the piano.

The food options sound fabulous: 1) Beef tenderloin with garlic horseradish cream 2) Blueberry onion Pork tenderloin 3) Vegetarian couscous and vegetables. All options include green beans, baked potato, and desert.

Cost for the meal is $15. Donations will be taken during the dinner and show. Complimentary valet parking, coat check, and childcare will be provided.

Nathan’s solo CD with the Massif Trio, as well as Ami Andersen’s CD Shelter – music from which is on the program – will be available for purchase. 50% of the procedes from CD sales will go toward the fundraising goal for the youth.

Place your dinner order by calling Justin at 612.325.4596

My first CD, Massif Trio: Schumann, Schubert, and Strauss is currently on Pandora.com, the free music-streaming service.  Pandora allows you to create your own online radio stream based on whatever type of music you want.  I can completely customize my music listening experience. There are other services that use customization as selling points, such as Spotify, and 8tracks.

I was contracted for the Covenant Retirement Communities Annual Fundraising event on April 11th.  I have built a music program specifically around this event, including musical theater, hymns, and choral favorites.  I will be joined by the newly formed NorrSound Vocal Ensemble, and special guest, Ami Andersen.

While I enjoy customizing a program for a specific event, perhaps there’s even more room for giving audience participation a boost.  Most of us have heard of voting for your favorite singer on American Idol, and other shows.  However, how many of you have been able to be that involved in a live performance setting?

Imagine attending a concert that you and friends had programmed by popular vote.

Imagine getting to choose the end of your concert by voting on your smart phone.

Imagine singing in front of your peers karaoke style, with a living, breathing, band backing you up….oh yes, and in front of hundreds of people.

Do any of these ideas excite you?  Do you think that it would be a bad idea to utilize these customizable features into a concert series?

If a website contacted you and invited you to a concert that you’d probably enjoy based on reviewing your browsing data, would you attend?

I’m currently in the great state of Colorado for an audition and concert planning.  My sister-in-law (B) and brother-in-law (M) are hosting me for the time that I’m in Colorado Springs and I’ll be in Denver the later half of the week.  They are being quite gracious and even letting me borrow their vehicle for short trips.  If you have not ascertained this to be the case, I will state it plainly: they are awesome.

Today I woke early with plans to connect with a fellow artist for some concert and collaboration planning.  It turns out that there was a scheduling mishap due to a faulty text message and he was no longer available despite my early rise and heading out to a location on his way.  Despite this change, I was able to schedule a meeting with a different colleague to discuss a concert at her church.  Our meeting was scheduled for 1:00pm, but she was flexible.

I went “home” for a phone meeting to prepare for my 1:00.  Also B’s plans had changed for the late morning and she needed to run some errands.

After my phone meeting, I finalized my choice of monologues for the upcoming auditions.  I may or may not have scared the neighbors in this process.  In the past 24 hrs I’ve tasted the life of a deranged poet, a dead young coward, a civil war vet, and a millionaire with ADD.  After choosing a selection I began the memorizing process.  I received a text from B that she was having car troubles and that it would necessitate being picked up by her husband.  I called my 1:00 and informed her of the situation.  She graciously offered her sympathy and I made lunch.

Upon finishing lunch, the rest of the fam was home and M and I decided to go see if we could “fix” the car.  After 3 hrs of tinkering and waiting for help and tinkering some more, we had temporarily resolved the situation and developed an even more distasteful opinion of a particular 96 VW Jetta.  In the mean time I cancelled my other meeting and when I could, worked my memorization, there in the Walmart parking lot.

To add to the roles I’ve been experimenting with in my monologuing, I feel like today alone has given me a taste of the following characters: administrative assistant, first responder, car thief, locksmith, and auto mechanic.

At supper, we were graced by the presence of artist P from the top of the day meeting that was cancelled.  Had a fantastic meeting.

Since then I’ve finished memorizing my monologue, and babysat for B+M’s little anniversary getaway tonight and laid down the preliminary information for a possible concert tour next spring.

Oofta.  Slava Bohoo.

She has completed her long-awaited debut album after a successful fundraising campaign with a kickstarter.com account, and now YOU get to hear her music.  It’s entitled Shelter: Hymns Resung and you can read more about it here.

This very weekend, I invite you to make your way to All Nations Baptist Church at 1300 Lowry Ave. NE Minneapolis, MN. Saturday, July 28th at 7:00 PM and/or Sunday, July 29th at 6:00 PM.

The two concerts are slightly different as the Sunday night performance will be part of an All-Nations 5th Sunday Hymn Sing.  I hope to see you there.

Look familiar? It’s the inspiration for their flag. There are acres of sunflowers in the countryside as far as the eye can see.

Thank you so much to the friends and family who were praying for my family and I during my time in Ukraine.  I could sense your support very much.  I thankfully remained in pretty good health for the duration of the trip.  It is so good to be back with my loving wife and beautiful girls.   It’s sad to see how Patience has grown and changed in just two weeks.

An Evening in Kyiv (Kiev) from my Hotel Window

The main question concerning Evangelion’s 8^th trip to Ukraine this year was whether their experiment would work.  The experiment was to fill out our numbers with Ukrainian singers who rehearsed on their own.  We wondered if the sound would blend, if they’d know the music, or if the language barrier would be prohibitive.  At our first joint rehearsal we were all amazed and praising God for the beauty we were able to create with these brothers and sisters on the other side of the planet.  Besides making some amazing music together, we developed relationships that would never have been possible with an earlier model of touring.

Mr. Sergii Bilokin and his lovely wife Nadiia

Having this closer connection to the Ukrainian people gave us a better sense of our impact as well.   However, as in any missions trip, I feel like I received more than I gave.

Tenor extraordinaire Tim Faatz and some Ukrainians we met in Poltava.

In any future work I do overseas with an ensemble, I hope to use this model of cross-cultural collaboration.  It was a taste of heaven: humbling, sweet and glorious.