Classical and Art Music

Bach Cantata Choir and Orchestra www.bachcantatachoir.org Portland's Bach Cantata Choir and Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Ralph Nelson, is undertaking an ambitious project. Over the next several years, the goal is to perform all 200+ Bach Cantatas. They're off to a fine start, with many dedicated performers, most of whom work solely for the chance to sing and play this timeless, great music. It has been our continuing pleasure to work with this group of dedicated musicians.
		Chorus from Cantata 79 (5:53, 8.3 MBytes)

Bond Organ Company www.bondorgans.com Bond Organ produces extraordinary pipe organs in their shop in Portland, Oregon. "Compelling to the eye; thrilling to the ear" is a phrase on the Bond website that is an excellent description of a Bond instrument. We'd add that from the recording perspective there is something sweet, articulate, and vibrant in the Bond instrument that is not always present in other instruments. Most pipe organs can get very loud, but it takes a special build and careful unification with the room to fully realize the instrument. Bond does this very well. The company approached MARS to get an updated recording that could be used to help promote their instruments. They expressed a desire to get more articulation audible in the recording without losing the sound of the room. At first this might seem something of a recording contradiction, but we were able to achieve this through the addition of a single ribbon microphone at just the right place near the instrument, and then blending it at just the right time-alignment and signal balance with the main stereo pair used to capture the room and instrument.
	Magnificat, Meine Seele erhebt den Herren, BWV 733, J. S. Bach (4:42, 6.6 MBytes) Mark Williams at the Bond Instrument at Holy Rosary Church in Portland, Oregon.

John Vergin John is a wonderful vocalist, composer, performer, and long-time friend (all that and a five-star chef as well). John is a quiet, unassuming man who often brings forth genius in his compositions and performances. He is equally at home on the theatrical stage as he is the musical stage, and handles both with graceful aplomb. It has been a gift to have worked on a number of projects together, each with its own character and fun moments. Here is a tiny sample of a few of the projects.
	Christmas album recording session, Winter's Tale, Reed Chapel, Reed College
	The Reluctant Dragon (a children's puppet show presented by the Tears of Joy Theater Company). Interlude music recording session, John's living room. These mixes were designed for playback on various school auditorium PA systems and thus have a slightly different presence to them. This is News (0:34, 0.8 MBytes) Fanfare (0:11, 0.3 MBytes) Fanfare Outtake (0:18, 0.4 MBytes)

	John's string quartet, Requiem, was written in memory of the mother of mutual friend. The work follows much of the traditional structure of a requiem mass. The work is ever engaging and is deceptively simple; as one listens, beautifully complex spires of the work reveal themselves, showing the celebrations and sorrows of this woman's life. Many fine musical moments occur in this performance. Audience, performers, and the son of the woman who had passed seemed aware of the personal connections represented by this work and its first performance. It was a difficult decision to post here only the last movement of this work (In Paradisum). If server space and download resources were available, we'd like to host the entire work. The recording speaks for itself; we feel that the sonic signature of the recording and mix well supports the emotional content of the work.
Paradisum from John Vergin's Requiem. Premiered March 26, 2006.(4:50, 6.8 MBytes)

Lisa Florentino Lisa has a lovely, expressive soprano voice. She's also a great teacher, with many voice students in the Portland area. We've enjoyed working together on various projects. This recital recording was a challenge because of the odd sound of the room. We wanted to get something of a larger European salon sound, but ran into peculiar echo and reverb problems in the room itself. Fortunately, our multiple microphones came to the rescue. A somewhat unorthodox blend of some and deletions of others got very close to the intended sound (which also seems well suited to the selections performed).
		All mein Gedanken (R. Strauss), with Lourdes Diaz-Johanson, piano (1:08, 1.6 MBytes)