Let’s face it: History lessons aren’t always fun. Too often, an artistic event that strives toward historical accuracy leaves you feeling educated but not really entertained. Shoring up some cracks in your knowledge base can be worthwhile but seldom extremely enjoyable.

However, one of those infrequent occurrences happened Sunday afternoon when St. Paul-based early-music group the Rose Ensemble welcomed the Music in the Park Series back to its home neighborhood, the freshly repaved St. Anthony Park. But the chamber choir didn’t perform the music on which its reputation is based — motets and madrigals of the medieval and Renaissance eras — instead focusing upon 19th-century American folk hymns and carols, many of them rooted in the Shaker and shape-note traditions.

It may not have been right up the group’s stylistic alley, but it turned out to be a lot of fun, a combination of uplifting church service and holiday hootenanny. Performing in a venue ideally intimate for this music — the woody St. Anthony Park United Church of Christ — the group let reverence segue into celebration, unleashing their accompanying instrumentalists on tunes that sounded increasingly country, Celtic and Cajun as the concert went on.

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by Daniel Hathaway

In an era accustomed to sensory overload, when stage productions are hard put to compete with the technological wizardry available to film makers, it’s refreshing to spend a couple of hours in a vivid world created simply through the interaction of words and music.

The Rose Ensemble

The Rose Ensemble, founded in Minneapolis-St. Paul by Jordan Sramek in 1996, specializes in themed programs of extraordinary variety. The group produces a season of four to five subscription concerts every year, and tours programs exploring such wide-ranging repertory as ‘Voices of Ancient Mediterranean Christians, Jews and Muslims’, ‘Slavic Wonders: Feasts and Saints in Early Russia, Poland and Bohemia’, ‘Music from the Soul of the Hawaiian Saga’, and ‘A Mexican Baroque Christmas’. Their latest production explores the life of Francis of Assisi during the 800th anniversary year of the saint’s birth.

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I’m back home.  It’s was kind of a bittersweet tour for me this time.  I loved the Festival, seeing old friends and meeting new ones, singing with new Rosies and making some really fantastic music.  The churches were glorious and Piggy gave everyone a great smile.  Jordan from The Rose Ensemble has written a couple of blog posts that are a great read, and I’m including a few excerpts here:

“Ciao everyone – It’s another beautiful but hot day here in Legnano. The wisteria has started blooming and the hedges of jasmine are so fragrant (especially at night). There are red and blue hydrangeas everywhere (they’re HUGE) and in spite of the heat, everyone you see rarely actually looks hot (except for us, the Brits, the Norwegians and the Bulgarians; obviously the Cubans are doing fine). People here look good even when they’re going to the grocery store and there are more shops for shoes, purses and suits than one can imagine. Clothing is pretty darn pricey here, but the simple things seem to be cheaper. For example, a really great latte costs a mere 1.2 Euros (an espresso is only 85 cents) and you can get a decent bottle of Prosecco at the grocery store for about 3 Euros.

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What an amazing evening.  We weren’t sure at first how things were going to go.  Our bus was due to leave Legnano at 6:30pm, but there was no sign of our guide or our guest instrumentalist.  Around 7pm, Issaco arrived explaining that our guide was with the Norway choir and that our packet lunch and programs were left at the other hotel, so he had to swing by to pick them up on the way.  The sack lunch was there, but the water was missing and the programs were actually with us at our hotel.

On the bus another discovery was made – the programs were printing with the wrong show.  Not a problem – we  just didn’t pass them out and announced from the stage what we would be singing. 

We arrived in Missaglia to a wonderfully restored 16th century chapel and convent – the building was started in 1492 and completed in 1560.  On the chapel walls frescos remain that will be in the process of complete restoration.  The chapel itself was decommissioned and is now run by the town.  We are actually the first to give a concert in this space since the restoration.

And what a space!  It reminds me of why I sing the music I choose to sing.  Read more

Day 2 began with a quick breakfast at the hotel.. rather decent, actually. It’s buffet style with scrambled eggs, a selection of breads, croissants, pastry, cereals, & fruits. And coffee. But not just any coffee, you see you get a choice of a brewed pot of espresso or a pot of American coffee. I found that almost amusing – I mean come on. You go to Italy and have “American” coffee? One cool thing is that they steam the milk here and have that in a pot as well – how smart is that. It definately keeps your coffee hot rather than cooling it down with cold milk or cream.

Breakfast was rather quick – we had a 10:30 rehearsal and quick meeting to go over the day’s events. Tonight we sing part 2 of the choral marathon and I’m told we are the last of 10 choirs. The saving grace in all of this, as tired as we are from just arriving yesterday, is that we should be done by 9pm and back to the hotel by 10pm. This will give me the chance to hopefully catch up on much needed sleep since my body clock is still working the 7 hour time difference.

Well that was a good thought or should I say wishful thinking… Read more

so here’s the scenario…  we land in Newark just in time to miss our flight to Milan… that was Thursday.  Spent most of Friday in Newark hanging around the airport playing on the iPhone and taking Piggy to Dunkin’ Donuts.  Since we don’t have one of those in Minneapolis, I thought he should savor the experience.  He thought it was an excellent diversion to the fact he wasn’t in Italy yet.

Made it on the plane – very full flight and my seat, be it an exit row, was right next to 2 bathrooms, one of which was a family changing room.  Made it for a very busy hallway most of the night.  So, no sleep for this one on the plane – that’s 9 hours and I can safely say I was up for a solid 24 before we made it to the UNA Malpensa Hotel in Lengano.

It’s a beautiful place the Festival is putting us up in until Wednesday – very modern, and there is a shopping mall practically next door that I might have to check out, just so I can say I’ve been in an Italian mall.  Piggy, my husband’s website mascot (www.bobwaynesweblog.com) was happy to find his first cup of espresso and a good nap before our 3:30 rehearsal this afternoon.

We left on the bus with the Latvian choir at 6pm this evening for a marathon of choral singing – 10 choirs and we were 9th on the roster. Read more

sigh….  We were delayed in Minneapolis due to weather on the East Coast.  Delayed 2-1/2 hours.  Sadly, we were on a Northwest flight and had a connecting flight on Contintental leaving Newark at 6:25pm.  The irony of the airport thing is they can delay flights coming in, but didn’t delay flights leaving, so we arrived just as our connecting flight was leaving.

Needless to say, 9 of us, 10 if you include Piggy, are in Newark at a Days Inn Hotel with a lovely view of the NJ Transit Tram, freeway and such.  They gave us a late checkout of 1pm when we head back to the airport and wait for our 6:30 flight.  If all goes as planned, we should arrive tomorrow at 9am – hopefully with luggage.  I would really like to change clothes at that point, and we are also doing our first show tomorrow night!  No luggage, no performance clothes.  And Piggy is bummed he’s not in Italy yet.

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For an unprecedented return engagement, The Rose Ensemble has been invited back to participate in the “La Fabbrica del Canto”, an international choral festival that takes place in and around the Milan region of Northern Italy.  The following blurb was published in an Italian paper this past week:

“The Rose Ensemble dal Minnesota, Usa (torna quest’anno a grande richiesta dopo l’acclamato successo dello scorso anno)”  – translation:  “The Rose Ensemble from Minnesota, use back this year in great demand after the acclaimed success of last year”

We will be presenting 2 separate programs, one sacred highlighting our Slavic show of Russian, Polish & Czech music and music of St. Francis of Assisi, and one secular program featuring music from our Hawaiian and Early American programs.  All of the choirs will perform two 20 minute highlight shows for the general public on two separate evenings at the beginning of the Festival.  This allows the audience to see what the choirs sound like and choose what programs they would like to see.  All concerts are free and begin at 9pm every evening during the run.

The nice thing about returning to a festival is that you have a really good idea of what to expect.  We already know that concerts will generally start around the 9:30ish time (we start when the people come!), we have great friends that we will meet up with, and we have a good idea of where to eat!  I seem to remember this great little gelato place on the plaza…

Speaking of meeting up with great friends, the vocal group Voces8 from London will be performing with us this year.  We had a wonderful time Read more