Sivak’s March Madness

Before we start talking about this month’s mayhem, it’s probably long past due to acknowledge the stellar performance of the Vancouver Peace Choir of my in paradisum last year. It was paired with the Brahms Requiem which is (To say the least) a tremendous honor. If you don’t believe me, subsist upon the recorded evidence:

This month features a welcome smattering of my music performed by The Laudate Singers of North Vancouver and East Vancouver’s own OperaFeHk.

From Laudate’s choral loft we have my own arrangement of “The Alphabet”:

About to become shop-soiled.

My version of the Alphabet amplifies the childlike whimsy of the original by throwing the traditional melody under a bus and giving the remaining text a wildly syncopated treatment. It’s being performed at Laudate’s Reflections concert. It’ll be an unsusual evening as most of the music is written by composers who haven’t quite gotten around to dying yet, supremely challenging (At least for me); and pretty wild while also being wildly pretty. In addition to my piece (We nicknamed it the Alpha-better in rehearsal); there’s Pärt’s Magnificat; a crackling hymn by recently deceased John Tavener; and pieces by Sled, Peterson, Price, Cox, Diaconu & Saba, Fulton, Chatman, Willan, and a bag of pogo sticks under a partridge in a pear tree.

March 7th, 8pm – St. Andrew’s United Church

And in what one could only say is something completely different, OperaFeHk is performing a set of chamber pieces in their Birthday Cabaret Spectacular. From what I’ve been told, the show is a birthday celebration for one of their central characters, The House With Hippopotamus Legs. On the program is my Tragic Nature Of Being Ugly as well as some pieces I’ve written for their past shows. Like, for instance, this little gem: