Victorian Christmas music hall and library concerts

our most recent concert at the East Greenbush Library concert series

(note: in the poster we are wearing Renaissance attire, but we do have Victorian attire)

here is the press for the event:

Last year, we performed a Christmas concert for the Troy Music Hall with our whole band (4 of us) to a crowd of about 800 - 1,000:

that's half the stage with a big grand piano on it with organ pipes above it (the side boxes go up 3 stories and there is a big balcony in the rear)

we have been told by many respected performers that it has the best acoustics in the country!

And we've been performing for years for the Victorian Streetwalk in Saratoga Springs, NY. I used to also perform for the Troy Victorian Stroll through the 1990s (before meeting Jim, my music partner) and I performed at a sold out Christmas concert at the North Pointe Concert Hall in Kinderhook, NY years ago.

For the Kinderhook concert, we performed a couple of songs on the radio before hand and it was broadcast all the way to Amherst, MA - Woodstock, NY - the Adirondacks - Utica. People contacted us to buy CDs from that live performance. It was wonderful to get such a positive response.

For library and art center concert series, we make the experience educational and come dressed in appropriate Victorian attire. We talk about the style of dress during the era, about the instruments that were used at the time, the origin of the songs and the hammered dulcimer (the musical instrument that Jim plays for many of the carols as it has a bell-like quality and is perfect for this style of music). Since we also perform a wide variety of Renaissance songs and instrumentals and we are known for this music (through concert series, Renaissance faires and my CD of Renaissance songs, Wing'd With Hopes), we often incorporate this music and its carols into the program and repertoire. 

We would love to perform more concerts in this genre!

If you are reading this and you know someone who might be interested in featuring us, contact us through this e-mail address: SaratogaFaire (-(att)-) yahoo.com. (Note: what is in the parentheses should obviously have an @ symbol, but we didn't want anyone to spam us!).

You can check out our music through the following sites:

 our Renaissance music (myspace site)

our Celtic folk band (myspace site)

some of my own originals music plus some Renaissance pieces (myspace site)

performing and experiencing the 2011 Saratoga Springs Victorian Streetwalk

"Victorian Christmas" sketch

© Lise Winne

available from my on-line Artfire shop through this link



In the usual tradition (originally started on my website in 2005), I'm recapping this year's Victorian Streetwalk.

This was the first year in about three years where I wasn't getting over a cold, infection or some other malady. And because of that, it was a joy to perform (note to the uninitiated: performing isn't all roses and clapping; at this level, the level of the every day average non-star performer, it sometimes means hefting heavy sound equipment in a nice dress and shoes often in terrible weather, children trying to strum your instrument while you are performing, and a myriad of other situations -- some outright comical -- that I originally planned to use as the focus of this blog, and perhaps will in the future).

In fact the only distraction happened just before leaving for the gig. A childhood sweetheart (the first one, a brief dating experience in eighth grade -- and someone I hadn't seen since I was a freshman in highschool) friended me on facebook. So, as I'm leaving the house, memories from childhood come rushing back. I hadn't really thought about this part of my life at all since leaving it behind so many years ago and all of a sudden the memories became overwhelming. Mind you, these weren't exactly happy childhood years for a myriad of reasons: let's just say they were riddled with a lot of anxiety because my brother who went to the same school came home beaten with shredded clothes repeatedly only because he had long hair -- I had been punched a few times too because a certain crowd at the school took it upon themselves to study their classmates and were suspicious that I wasn't who they thought I was, i.e. possibly not part of acceptable mainstream junior high society (what if they really knew us! shudder!).

When you perform, you can't give into any overwhelming feelings no matter what is going on in your life because the job entails a great deal of focus for everything to come out right. My job entails two instruments (vocals and a stringed instrument) and I also have to keep track of what everyone else in the band is doing. While the Victorian Streetwalk is just two of us and isn't a high pressure gig like the Troy Music Hall, it is always packed and a group is always standing in front of us watching what we are doing. So, the childhood memories were squelched.

I love performing in this environment once a year -- the main street is totally devoid of cars; it is totally packed with marching bands,  jugglers, carollers, horses, wagons, food vendors and townspeople, many dressed in Victorian attire. The wonderful thing about this festival is that all of the performers are local. And the costume element is something I've always loved and brings me back to the days when I used to perform at Renaissance faires with the Spirites Consort.

Jim, my music partner at this event, is just starting to assemble a Victorian outfit. I already have one, but I was trying to sew a long red skirt (didn't quite finish it, but used it for the Victorian Christmas concert we put on at the East Greenbush Library the following Sunday).

We love playing at Dawgdom! We love the fact that we are helping to support a small business and helping the "buy local scene" in our own hometown. The happy dogs -- even the little toy dogs that put on the ferocious act like they are going to rip a great dane's head off -- are a plus.

After we packed up, the streetwalk was still in full swing and we went to listen to John Kribs and Doug Moody playing across the street. They looked so classy, dapper and handsome in their Victorian garb. I have so much admiration for John as a human being -- a true being of light -- and it comes across in the Sam fund which he started for musicians with health issues. He is a great musician too and he has made music his life despite lots of hardships that musicians are faced with these days and the scarcity of venues.

Then we headed over to Celtic Treasures where I show my greeting cards and where our Sartatoga Faire CD, Saratoga Romance has a place to be seen in our community. We visited Paul (the store owner), John Cromie and Tommy Wadsworth. They were already busy packing up, but they invited us with them for some post Streetwalk revery. Paul treated me to some Irish Sweet Potato fries (so nice!) and Jim to a Guinness Stout.

It is so wonderful to be part of this community and I feel proud of my community when I'm part of an event like this!

weblinks:

MY WEBSITE

It looks like MYSPACE is up and running again (yippie!) which is the best way to hear soundclips of our music:

MINE

MY BAND'S

MY RENAISSANCE BAND'S (this myspace site seems to be the most loved)

sketch available through:
MY ARTFIRE SHOP
(note: the reason I refer to the accompanying illustration as a sketch instead of a drawing is because it was done quickly and does not have the thoughtfulness and proper perspective that a finished drawing would have, despite its details and embellishments).

on the drawing table and holiday concert at Troy Music Hall

Work in progress:

one corner of the piece

in sepia ink

still has pencil guides in it

finished piece will have color

I thought I'd post this now since I have no idea when I will be able to finish it. I was hoping to finish it before the holidays to hang it in one of my holiday art shows, but it doesn't appear that I will be able to do that (and I do want to do it justice by thinking out all of the compositional elements).

The reason why? Our band is in rehearsals for holiday concerts, one at Troy Music Hall (which requires the most concentration, since the last time we performed there, it was a packed house-- about 1,000 in the audience) and a small one at a Victorian Streetwalk.

The concerts take precedence.

I was wondering if I should have done any holiday art shows this year since they are all-involving and take me away from my music and practicing for at least two weeks (sometimes more). When I get back to my instruments, the callouses on my fingertips has softened or peeled off (making playing more painful) and my instruments feel foreign. 

But now that I am into the swing of it, I feel much more like a musician than a visual artist. It can and does go the other way around too. Funny how that happens.

The fact that I can be a musician at all (and especially to be able to perform at such a great venue as the Troy Music Hall) is always amazing to me since I had severe asthma until I was 28 years old. Being able to sing was comparable to being able to fly... and not just sing, but professionally sing. How did this happen? I am so blessed!

My Website

MY ART IN ON-LINE STORES:
Artfire
Etsy

MY MUSIC LINKS (hear clips):
Music MYSPACE
My band, Saratoga Faire’s MYSPACE
My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort

MY MUSIC IN ON-LINE STORES:
CD Baby
Amazon
InandOutRecords (Europe)
My band, Saratoga Faire, on CD Baby

Performing for the media (First Night kick-off) and The Victorian Streetwalk

My intention is to join my visual art with telling my tales about being a performing musician, but I can't seem to find the time at this juncture. So the little cropped pic of me with the guitar will have to suffice for now as the visual part of my story.

I was asked to perform for the media by the First Night office in Saratoga Springs, NY. As part of my general performance, I was asked to sing "Starry, Starry Night" as that was the theme for this year's event. This request came in on November 10 and I responded on November 11. This meant I had about 19 days (minus time around Thanksgiving) to "work up" the song. But, I was also practicing for two holiday performances, so I felt pretty stretched as holiday material isn’t something that is part of my regular repertoire. It always takes additional practice and rehearsal.

I found "Starry, Starry Night" vocally challenging (believe it or not!). I sing lots of challenging pieces like "Ave Maria", so I knew I could do it, but I knew I’d be in trouble if I tried to tackle and memorize the accompaniment too, so I asked Jim if he could do that part. This made my task a lot easier when the event finally came and I felt confident that I did a good job. We decided that since we would show up as a duo that we should use the hammered dulcimer in the performance too since there aren’t very musicians in this area who play the instrument.

We often use the hammered dulcimer in our holiday performances. It has a nice bell-like quality which is perfectly suited to holiday music and my vocals. In these performances, I play the classical guitar in addition to my singing.

I have played in front of television cameras before and the lights were fairly blinding. This is all right when I am singing and playing a guitar, but with the addition of the hammered dulcimer, this was of concern to us since Jim has to be able to see the strings in order to play his instrument (he uses handmade little wooden hammers).

We asked the sound guy about the lights and his brusque answer was to wear a hat with a visor and some sunglasses. But he was having a little fun with us because there were no lights, not a single one. Ha!

We played the Saratoga Victorian Streetwalk two days later (the same duo). The event and our venue was packed the whole night. The streets were blocked off and smelled like horses.

Many of our CD customers asked us who the other musicians were on our CD (feeling a little unsure of the musicianship of these "other" players when they weren't hearing them as part of our live performance). We had fun explaining that the whistle guy was across the street at Celtic Treasures and the violinist was down the street about a half a block at the post office and our recording guy was another half block across the street, etc. All the customers looked a little shocked. Most don't understand that many of the musicians in this area are like one big jamming family. In fact, our band formed at one of the biggest jam sessions in the north country, The Dance Flurry Festival.

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store and Artfire on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Purchasing our Saratoga Faire CD on CD Baby