Where has the time gone? It’s been three years since my retirement from MakeMusic. Which means that my non-compete agreement has expired!
As you can see, updating my blog has not yet made it to my list of retirement projects. What has?
One of the main things keeping me busy has been contributing to the Genius web site. This is one of the best sites for lyrics and music information on the web, fully licensed from music publishers. It not only has lyrics, but also analysis of the musical structure (Verse / Chorus / Bridge etc.) and annotations that explain lyrical references. I remember hearing on presentation on it at SF Music Tech back when it was Rap Genius and thinking that was one of the best ideas for a music site I’d ever heard.
I used Genius as a lyrics site user for years, but started contributing during the pandemic when I was shut off from doing any performing. I found the active listening for transcribing and analyzing lyrics to be as good a substitute as I could find. It was so much fun that I kept going after performing resumed. With retirement, I have a lot more time to listen and engage with music, so I’m now up to one of the top 30 contributors on the Genius site.
As far as performing, I’ve been in seven opera productions at West Bay Opera over the past three years:
- Don Giovanni
- Der fliegende Holländer
- Madama Butterfly
- Corpus Evita
- La sonnambula
- Otello
- Samson et Dalila
Only Madama Butterfly was a repeat, and I could sing it way better now that 14 years earlier. I’ve done Dutchman before, but this time I was singing onstage vs. the offstage chorus. The offstage chorus has the best choral part, but onstage has more music, and of course you’re actually on stage. Here’s a photo of the chorus from Corpus Evita, music by Carlos Franzetti and libretto by José Luis Moscovich:
Photo by Otak Jump.
The last three operas have been huge chorus shows, La sonnambula in particular. So I’m kind of glad to have a break while West Bay Opera does Salome next. Next up is Tosca where the chorus part is much smaller.
I also got to sing one of my bucket list choral pieces, Howard Hanson’s Symphony No. 7, with the Stanford Symphonic Chorus and Peninsula Symphony. I attended the premiere at Interlochen with Howard Hanson conducting. We also sang Aaron Copland’s Canticle of Freedom, which was premiered at MIT for the dedication of Kresge Auditorium. That was before I was born, though we heard stories about it from John Corley.
I also joined the board of the Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music. This is my first time on a nonprofit board and it’s been rewarding and very educational. On the choral side of contemporary music, I’ve been singing some interesting programs with Voices of Silicon Valley.
If you’re thinking of joining a nonprofit board, or are just interested in learning more about nonprofit management, I’ll pass on two book recommendations that my “board buddy” gave me when I joined. Joan Garry’s Guide to Nonprofit Leadership shows how to be a good board member, while Heidi Waleson’s Mad Scenes and Exit Arias shows how to be a bad board member.
Naturally there’s been travel for family, music, genealogy, and vacation trips with my wife. This past year we also finally took care of decades of deferred maintenance on our house with a remodeling project.
What’s next? I really haven’t missed doing any software development over the past three years. But now I can do it without legal restriction if the mood strikes. I might broaden my contributions from lyric sites to sheet music sites. We’ll see. I’m still all for keeping my options open.