Frances Blaker here. Tish Berlin and I arrived here at Sitka yesterday, April 22nd, joining Louise Carslake who has spent the past week practicing recorder and baroque flute and hiking. Today we hiked up Cascade Head. Here are Tish and Louise sitting between tall trees.
 
 

This afternoon, Clea Galhano arrived. After a companionable and jolly dinner we did the final planning for our concert program so that we will be completely ready to go when we begin rehearsing tomorrow morning. We have the luxury of three full days to rehearse. We’ll be rehearsing on works by Ciconia, Giamberti, Raval, Bach, Genzmer, and others, including a recent piece by Me. We are really looking forward to playing together. Now the sun is setting behind a hill, the trees are growing dark, the ocean shines an amazing lavender color.

We made more progress on the recording yesterday and have been sorting out all the different variations of the tune for the various interludes.  This has been a fun and productive time for us, and we’d like to thank everyone who made it possible.  Here’s a photo of some of the neighbors that showed up Thursday afternoon in the meadow in front the Sitka Center.

Phil and Gayle Neuman

We got some tracks down yesterday on “Acres,” and today we hiked up Mt. Neah-
kahnie.  The clouds parted just in time in order to take some photos -

Phil and Gayle Neuman

We’re enjoying our second day at Sitka and the staff is fantastic.  We hiked to the
upper viewpoint on the Cascade Head Trail, and we’ve been preparing to record
“Acres of Clams” for our Musical History of Oregon CD.  It will be on walking stick recorders, voice, and a smattering of strings.  The walking stick recorder or csakan
is one of the descendants of the recorder that became popular early in the 19th
century.  Acres of Clams or “The Old Settler,” written by Oregon pioneer Francis
Henry, is a song about giving up gold mining and taking up farming.  The tune,
“Men of the West,” was popularized in the U.S. as “Old Rosin the Beau,” and was
also used for a Lincoln campaign song, “Lincoln and Liberty.”

Phil and Gayle Neuman
 

Howdy; Frances Feldon here at Sitka!
Arrived, had tour, unpacked, called home, made dinner, cleaned kitchen…mundane things that we must all do, artist/musician/average Josephine…now seated with laptop overlooking beautiful vista of Sitka spruce, Japanese maple, and meadow hidden just out of sight – I know the ocean is there too. Somehow this is a metaphor for how the next 10 days will unfold: peering thru the porthole of my life/work, connecting with nature/art as I work on my project preparing concert of bird music, both old and new.