Back in business.

Hi Folks,

After a considerable hiatus, I'm back to the blogging world.  I retreated for a few months to focus on getting closer to the heart of Jesus :) my jobs, home, and self, and now as summer quickly approaches, obligations are lessening, leaving me with time to say hello and to share a few pictures from the past months!

Rewind. Christmas was a quiet one for us this past year; due to my church job, we were obligated to stay in town over the weekend. My choirs did wonderfully and the congregation was very appreciate of our efforts. I also had the pleasure of helping out with the children's Christmas pageant - the kids were delightful. Lots of great families at this parish; we are very much enjoying getting to know more parishioners as the months go by. Hubby and I got away for a few days after Christmas - thankful to spend some much needed time just for ourselves! Laura's clan went to CA for the holidays...I really missed seeing my family this Christmas season...here's to next year!

Hello 2011 - We trade in Andrew's '94 Chevy truck and get a '05 Toyota Camry. Goodbye 'ole bessie, you served us well.

It's been a busy spring....both teaching, my church job and giving private voice lessons kept me on my toes.  I had a very successful Holy Week/Easter - my choir did superb. It is certainly one of the most rewarding jobs in the world to provide beautiful liturgical music for Mass, especially during such beautiful and holy seasons.  My students also had a few successful events this spring, performing for a Fashion Show held at AMU, and singing for the Mass for the Feast of the Annunciation at Ave Maria Oratory, the latter of which was a highly anticipated event, as Bishop Dewane presided at both the Mass and unveiling of the Annunciation Sculpture which now graces the facade of the Oratory.

Andrew too had quite a music-filled spring as he was hired in the fall by Opera Naples, and so was kept insanely busy for a few months both performing in their Young Artist group and in two operas, in one of which (Carmen) he played the principal role of Dancario, and was really superb.  In addition, he has been teaching voice at AMU and taking a few continuing education classes. 

My brother Ben graduated on May 7, and Mom came down for this occasion and to spend a week.  It was SO lovely having her here, especially for Mother's Day weekend.  We spent time doing crafty projects around the house, going shopping, cooking, enjoying wine and chocolate and watching movies...ahh so relaxing.  Laura and co. came down for the weekend, which added to the fun.  Her boys are getting extra cute and entertaining by the day, and we look forward to welcoming Baby Girl Dilanji in September!!

2 more weeks of teaching, then summer will truly start for me.  We have a few weddings to attend this summer, family to visit, and hope to plan a few get-aways just for us.

Hope all is well with you!  Nice to be in touch again.  :)  God is good!

Music and love.

(I just realized I never posted this entry...)

Just stopping in to say hello - we've been very very busy with our respective jobs but have been squeezing in some fun as well!

We have been attending some good concerts and performances lately, as a Naples lady graciously donates tickets to Ave Maria University faculty and staff for Naples Philharmonic events.  We're thankful for these opportunities - an evening to go out, enjoy dinner and each other and bask in some great (free!) music.  This past Sunday we saw Rossini's opera La Cenerentola (Cinderella) performed by the Sarasota Opera who brought it to Naples to pair with the Philharmonic. 

Here we are beforehand....

We thank Him for this kind of love...

In Paradisum.

Andrew was asked to sing the bass solos in the Ave Maria University of Music Department's Fall Concert this semester, and I had the privilege of attending the first one last night. Scheduled near the Feast of All Souls, the AMU choirs appropriately sang works from various composers centered on themes of death, judgement, hope, eternity, and salvation. They did a great job. Andrew participated in Bach's Cantata No. 106 "Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit" and Gabriel Faure's Requieum in D Minior.

Texts from the Bach have been resonating within me all weekend..."God's time is the very best time. In him we live, move, and are, so long as he wills. In him we die at the right time, when he wills....Ah, Lord, teach us to think that we must die so that we become wise...Today you will be with me in paradise...With peace and joy I travel there in God's will, my heart and mind are confident, peaceful and calm. As God has promised me: death has become my sleep."

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen (Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let your perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.)

Good Friday

Holy Week was a busy time for the Steele's, as not only was hubby rehearsing/singing for every service and preparing his RCIA candidates to be fully received into the church, but I performed my senior recital on Good Friday. Carrie and I were extremely blessed to present G. B. Pergolesi's Stabat Mater in conjunction with the Stations of the Cross Good Friday evening. It was a wonderful experience, not only for us to give the gift of beautiful, meditative music to the Ave Maria parishioners, but also for us, the musicians, to embark upon the way of the Cross singing the sentiments of the Sorrowful Mother. Below is a segment from my program notes:

The Stabat Mater Dolorosa is renowned as one of the greatest hymns originating from the Middle Ages. Recalling the prophet Simeon’s revelation to the Blessed Virgin, “and you yourself, a sword shall pierce,” (Luke 2:35), the words of this poem have been traced to St. Bonaventure and Pope Innocent III, but historians attribute its final compilation to Jacapone da Todi, a Franciscan friar of the 13th century. After its use in the Catholic liturgy was prescribed in 1727, it was implemented in the Divine Office and also as the sequence for the two feasts of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary which are celebrated on the Friday after Passion Sunday and on September 15, a second feast of the Sorrows promulgated by Pope Pius VII. Musical settings of the Stabat Mater were also incorporated into the devotion of the Stations of the Cross, with a verse being sung after each station was prayed, and the tradition continues to this day.

The maternal compassion and sorrow of the Blessed Mother are so well characterized in the Stabat Mater, that its poignant stanzas have inspired many composers to reflect the heart-rending emotions of Good Friday in musical settings. Among the famous composers who joined G. B. Pergolesi in doing so, are Boccherini, Haydn, Verdi, Rossini, and Dvorak. Reverend James Mearns in his Dictionary of Hymnology, aptly describes why the Stabat Mater is so compelling for all who hear it:

“This noble poem…has been, not unjustly, styled the most pathetic hymn of the Middle Ages. The vividness with which it pictures the weeping Mother at the Cross, its tenderness, its beauty of rhythm, its melodious double rhymes almost defying reproduction in another language, and its impressiveness when sung either to the fine plainsong melody or in the noble compositions which many of the great masters of music have set to it, go far to justify the place it holds, and has long held, in the Roman Catholic Church.”









Hair: Laura Dilanji
Photo Credits: Gary Huber

Coming soon...

(Props to Christa McMahon for helping us design our poster and program!)

A Rainy Sunday...

Enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon with hubby, listening to the downpour and thunder outside, and I thought I'd share a poem.

A Line-Storm Song by Robert Frost

The line-storm clouds fly tattered and swift.

The road is forlorn all day,

Where a myriad snowy quartz stones lift,

And the hoof-prints vanish away.

The roadside flowers, too wet for the bee,

Expend their bloom in vain.

Come over the hills and far with me,

And be my love in the rain.

The birds have less to say for themselves

In the wood-world's torn despair

Than now these numberless years the elves,

Although they are no less there:

All song of the woods is crushed like some

Wild, earily shattered rose.

Come, be my love in the wet woods, come,

Where the boughs rain when it blows.

There is the gale to urge behind

And bruit our singing down,

And the shallow waters aflutter with wind

From which to gather your gown.

What matter if we go clear to the west,

And come not through dry-shod?

For wilding brooch shall wet your breast

The rain-fresh goldenrod.

Oh, never this whelming east wind swells

But it seems like the sea's return

To the ancient lands where it left the shells

Before the age of the fern;

And it seems like the time when after doubt

Our love came back amain.

Oh, come forth into the storm and rout

And be my love in the rain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last night Andrew and I went to the Naples Philharmonic. It was great to get away from the books and be able to focus on each other and enjoy some great music by Ravel, Grieg, Dvorak, Rimsky-Korsakov, and others. Most memorable was Nimrod from Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar- the Phil's interpretation and playing of this piece was magnificent. This was the second concert we have attended at the Naples Phil, and I have been very impressed with their work. We ended the night at Cheesecake Factory where we met friends Gary and Christine for yummy dessert and wedding talk. :)
Ready for a night out!