When Marie Paratto, the treasurer of Fresno Choral Artists was taking photos of our rehearsal retreat, I asked her for some copies so I could show how each room in this house has multiple functions.  A few hours earlier, I had practiced yoga where the basses now practiced Schubert.  We sang for several hours with the dining room chairs circled up, and the table served as a buffet for our lunch later.

At other times, this room has been filled with 30 of Greg’s high school Chamber Singers.  They take a break and run around the lawn, and return to steam the windows (“smells like teen spirit”).  His students have played the piano and performed with other instruments for fundraisers for University High School, a charter school at CSUFresno.

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But I haven’t written about how the curve of this ceiling gathers the sound and fills it so magnificently.  This concert is a world music program with African and Taiwanese, Spanish, Italian, Mexican, and more, and the house loved it.  I hope it sounds as lively when we sing at the Fresno Art Museum on Friday evening.

Our dear friend David Clemenson, a pianist and accompanist, graces us every few years with a concert (David, if you’re reading this–come again soon!).  The cabinet (behind Greg in the second photo) holds fifty black folding chairs, so we can mobilize the concert instantly.

At David’s encouragement, Greg wrote music to some words I composed, and David formed a concert around the River theme.  The last time he was here, David played for 50 of our friends who enjoy music: