Music to My Ears -- and Eyes

This is Ensemble Electra -- our friend and recorder virtuoso Vicki Boeckman with Tekla Cunningham, Baroque violin, and Jillon Stoppels Dupreee, harpsichord -- performing their afternoon concert at the Lynden Music Festival. Phil and I enjoyed this "less formal than normal" concert, followed by the Lynden Pioneer Museum's annual open house, at which the Sonja Lee Band performed, a Bellingham jazz group we like.

I stayed on for Ensemble Electra's evening concert, in which I heard for the first time Handel's achingly beautiful "Lascia ch'io pianga" from his opera Rinaldo, arranged for their instruments. For me, a recorder played by a gifted performer like Vicki is very like a human voice, and my eyes filled with tears as I listened. Ensemble Electra doesn't have a recording of this piece, so do listen to Renee Fleming sing it here.

I played alto recorder for a few years in the past, at a very amateur level, but am now inspired to bring it out of retirement and return music to my life at home, as well as at concerts like these two and the Whatcom Symphony performance we'll enjoy on Sunday. There's nothing as wonderful as live music performed with skill and heart!

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