Music Notes 8-18-24

Tracy Saliefendic began singing in church when her mother was directing the childrens choir. She then sang in school choirs until high school and discovered her love of performing in her senior year when she was the “Day by Day” disciple in her schools production of Godspell. While studying music at Pierce College she sang in a rock band with her future husband playing guitar. She then dabbled in classical voice lessons but it was when her husband surprised her by taking her to see Don Giovanni at LA Opera that she realized she wanted to sing opera. She went back to school at USC and studied with Judith Natalucci. She sang in the LA Opera Chorus for 3 years and did apprentiships with Glimmerglass Opera and Utah Festival Opera before starting a solo career that included singing Lady Macbeth (Macbeth) with Lyric Opera of Kansas City; Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana) with Santa Barbara Opera; Leonora (Il Trovatore) with Opera South (Ireland); Gertrude Stein (The Mother of Us All) with Glimmerglass Opera; Tosca with West Bay Opera (Palo Alto) and Intimate Opera (Pasadena); Amelia (Un Ballo in Maschera) with Bel Canto Opera (Santa Monica); Lady in Waiting (Macbeth) with Florida Grand Opera; Inez (Il Trovatore) with Virginia Opera as well as soprano soloist in the Verdi Requiem and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Los Robles Master Chorale and the Ventura Master Chorale. She has also appeared in concert with the San Bernardino Symphony in a concert of Mozart arias. Since 2007 she has been the soprano section leader/soloist at the First Presbyterian Church of Encino and has performed several recitals as well as The 1st & 2nd Penny & Tracy Shows in 2014 & 2015.

Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most famous composers in history.  Born in Eisenach, Germany in 1685, he spent the bulk of his most renowned composing time – the last 25 years of his life (1723-1750) - in Leipzig at St. Thomas Church, where he provided music for 4 churches in the area.  He was a bit of a maverick, disagreeing with his employers and taking unannounced leaves of absence to go hear other musicians perform.  There is even a story of him pulling a sword in the middle of the street during an argument with a local bassoon player (Bach publicly called him a “nanny goat bassoonist”…the bassoonist didn’t like it).  He had 22 children with 2 different wives – Phyllis Diller used to joke that his harpsichord bench made out into a bed.  His music, however, is what he is most renowned for.  His catalogue is enormous, containing over 1100 pieces of music (that’s what has survived – we know a lot of his music was lost after he died), from small pieces for harpsichord to huge choral works (The St. Matthew Passion is written for 2 orchestras and 2 choirs).  He is the god of organ music, however, and organists around the world defer to him and his music.  During the time period between 1723 and 1729, right after he moved to Leipzig, he wrote most of his cantatas – small performance works that usually consist of a choral piece, a few arias and a couple of chorales (hymns).  He wrote over 220 of these pieces, which were all written with orchestra.  His Magnificat, written in 1723 and revised 10 years later, is also universally revered as a masterwork.  Roughly 30 minutes in length, it has 12 movements that include pieces for chorus and soloists.  This week’s anthem is the 5th movement duet Et misericordia – “And mercy…”, sung by our own Jose and Tracy.

Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace is also commonly known as the Prayer of St. Francis.  However, it was almost certainly not written by St. Francis.  The true author is unknown and it was more probably written around the time of the outbreak of World War One.  It is also incorrectly called the Serenity Prayer of St. Francis.  The Serenity Prayer is, in fact, a different prayer from the 20th century written by Reinhold Neibuhr.  Sebastian Temple adapted the words in 1967 to create the hymn that we know now.

Matt Redman is an English Christian worship leader currently based in Brighton.  He has won 10 Dove Awards for everything from Worship Song of the Year 2005 (for Blessed Be Your Name) to Songwriter of the Year 2013.  His album 10,000 Reasons was released in 2012 and the title track went on to be #1 on the Billboard Christian Songs chart, where it remained for 13 weeks.  10,000 Reasons also won Grammy Awards in 2013 for Best Contemporary Christian Music Song and Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance.