Events

Hailstorm in October

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The weather’s been really odd in Romania this past week or so. After meteorologists announced a long, warm autumn, the weather turned unseasonably cold — terribly cold — for October. It snowed up to 10 cm or more some places, and where I live, we had hail the size of small pebbles — in October, mind you! I for one have never seen this kind of strange weather this early in the year, not even when I lived in Vermont (NE US) during my college years. For comparison purposes, the first snowfall I saw in the Washington, DC area last year (in 2008) was on November 22.

I recorded a short video clip of the hailstorm as it fell last week, and also took some photos. Thank goodness the hail was soft, because it would have damaged cars and crops otherwise.


Hailstorm, Medias, Romania — see it on YouTube

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Events

Brasov Opera Orchestra concert at Sighisoara

We attended a wonderful concert last night, given by the Brasov Opera Orchestra in Sighisoara (Schassburg), at Casa de Cultura Mihai Eminescu, an old venue at the foot of the Sighisoara Castle. Sighisoara is a medieval city in the province of Transilvania, Romania.

There were two soloists: Cristian Braica, a wonderful Romanian contrabassist now based in Frankfurt, and Felicia Filip, a famous Romanian soprano of international renown. As the Opera Director aptly put it, the concert was an early Christmas celebration. The pieces were fantastic — classical hits imbued with solid rhythm, practiced to perfection. We were strongly impressed with the quality of the performance. In my opinion, this is a world class orchestra.

I recorded highlights of the 1 ½ hour concert with my N95 and uploaded the edited video clips (in two parts) to my SmugMug video log. They’re also available on YouTube in twoparts, and on blip.tv. Enjoy.

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Lists

Condensed Knowledge – October 18, 2009

This is a summary of articles I read and found interesting during this past week. The list is shared from among my feed subscriptions. I only share a certain number of articles in each of these posts, so if you'd like to see more, visit my full Google Shared Items list.

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Events

Schaffhausen Music School’s Youth Choir at Margarethenkirche, Medias

On October 11, the Youth Choir from the Canto department of the Schaffhausen Music School, Switzerland, gave a concert at Margarethenkirche (Church of St. Margaret) in Medias, the same church where organ concerts were held this summer. Medias is a medieval city in the province of Transilvania, Romania.

The choir sang a wide selection of classical, traditional and modern pieces. Some interpretations even included coreography. Here are some of the titles: “L’amur es ĂĽna dĂĽra chassa”, “Stets i Truue”, “Mir Senne heis luschtig, “Schau auf die Welt”, “Leise zieht durch mein GemĂĽt” and more. I have to admit the experience was more entertaining than the organ concerts, and perhaps some of the more lively pieces had something to do with it.

You can watch the video on Vimeo and YouTube.

My wife thought the conductor was very good. His name was Hans-Jörg Ganz. The other instructors were Marei Bollinger (Co-Leader), Mirjam Berli (Rehearsals) and Remo Weishaupt (Voice Instruction). Claudia Hold played the piano.

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Places

Morning boat ride through Venice



venezia-115, originally uploaded by Raoul Pop.

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