Easter comes early this year...

Can't believe we're already at the end of Holy Week! At least in the western church calendar. (Cousin Саша advises that Orthodox Easter doesn't come until April 27!) It won't be this early again for over 200 years.

Over Lent I led a religious education class at St Mary's on Crossan and Borg's "The Last Week." It was quite an interesting experience, though quite draining. Everyone enjoyed it immensely, which was gratifying.

My Mass on Renaissance Basses is complete! It was a lot of work, but it came out very well. You can hear midi files of each movement and follow along with the PDF's on my website.

I got hit pretty hard with the flu bug a couple of times. This last one kicked in within an hour or so of the last Camerata concert on March 9. I ended up flat in bed for a few days, and even had to miss a day of substituting. All better now, and raring to go.

This week has been extraorinarily busy, with Camerata rehearsal on Tuesday, Bethlehem Lutheran rehearsal on Wednesday, Maundy Thursday at St Mary's on Thursday, and the Tenebrae service for Good Friday at Bethlehem Lutheran last night. Tonight is the Great Vigil of Easter at St Mary's, and tomorrow the Easter Sunday service at Bethlehem! Whew...

I've hired a few high school and middle school musicians to swell the ranks for Easter. It is a wonderful experience for all involved, and the adult choir members have really benefited from the injection of youthful exuberance. It has been a sheer joy working with the kids. We are going to be singing the Gloria Patri from Monteverdi's "Beatus Vir" as a call to worship, so the two violins and extra voices will really help make the piece exciting. We are also having a couple of the younger kids play the tone chimes on our anthem (which is a contrafactum Easter text on the traditional "Tomorrow shall be my dancing day" tune). It warms the heart, I tell you!

My most recent PSA test was up a little bit, when it should have been down. The doctors are going to keep an eye on this. It's probably nothing, but we'll see. I had another blood test done yesterday in conjunction with my annual physical, so I'll get a second bite of the apple before the next regularly scheduled PSA in 3 months.