As I listened to Jessica Graae’s elegant and powerful voice at the Methodist Country House on October 23, I wondered how she, like many artists in Delaware, manage to go through a full seven hours in the ‘day job’, rush home to dress up and race to rehearsal.Facing the audience in the Danby Chapel, Jessica beamed a hundred-watt smile which told the audience this was the moment of the day for which she lived – her art.
Her voice has a wide range and she soared through Handel and Mozart. She then switched to a selection of introspective poems set to music by Johannes Brahms, showing her ability to interpret in a totally different style.
A quick and vamping romp through Carousel selections had the audience humming. The man next to me, Joe Ferrare, was delighted with the versatility and the variety of selections.
Jessica then picked up her guitar and accompanied herself on some quiet Spanish love songs, leaving plaintive minor echoes in our heads as we set out in the dull, dark rain of an October night.
When not singing, giving voice lessons, or working her full-time office job, Jessica also writes for the Community News and for this blog, She is a soloist at Trinity Episcopal Church and will sing in the Schubert Mass in C, Opus 48 on Sunday, November 1 at 10:30 a.m. She will also sing Tiny Tim in A Gilbert and Sullivan Christmas Carol and Dell in Gift of the Magi at Unitarian Universalist Church in Media PA on December 4,5, 6 and at the Arden Gild Hall on December 18 and 19.
No comments:
Post a Comment