Virtual House Concert w/Natalie Joy and Joseph Choi

Natalie singing on my last pre-pandemic Faure Requiem concert

I had a lot of fun hosting another Panoramic Voices virtual concert, this one featuring two fabulous artists: soprano Natalie Joy and pianist Joseph Choi. In this live broadcast installment, we featured works performed during Natalie and Joey’s (pre-pandemic/in-person) PV house concert performance from January 17th, 2020. 

Unlike December’s Holiday Mixtape broadcast (which involved many hours of stitching together audio/video for a number of new virtual performances) and certainly unlike our upcoming new works concert (on which we’ll be premiering a 12- to 15-minute new work of mine… yikes!), this one was a relatively low-key/low-maintenence gig: my role being to conduct live interviews via Zoom (and broadcast onto YouTube). Beautiful featured works included those by Ricky Ian Gordon, Leslie Adams, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Charles Lloyd Jr., Margaret Bonds, Claude Debussy and more. 

It’s a bit too early to tell when full-on live Panoramic Voices performances will return, but — as fun and vital as this virtual performance proved to be — I’m quietly yearning for the time I can be with my PV peeps once more: in person, live, and not on a computer screen. As valuable as virtual performances have been throughout the pandemic, they can’t put a dent in the experience of the real deal. That, and I’m guessing I’m not the only one who is a bit burnt out on them.

This being the second virtual performance of the ten or so projects I pitched to the PV board, I find myself regretting the PV Board’s reluctance to go “big” with online concerts when I’d proposed doing so in the Spring of 2020. Virtual projects which would have included a virtual installment of our critically acclaimed Indie Orchestra Night (featuring Invoke String Quartet and a host of eager bands/artists champing at the bit to do it) a program of world-premiere works (a scaled-down version of which will be presented in another month), and other such projects for which PV has based its reputation in the Central Texas arts community. Alas, the board dialed back my big plans when it expressed its desire to step away from its primary fundraising role and put PV on hiatus in May 2020. 

Ah well… we shall simply pick things back up in the near future (hopefully), once everyone has been vaccinated. Fingers crossed…

Nevertheless, I remain thankful for getting to interface with the PV community and present these two brilliant artists. That, and to — hopefully — be close to the end of this stupid pandemic. 

If you’ve not encountered the unique talents of Natalie Joy and Joseph Choi, I heartily recommend that you correct this ASAP. And if you missed last night’s performance, I’ll link the YouTube page here.