This a cappella anthem — which begins at 40.00 in the video below — is one of my favourite Anglican anthems. And because it’s a cappella, for it to be performed correctly, it takes the finest choristers with precise pitch, blending ability, and timing, relying on choristers to hold the beat and create the full musical texture, as The Trinity Choir can do.

The Choir of Trinity College Chapel (part of the established Church of England) performed this anthem effortlessly, including the soprano section’s sustained High B Flat near the end of the piece. This anthem is for Double Chorus where one Chorus — on the Epistle or Gospel side of the Chapel — answers the other. And if you look closely, you’ll see Steven (Trinity’s Director of Music) pointing at one side of the Choir and then the other side for their entrances.

Also Steven took the piece at a nice brisk pace which also allowed the choristers to carry phrases over that are usually not carried over by other choral ensembles. This performance is one of the finest I’ve heard, if not the finest.

It was performed for Choral Evensong during the Fall term (November 2025).

There seems to be no (or very few) standards these days here in the Century of Insanity.

A reader wrote me giving me an informative update about the music at both Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and at Washington National Cathedral (WNC) in the District of Columbia. I haven’t watched the Liturgies at either church in years; I’ve been over in the established Church of England especially at Oxbridge. I appreciated him writing me.

Saint Thomas still describes itself as Anglo-Catholic (High Church), but some of the parishoners seem to be in the wrong church or don’t seem to have a clue what that means, and judging by the Organ Voluntary on a Liturgy described as “Solemn Eucharist,” neither does the Organist (Nicholas). He has been there since the days when I watched their Liturgies. I remember describing his hymn playing as “Dry as Dust.”

For this Mass or Solemn Eucharist, the Choir of Men and Boys were not there. The trebles/boys are on holiday break. Instead, it was the Saint Thomas Consort (Men and Women). I heard some hints of (annoying) vibrato in the sopranos in their upper register. I recognised one or two choristers who used to be in the Choir of Trinity Wall Street. Maybe Saint Thomas pays better.

I scanned through the Liturgy. The final processional hymn was “Joy to the World.” Then Nicholas launched into the Organ Voluntary which was — are you ready for this?; I wasn’t — Sleigh Ride. Sleigh Ride in an Anglican Liturgy? WTF? Nicholas felt that Sleight Ride was appropriate for a Solemn Eucharist? Insanity. The Organ Voluntary is part of the Liturgy, people. That’s why some churches ask, “Please, no applause after the voluntary.” Are there no longer any standards here in the Century of Insanity? Sleigh Ride is a secular piece. So they’re now mixing genres (sacred and secular) at Saint Thomas Church apparently. I wouldn’t have expected Sleigh Ride in or part of a High Church Anglican Liturgy. I would have expected something like a Toccata, for example, on one of the Christmas Carols, since it was still Christmas.

One wonders: Was the “Communion Anthem:” Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Well at this point, I wouldn’t put it past them.

This mixing of genres (sacred and secular) is what I had come to expect to hear at Washington National Cathedral, where the music is a mess and there seem to be no standards and one would hear anything there. Well, it seems that Saint Thomas has chosen to go down the same lowest common denominator path.

When Nicholas started playing Sleigh Ride, I was immediately reminded of: Christmas at Pops with the Boston Pops Orchestra. That’s because the organ rendition started out the same way as the orchestral version begins. I can hear the announcer now: “From Symphony Hall in Boston, it’s a performance by the Boston Pops Orchestra, and assisting tonight the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, John Oliver, Chorus Director.”

Upon reflection, when Saint Thomas installed their new pipe organ awhile back, maybe they should have installed a theatre organ instead, to be more authentic for pieces like Sleigh Ride. (roll eyes/sigh).

Glad to see that the Washington National Opera has decided to leave the John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts because of 1) the dictator slapping his name on the building in front of Kennedy’s name, 2) the Center’s takeover by the 34-count convicted felon, adjudicated sexual assaulter pervert and now US dictator in the white house.

The Kennedy Memorial Center is a memorial building to the late President Kennedy. The dictator/nut in the white house seems to think that he’s dead too in order to have his name on the building. A memorial comes after a person is dead. Doh.

When shall we expect the Kennedy Center’s resident National Symphony Orchestra to announce that they’re leaving the Kennedy Memorial Center’s Concert Hall?…and move back to Constitution Hall where they performed before the Kennedy Memorial Center opened?

Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major, Op. 103, “Egyptian”

Repost.

Well I guess I’m supposed to start out by saying, “Best Performance Ever” and “Best Pianist Ever” and “Best Piano Concerto Ever” or some other “Best” rubbish like many people write in YT comments, including the know-it-all classical music armchair critics who gush under classical music YT videos.  And they expect everyone to agree with them.

I never say any of that “Best” rubbish because 1) I’ve not heard all performances of this concerto throughout history or currently — recorded or not — to make such a ludicrous judgment.

As for “Best Pianist Ever,” I don’t say that either since, again, I’ve not heard all pianists “ever” — recorded or not — to make that insane judgment either.

For example, most people have never heard the outstanding piano professor I studied with at the Conservatory because she was not into performing much or recording and went into academia for teaching.  She only gave one Faculty Recital at the Conservatory when I was there.  I think in her latter years she’s performed a bit more, but I really think she preferred teaching to performing.  She could have been a renowned concert artist, but chose not to.  She was all the talk on campus when I was there.  Everything was about Dr. O. And other piano majors — who studied with other piano professors — seemed envious of those of us who were fortunate to study with her.

As for, “Best Piano Concerto Ever,” well I wouldn’t say that either since I’d have trouble coming up with a “Best” concerto considering I like many piano concerti.

And I’ve never understood this extreme “best ever” nonsense that many classical music armchair critics feel the need to write.

But there’s usually no shortage of “Best Performance ever, hands down” (and they always have to say “hands down”) in trite YT comments from the classical music armchair critics who seem to think they are absolute authorities on all matters of classical music, even when they slip up and reveal themselves otherwise.

Have any of these armchair critics ever studied music, or piano to say the things they say?

As for this performance, Bertrand gave a superb performance of this concerto.  He’s a pleasure to watch and I don’t often say that about most pianists, especially some of the circuit pianists of today who are all about theatrics.  I was trained the same way Bertrand was.  He “makes it look easy” despite this concerto’s difficulty, which is how the finest pianists are trained.  He plays without needless theatrics, no gazing at the ceiling with limpid eyes or quivering lips and all that nonsense, no insane Dracula facial expressions (like that circuit pianist whose initials are DT), and at the end Bertrand didn’t have sweat pouring off of him — his face and hair were completely dry at the end of the performance — unlike some of the bouncing around, theatrics-driven pianist who refuse to let the music speak for itself and feel they have to put on some “acrobatic” show on the piano bench for the shallow people in the audience who are easily impressed by such antics.  All of which takes up energy that could better be spent on the piece itself.

As a brief aside:  My choral friend asked me if I ever write comments on performances under YT videos?  No, not any more, and that’s, in part, why I started this site.  I used to comment on occasion, but no matter how I wrote my comment including no matter how politely, if I wrote mild criticism of anything about the performance, my comment was very resented by the self-appointed “authority” commenters.  They wanted lockstep agreement with them and that seemed to be utmost important to them.  This was especially the case if I was critical of the screaming vocal soloist(s) with their wobbling vibrato whose obnoxious voice could be heard in the next city over, although I didn’t say that in my comment.  I found that the majority of commenters resented a trained musician who commented.  Strange.  My friend asked:  “Because you showed them up to be amateurs at best?”  Perhaps, I don’t know what their problem was.  He asked me, “Did you tell them you were a Conservatory-trained musician?”  I didn’t, until they started trolling me and even then I did it in a way which shouldn’t have generated the hate I got.  At some point I would say, “At the Conservatory where I trained, we were taught…”  He said:  Well nothing wrong with that.  I think they didn’t like a trained musician invading what they considered to be their territory, as if they felt threatened by knowledge or education.

This Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major, Op. 103, “Egyptian” by Saint-Saëns is a workout for both the pianist and the orchestra.

For this performance, both Bertrand and the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse traveled from the EU where they live to Buenos Aires in 2017.  Not a cheap trip since the Orchestre is large.  Again, the Orchestre also played superbly and I noticed how intently the musicians were watching their scores and following the pianist closely (sometimes it can be the other way around where the pianist has to follow the orchestra), which made me wonder whether Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse was sight-reading, especially in the final movement.  It wouldn’t be surprising if they were sight-reading and at this level of artistry with excellent sight-readers they could be sight-reading and make it sound like they’ve been working on this concerto for months.

But I asked whether they were sight-reading because concertos don’t usually get that much rehearsal time.  You would think they would run through it all the way, but that’s usually not the case.  Or they only “go through” a movement or two.  In another performance awhile back, I saw a violist sitting right next to the piano looking surprised at something the pianist did regarding the volume level (per the score) in the performance which told me that they had not rehearsed that movement or that section because otherwise the violist would have already heard that part in rehearsal, but it was clear to me from his shocked-looking facial expression that this was not the case.

So in this performance, if they didn’t rehearse the piece with the pianist or have much time with him, you’d never know it by the superb way they played.

I’ll assume Bertrand had the pleasure of playing a Hamburg Steinway & Sons Model D piano as used in the EU (as opposed to a New York Steinway).  It sounded like a Hamburg with its thunderous bass especially in the final movement.

“The boy can really play!” and he played all that from memory.  That’s quite a feat without any memory problems.  He also has excellent endurance.  The same cannot be said about all pianists.  I saw one pianist perform the Prokofiev Third, and rather than get right up from the piano bench as Bertrand did in this performance, she sat there on the bench and had to use the music rack area of the piano to pull herself up — in order to get up — to go shake the hand of the conductor.  She seemed exhausted.  Marta Argerich usually wastes no time getting up from the piano bench after her performances.  She seems to have excellent endurance as well.

Bertrand’s management agent — the distinguished and highly regarded HarrisonParrott Group (London), which represents the finest artists — should be very pleased with him and his glowing reviews from orchestral management and others in Buenos Aires.

This was the Choral Evensong for Trinity Sunday at New College, Oxford. I meant to post this after Trinity Sunday 2025, but forgot.

The canticle setting for this Evensong was the St Paul’s Service by Herbert Howells, which he wrote for the Cathedral Choir and acoustics of St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in London.

The Howells begins at 18.00 (Magnificat) and 26.10 (Nunc Dimittis). To get a bit technical here, having sung the St Paul’s Service in a Cathedral setting, Howells’s long phrases require a lot of breath control and staggered breathing.

The anthem — which I particularly enjoyed — was Elgar’s “Sing Unto the Lord” which you can see/hear performed at 40.00 in the video below.

The Choir and Organist of New College Chapel (University of Oxford, UK) are excellent and part of the established Church of England.

By the way, King Charles — the Supreme Governor of the Church of England — finally got around to appointing a new Archbishop of Canterbury (the spiritual head of the Anglican Church). From AI:

“The new Archbishop of Canterbury is Dame Sarah Mullally, the 106th, marking the first time a woman holds this historic role for the Church of England, with her installation scheduled for March 25, 2026, after being appointed by King Charles III in October 2025 and succeeding Justin Welby. A former NHS chief nurse and the first female Bishop of London, Mullally’s appointment has been met with both praise and criticism, particularly from conservative wings of the Anglican Communion.”

That’s what yesterday was in the Liturgical Calendar. Today, 5 January 2026, is the Twelfth day of Christmas. And anyone who happened to go to an Anglican/Episcopal, Catholic or Lutheran parish or Cathedral Church yesterday saw at the top of the service leaflet: The Second Sunday of Christmas.

Most Protestants have no idea what that means, what that’s referring to, since, in their mind Christmas is over. These are some of the same people who sing or know the carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” But there’s this disconnect with them. They don’t make a connection between the Twelve Days and when they begin and when they end.

My choral friend years ago told me that he had a visitor and he took his visitor to the Anglican Cathedral where he was at the time. His visitor came from a Baptist background but was no longer religious. So they walked into the Cathedral and he knelt to pray as Anglicans do. His visitor remained seated on the pew. When he sat back on the pew after praying, his friend asked him, “What does it mean by the Second Sunday of Christmas? I thought Christmas was over.” He explained to her that there are two Sundays in the Twelve Days of Christmas and he reminded her of the carol about the Twelve Days. Things began to click for her. She asked, “Do you get a gift every day of the Twelve Days like in the carol?” He said: If someone gives you a gift each day, you do. Then she asked, “So last Sunday was the First Sunday of Christmas?” He said: Exactly. It was as if she were having this revelation: She said: Well this all makes a lot of sense now. I never connected that carol about the Twelve Days to anything. So the first day is the 25th of December and Day Twelve is through the night of the 5th of January? Yes, my choral friend said.

She said: In our household Christmas was over at New Years — if not before but that’s when our tree came down — which really doesn’t make much sense now after you’ve explained this.

She said, “You Anglicans make a lot of sense. He said: Well, it’s not just Anglicans. It’s also Catholics and Lutherans who follow the Liturgical Year Calendar, but I know that most Protestants do not, with the occasional exception to that.

And my choral friend, like myself, does not consider Anglicans to be Protestants, especially the High Church. Also here. Instead, Anglicans are in this grey area similar to the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who do not consider themselves to be Protestant either.

As for most Protestants not following or knowing anything about the Liturgical Year Calendar, one exception was the Southern Baptist church “in town” that I played for on occasion during my years in High School. They didn’t even act like the Southern Baptists I knew or had experience with. I asked my dad about them and he said, “Well yes, they are part of the Southern Baptist Convention.” I never would have guessed that about them. They followed the Liturgical Calendar at the insistence of their superb Organist, I think. They had an excellent music programme and I think that came from her. But I knew of no other Southern Baptist Church in the area who followed the Liturgical Year Calendar. Unfortunately, a relative of mine — a Southern Baptist — said about that church, “they’re weird there” because they did observe the Liturgical Year. He had gone there for awhile, but then left and started going to this rural/hick church.

These maga fascists/nazis are the scum of the Earth. The dictator in the white house with his enormous ego thinks he rules/runs the world.

Can you imagine the maga outrage if another sovereign country’s despot “leader” decided to launch a major terrorist attack on the US and go to the white house and kidnap the despot dictator sitting in the oval office for regime change and to also steal some of the US’s natural resources like the US and its dictator have done in Venezuela, and elsewhere in the past?

There would be massive maga outrage to their cult leader in the white house being kidnapped and subjected to the judicial system of another country. Especially after the dictator in the other country campaigned against international interventions and wars, and for the last year has been obsessed with being given a peace prize.

But that is what has happened with the oval office dictator launching a major terrorist attack on the sovereign nation of Venezuela and kidnapping their president Nicolás Maduro and his esposa and son. This was all done without any congressional approval, making the US congress a ceremonial branch of government, a role which they seem to willingly accept. There’s been some outrage over this violation of international law from some Democrats, but I’ve seen or heard none from the Republican maga cult in congress. They’re in lockstep with their maga dictator.

And unfortunately, the maga cultist trash in the US have done a major flip (a 180) and now say that the “no international interventions” is of the past and they — as the dictator’s brain-dead cultists — support their cult leader’s terrorist attack on Venezuela and anywhere else he plans to go. Such as Cuba, México and Colombia. To be followed by Greenland? What about Canada to make them the 51st state?

And why Cuba, México and Colombia? Those countries come from the mind of the Latino (Marco Rubio, that boy has major issues) who hates other Latinos/Hispanos. He’s named those countries to be next, from the credible source I read.

Of course the ignorant among us refer to Venezuela as a “third world country” which is very outdated and archaic rhetoric. The reality is that there is only one world that we all live on, so there is no such thing as some outdated cold war rhetoric of a “third world country.” I take it that the conservatives who use that rhetoric have never been to Venezuela or seen the City of Caracas. It’s a major and very beautiful City, or at least it was until the US dictator launched his terrorist attack on the City. They also have a beautiful Metro in Caracas, assuming it has not been bombed by the barbaric trash, the “Christian” frauds in the white house.

But if the situation were reversed and Maduro was intent on “taking out” the dictator in the white house, the maga trash would be livid about that. But since it’s their god taking out Maduro, they’re salivating and jumping up and down like loons in celebration over that. Their hypocrisy is noted.

As for what the average person/opposition can do about this? Nothing. The reality is that we’re way beyond feel-good protests with this regime of maga fascists scum in office.

Ultimately, protests are like a feel-good therapy session for like-minded people. But in the end, they do nothing — as least in the US — as far as stopping or ending what one is protesting against.

I know from experience. I spent years in the streets protesting previous white house regimes. Did our protests stop or change anything? No. Nada. It gave me some exercise with like-minded people, but in the end? Nothing changed. The US terrorist attacks on other nations continued on as planned.

Someone might say, “But you can contact your member of congress.” That too is as outdated thinking as street protests. Yes you can call your Representative or Senator if you enjoy wasting your time. But the reality is that the dictator and his lawless, barbaric regime don’t give a fuck what the members of the House and Senate say, unless they are his maga cultists. So why bother?

I thought I’d pass this on:

In Deutschland, Roderich Kiesewetter, a prominent member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, called the US attack a “coup.”

He also said (I’m parapharasing): With the 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual assaulter/pervert and now dictator in the white house, the US are abandoning the rules-based order that has shaped us since 1945. The coup in Venezuela marks a return to the old US doctrine from before 1940: a mindset of thinking in terms of spheres of influence, where the law of force rules, not international law. Yes, the dictator calls the 1940s,”the Golden Age” that he’s taking the US back to. That’s the era he lives in where it’s all about force and not laws. This lawless dictator doesn’t give a fuck about laws. Roderich Kiesewwetter said about the US dictator, “He is destroying what was left of any trust in the US.”

As of this writing, I’ve seen nothing but mealy-mouthed responses from the EU about respecting international laws. Well that’s a given to rational people, but these trash in office are not rational. Those in the EU clearly remain terrified of this bully and continue to eat his ass, having never learned how to deal with bullies or dictators. Pathetic really.

So someone is likely thinking or would like to say to me: “So you’re saying there’s nothing we can do? So we should just give up?” Well there really isn’t anything that one can do at this point. It’s time that people realise that we are indeed living in a different time and era of complete lawlessness. There are things that individuals or groups could do, but nobody is going to do them because of the consequences. There are things that the congress or the corrupt maga trash on the supreme court could do, but they’re not going to do the things I have in mind either. And even if they did, the dictator would likely ignore them. So, it is what it is, people.

Someone will scream, “But what about the midterms?” What midterms? I haven’t thought that there will be midterms since this goldfish mouth and accordion hands took office. Even if there are something called “midterms” why would anyone think that they will be legitimate? He’s already done much anti-election stuff by executive orders. And with these countries that he supposedly plans to launch a terrorist attack on as a rogue nation, the “midterms” can be cancelled in the name of “We’re at war.”

Related:

How this has played out among MAGA supporters is complicated to unpack
and
‘No one really sure how this pans out’ as Maduro set to appear in court

Yes, when you know nothing about music, pretend you do by writing the word “sublime.”

I was watching a performance of a symphonic choral work from Deutschland and based on the ignorant comments below the video, nearly all the comments were written by religious nuts/fundamentalist so-called “Christians.” They thought that the performance of the Mass being performed by this Orchestra and Chorus was a religious event. Wrong. Of course it was not despite it being held in a church. The church was merely the venue. There was no Liturgy, no incense, no prayers, no Homily, no acolytes, there was nothing at all religious except for the text of the Mass. So why did these nuts think it was a religious event?

A lot of stupid people think — and thought in the case of this Mass in Deutschland — that the event was religious, so they wrote, “Glory be to God” and other type responses with some idiots quoting the text of the Mass setting itself. Loco.

But the number one comment that most people wrote about the performance itself was — using copy and paste — was the perfunctory and overused/repetitive word, “Sublime.” All the way down the page, people wrote “sublime.”

As my choral friend said as I was proofing this, “just like in chat rooms the herd is writing “Happy New Year” all the way down the page. Thousands of people all saying the same thing. Copy and paste. Yes, that will go on for days.

As I told my choral friend about this performance in Deutschland, when you know nothing about music, write “sublime.”

I was a chorister in many performances of sacred works given in secular and sacred settings. None of the performances were religious. The Chorus did not have a prayer before going on stage because it was not a religious event despite the text of the work we were about to perform. Some examples:

Before The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center was built on the University of Maryland campus, the superb 150-voice University of Maryland Chorus always gave their performances on campus in the University Chapel, when they were not performing with the National Symphony Orchestra in the Kennedy Center. Their/Our performances were secular in the chapel. And the audience applauded at the end, in part, because it was a secular event and the audience had the intelligence to know that.

When I was at the Conservatory, our choral ensembles gave their performances at one of the local churches. That too was a secular performance in a church with applause.

When Anglican Cathedral Choirs give a performance in their cathedral, those too are secular performances with applause and the choristers do not wear their white surplice over the cassock that is worn for a liturgical setting, because a performance is not a liturgy, but rather a concert in the cathedral. The choristers only wear the blue, purple or red cassock for the performance. The same is true in Anglican parishes for a performance. Only the cassock is worn.

When I performed in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall and in Davies Symphony Hall, many of the pieces we performed had sacred text, but we in the San Francisco Symphony Chorus didn’t think of the text as religious, per se. In fact, I didn’t give the text much or any thought at all other than to focus on the diction, the perfect formation of vowel sounds and the spitting of consonants. It was a secular performance in Davies Symphony Hall. Before we went on stage, there was no prayers and no one said, “Glory to God” and other nonsense.

But these fundamentalist religious nuts do often show up on video performances such as this. They also show up on videos of Anglican Choral Evensong and start proselytising on there. Even though Anglican Choral Evensong is a Liturgy, I see it as a performance by the stellar Chapel Choirs and Organ Scholars (I’m thinking of Oxbridge), because I’m not religious. I’m an Anglican atheist. I like the poetry, the Creeds, the incense, and ceremonial theatre of the Liturgy (especially the High Church), but I don’t believe all the floating god stuff, and I don’t think that many do if they were honest about it.

But as for the copy and paste of the word “sublime,” umpteen times down the page, people: please learn a new word. “Sublime” has become quite old and predictable.

Years ago, I was standing outside a food store in San Francisco and one of the chefs from the store walked out the front door. Someone who knew her said to her: “Happy New Year [woman’s name].” The employee responded: Happy New Year? What drugs are you on?

I laughed to myself since I’d never heard someone respond to that greeting so frankly and honestly, and it still applies today….considering the lawlessness and insanity coming out of the white house from that man-child nut and his cultists around him. I think most people are now beyond tired of him. That “show” (also known as the chaos regime) has become so old and needs to be cancelled.

Updated.

The lawless 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual assaulter pervert and now dictator has graffiti-ed the Kennedy Center with his name. Someone wrote on another site, “Since he wants his name on there so bad, it’s time to remind him why it’s called a “memorial” and what it takes to get one…” Yes, what it takes to get one is that the person has to die.

One of my neighbours reads this site and said he appreciated all I’ve written about the Kennedy Memorial Center lately. He’s also originally from the District.

He told me that everyone is leaving out the word Memorial when they give the (supposed) full name of the Center. He said, “They write (or say): The John F Kennedy Center For the Performing Arts.” Yes, that’s true. It would be a full-time job going around correcting everyone who is leaving out the word Memorial from the name.

And as he said — and as I wrote previously — the word Memorial gives a very different name and meaning to the Center. It’s a Center in memory of a dead president (President John F Kennedy). And now it’s a Center in memory of two dead people, but the person who is still alive is the 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual assaulter pervert and now dictator and his cultists are too damn dense to realise that. Having his name on the Memorial Center implies he/the dictator is already dead. Doh. What stupid people these maga trash are.

Yes, I read an article today about the Kennedy Center and their writer also omitted the word Memorial from the correct name.

My neighbour says it’s all over the Kennedy Center, at least until the maga cultists and the maga trash in the white house have anything to do with it.

Maybe one day the Kennedy Center will be restored to the original John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

I’m just glad I got to perform there for approximately three seasons when it was the John F Kennedy Memorial Center For the Performing Arts, as it was intended to be.

He asked me: Do you think the National Symphony Orchestra will ever move out of the Concert Hall or the Washington National Opera move out of the Opera House? Maybe at some point it will click for them that’s what they need to do and that they can do much better in another venue, as they keep losing money with empty seats. He suggested that the WNO could also move to The Clarice at the University of Maryland. I had thought the same. Or the Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland. The National Philharmonic & its Symphony Chorus are based there, but according to their 2025-26 season, the NP only have a total of two performances beginning in January 2026, and none with the Symphony Chorus. Is the Chorus having to do their own thing like the other Choruses in the DMV (District, Maryland and Virginia)? One of the four performances is non-orchestral. It’s a solo piano performance. So since the National Philharmonic don’t seem to be performing or using the performance space, I should think they would welcome the NSO and or the WNO. BTW, is the National Philharmonic dying?

To my neighbour, thanks for your in-person comments and nice talking with you.