I love Idan Raichel

This past weekend we did a wedding at Central Synagogue. The bride & groom requested we do an Idan Raichel song Mi Ma'amakim, which means "from the depths." We arranged it for piano, string quartet, flute and we were honored to accompany Cantor Angela Buchdahl who has a voice like rich velvet. It's a gorgeous love song.

From the depths I called to you, come to me
With your return the light in my eyes will return
[It's] not finished, Your touch does not leave
May it come and give light what one hears in your laughter
From the depths I called to you, come to me
By a moon lighting your way back to me
Spread and melted with the touch of your hand
A questioner whispers in your ear

I love St. Bartholomew's Church

We were very fortunate to perform a gorgeous ceremony at St. Bartholmew's Church this past month. The music director there is William Trafka who is without a doubt one of the finest organist's in the world. It is an understatement to say we were thrilled to work with him.  http://www.stbarts.org/organ.asp

The organ itself is spectacular and for over ninety years St. Bartholomew’s Church has been an important factor in American church music with a large professional choir, active music program and one of the largest pipe organs to be found in an American church. Over several decades, the choir's repertoire grew to include many oratorios and other large works, and the organ was enlarged through successive rebuildings to become of an exceptional instrument for choral accompaniment, for the leading of congregational singing and for the performance of a broad spectrum of organ literature. The Organ comprises 168 stops, 225 ranks and 12,422 pipes throughout the church. You can easily take advantage of this amazing music each sunday for free.

In addition, we performed with Anthony Morgan's Inspirational Choir Of Harlem with a special guest appearance by Davell Crawford. http://davellcrawford.com/  Talk about raising the roof. They gave us goosebumps.

Pilley with William Trafka & The Rev. Lynn Sanders going over the processional

Pilley & Davell Crawford

It was a musical high for us on many levels merging all of these different elements for a truly personalized and emotional ceremony.

and more nigel hess!

Now 2 of my favorites, Nigel Hess with Joshua Bell. This is from Ladies in Lavender. We are performing this on Saturday and sooooo looking forward to playing it.

i love nigel hess

Continuing on my choral quest is this gorgeous composition by Nigel Hess. It's the Jubilate Deo for choir and organ. Since we don't always have a choir available, we have transcribed it for quartet and piano.

So amazing....