Winter Music

Happy Holidays!  It is FREEZING outside!  In Idaho, winter is a great time for candle-lit weddings and company Christmas parties, but this bitter cold weather has made us grateful that we have indoor jobs.  To those of you who brave the elements every day: thank you for your hard (cold!) work!

For Prism, November came with several quartet opportunities.  First of all, Dave had the pleasure of accepting a new daughter-in-law into the family.  His son got married at the Cloverdale Church of God, and we got to perform prelude music while guests arrived and then played a few songs during the ceremony.  The bride walked in to Diane's great arrangement of the Enya song, Orinoco Flow, and the bride and groom exited to Happy Together by The Turtles (also arranged by Diane).  Afterward, Dave went to join the festivities.  It was very special to be a part of his family's big day.

We also got to play the prelude and ceremony for a wedding at the Stueckle Sky Center during the week of Thanksgiving.  From that huge room, we could look out over the whole Treasure Valley!  We just had to make sure that April, who is afraid of heights, had her chair pointed away from the windows.  :)  For this wedding, during the ceremony the bride and groom wanted us to accompany their beloved grandmother playing The Butterfly Waltz and Pachelbel's Canon, but Grandma wanted to be able to watch the ceremony.  So, they recorded Grandma for us, and Diane wrote parts for our quartet to accompany Grandma's solo part.  During the wedding, we collaborated with the sound engineer.  He played the recording of Grandma, and we played our accompaniment live.  It worked out well, and Grandma got to enjoy the ceremony while the bride and groom got to hear her play.

Prism had another fun opportunity to play during November.  The Idaho Association of Highway Districts had their annual convention and a culminating dinner.  We played at this event a couple of years ago, and they asked us back to play again!  We provided fun, lively music for their catered dinner.  We got the most compliments on the song Ashokan Farewell, a song in which Nell plays an exquisite solo part.  You'll recognize this song if you've watched the Ken Burns documentary series on the Civil War.  We are working on getting some video and audio clips of our performance from Nell's husband; hopefully we can have some clips up here for you soon.

As for December, we have two gigs scheduled for this week alone, so expect an update soon!  May the music be with you!