The American Christmas Carol, Carnegie Hall, 8 pm, 12/5/13

Tim Janis presents: The American Christmas Carol 12/5/13

I went to this concert, because I am a Jackie Evancho fan.  I had no clue who Tim Janis was or what the other acts would be.  This was just an amazingly wonderful concert.  I loved every moment of it.

Here's the program:

It's also that Carnegie Hall gives such a wonderful program, included in the ticket price.  There were bios of all the soloists as well, but I'm not copying those here.  The only thing on the program that didn't happen was that Jackie didn't sing "O Mio Babbino," which was disappointing, but the lady beside me explained that she was the parent of one of the performers and they ran over by 20 minutes from their original schedule.  She felt they must have decided to cut one of Jackie's songs, because of the time issues.

It's so unusual for me to be so completely and totally enthusiastic about a concert.  Usually, I have problems with something that I like to talk to, but really I was just smiling the whole time with this one.  I never had to even touch my ear plugs.  The acoustics were beautiful.  

I loved all the soloists.  

Most of the artists here were young.  The only older performers were James & Jeanne Galway and Cindy Cruse Ratcliffe.  

The orchestra was a youth group from Bridgeport.  I am thinking they were teens or very young adults. There was a snag with them, I felt, though, because during Jackie's solos they were sometimes too loud and I couldn't hear her.  It seemed like the audio engineers weren't on top of this issue.  She was miked, so they could have bumped her up a bit.

The other vocalists had a more pop or folk type of singing.  The first two young women sang Irish style music. Devlin Stark was another 13 year old, who did a pop style number where she switched into speaking sometimes.  The flute choir that performed with Lady Jean Galway were pretty little kids.

The whole thing was classical/pop crossover.  Most of the performers were young artists, except for James Galway, his wife, and Cindy Cruse Ratcliffe.

Jackie seemed to do a very good job with this.  I feel her voice has chanced slightly from when she was smaller, but it was sometimes hard to hear, so I couldn't be quite sure.  It seems like her high notes are not as impressive as they were, and even her lower notes are not as full.  She isn't as bubbly on stage as she used to be, I guess typically for a thirteen year old.  Teens tend to be more self-conscious than children.  Still, she is an amazing performer, with a huge range, who made no errors and looked stunning.

I also like Jackie's taste in music, or maybe it's her mother's taste, because she says her mother chooses the songs, but she likes them.  That's important, after all, as there are plenty of very talented singers who sing music I can't stand at all.  

I really tend to focus this blog on Josh Groban, but sometimes he seems to be moving away from music that I can stand to listen to.  Certainly, the concert he participated in on December 7 included a lot of such music, as you will see from the previous blog.

I do like hearing young artists, but I am mindful of my concerns with respect to age discrimination and wondering a bit at myself, being so obsessed with child prodigies.

Anyway, I am very impressed with Tim Janis, who organized this concert and I am really sorry I didn't hear the one in November, which included Forte Tenors.