Most of Oddwalkia knows that Orin’s full time ministry is Coordinator of Music and Liturgy at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. Some of you now know, from a post a few days ago, that Orin also accompanies services at a Reform Jewish congregation in suburban St. Louis.
Fewer, but maybe some, of you know he is also one of the Assistant Directors of the St. Louis Chamber Chorus. The Artistic Director, Philip Barnes, is on a sabbatical year this season, and is leaving much of the responsibilities of the chorus to Orin and the other assistant, Mary Chapman.
Orin spent a lot of the last month studying music, rehearsing the chorus, and getting ready for the concert presented this past Sunday. The concert went very well, and the review yesterday hit the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Among other positive quotes is this one:
The prep was done by assistant conductor Orin Johnson, who . . . did a superb job, with only one month to prepare an intensely challenging program.
Woot! Really though, it was the singers themselves that did most of the heavy lifting, especially given the dense repertoire of this particular concert. Read the whole review here.