Re: Sherill Milnes/Kalmanoff's "The Joy of Prayer"

[IKochinska <IKochinska...>]

I actually sang in the choir with Sherrill Milnes for "The Joy of Prayer" in 
Washington, DC - it's funny to see this discussed.  For what it's worth, the 
choir I briefly sopranoed with was the Oratorio Society of Washington, one of 
several excellent symphonic choirs in DC - in my opinion, the best .. The 
conductor, Robert Shafer is, I think, a fairly religious Catholic, and a very 
spiritual person, besides being a superb musician.  Sherrill Milnes, on the 
other hand, was not very interested in chatting with a little starstruck 
opera fan.  (Sniff!)  He also never seemed very interested in the gig, which 
made it all the stranger for us, the choir, when we got wind of what his fee 
was.

On Michl's chat with Kalmanoff - I met Kalmanoff several years ago and did 
some songs of his in recital - quite nice settings of Emily Dickinson and 
Millay.  He's also written at least one opera that was done in New York by 
the Contemporary Opera .. (forget exact name of the co.)  I'm thrilled to 
hear he's still around - I'll have to get back in touch.  He must be quite 
elderly by now.  I imagine his phone number is in the NY phone book (at least 
I hope so).

Ilana