Penninsula Musical Arts Association

We like to bill ourselves as the Singing Realtors because we are members of the Foster City Community Chorus.
Our holiday concerts are this weekend at Transfiguration Church in San Mateo.  This will be an especially beautiful concert as our conductor and musican director, Paul Hurst, is one of the top harpists in the world.   Paul will not only conduct us, but will also accompany us with his harp and believe me, this is a magical experience.  The theme of the concert is Home For The Holidays and it’s filled with many familuar tunes and concludes with the Hallijula Chorus from Handel’s Massiah.

Do come and listen to us as we sing holiday songs that are sure to put you into a wonderful holiday mood.
Singing  with the Foster City Community Chorus will be Heart & Soul, a small chorale of voices from the larger group. Both groups will be accompanied by a  small orchestra playing music arranged by Paul Hurst.  At the conclusion of the concert, Santa arrives for the children in attendance giving them a little surprise.

Tickets are availbe by calling 650-513-5522 or by emailing boxoffice@peninsulamusicalarts.org and they are $15 each.  The program begins at 3 PM.  Here’s a map showing where Transfiguration Church is on Alameda de las Pulgas. Peninsula Musical Arts, the parent organization of both The Foster City
Community Chorus and Heart & Soul is a non-profit organization with members from up and down the peninsula.

Put this down on the calendar as a Must Do.  We are very fortunate to have a conductor of such
callibre and we want to share this joyful experience with you!

As we entered the dining room,  we saw four large round tables already set to accommodate large parties of 8.  Two of the tables were already full with diners from our chorus, so we sat down at an empty table, only to be told by the server to move as the table was reserved for large parties.  We did move but shortly after, several others came in and we went back to our original table enabling the table to reach “the magic 8 number”.

Chevy’s was once a great place to eat.  Fresh food.  Creative menus. Friendly atmosphere.  Lovely views of the waterways of Foster City.  But they have been sold off so many times, we don’t have a clue who owns them now, and it is evident that the mantra “the customer is always right” hasn’t quite dribbled down to the waite staff. They aren’t interested in providing good service, or care.

We waited and waited for someone to come and take drink orders.  So, Alex went to the bar and when he came back the server had finally come to take drink orders and this was after waiting over 15 minutes.  It was downhill from there.  The food was just okay.  Nothing special in flavor or creativity.  Portions have been downsized by at least 20% from the old days, and the quality of meat is no longer very good and the food isn’t really enticing to the diner.

Plus to top it off — the manager was not helpful either.  He was also rude and couldn’t care about our asking for separate checks.  Therefore dear reader, my recommendation is DO NOT GO TO CHEVY’s. The food and service are terrible. The attitude of the staff is bad and there are many other places in and around Foster City to give your hard earned money, where you will leave you satisfied and appreciated.

PMAA, the Peninsula Musical Arts Association, is made of of about 70 singers mostly from our surrounding towns and cities although a few travel quite a distance.  We perform twice a year, winter (the first weekend of December) and spring (the first weekend of May) singing a large variety of music.

Our group performed in Carnegie Hall three years ago and the picture shows us on that very famous stage.  The memory and experience we shared while  standing on the stage in New York City while looking out at a full house, and knowing that there were so many famous people who had been there before us was and is impossible to recount. Our chorus was selected to perform the Pre-Concert and then we were a part of a much larger group of singers from around the country.  This was an intense four day rehearsal and performance schedule worth every ounce of effort.

I also sing with a small chorale, Heart & Soul, a subset of PMAA.  We’re 18 singers, a small audition only group out of the Community Chorus.  We’re the travelers — pay us and we go.  We’re good, too.  We, too, perform twice a year, winter and spring, along with the Foster City Community Chorus.

Our area has a number of choral groups that also perform regularly.  We’re really fortunate to have so much to enrich our lives musically.  Each group performs multiple times during the year. It’s worth your time and effort to support the wonderful musical groups around San Mateo.