It's been a while

Hoo whee. I just noticed that it has been over a year since I last posted to this blog. It's not that I haven't had anything to blog about, quite the contrary. Just too busy and distracted to actually sit down and do it.

So, since last January, some stuff has been going on. First, we moved. To the UK. Again. Magnus was headhunted for a job with Urenco, a company that enriches and sells uranium. This time we are outside, but fairly close to London, in Buckinghamshire. We've been here for about 6 months now (since early August) and things are settling in. It's a beautiful area, quiet with lots of nature around. We have an orchard in our back yard: 5 apple trees, 1 each of plum, pear and cherry trees and blackberries too. We are close enough to London to take day trips, but we haven't done many. Weekends have been spent settling into the house.

The Boy is enjoying school, especially since he got a place at the local school, St Paul's Church of England Combined School in Wooburn Green. He went to a school in High Wycombe (Beechview), which is a 15 minute drive from home, because there were no spots available at closer schools. Long story. He is participating in a lot of activities: Fencing, Tech Club, Cub Scouts, Film Club, and Karate. He has made several friends and is doing well academically.

On the poetry scene - I had 3 reviews of collections in issue no. 40.2 of Star*Line: Jackalope Girl Learns to Speak, Field Guide to the End of the World, and An Assortment of Sky Things. They are in Alphabetical order on the linked page.
I also had another poem published in Star*Line 40.3 "Rocket Fuel".
And The Boy had a poem published in Star*Line 40.4 as well:

The Big Bang
where our imaginations began
and the fluid of time
flows.

Brilliant, isn't it?

I have a concert coming up in Germany: The 20th anniversary concert of the Women's Schola Choir Hildegardensis of Dillenburg. I've been singing as their soloist, primarily on the program of music by Hildegard von Bingen since their inception. We'll be singing some Hildegard, plus Cesar Franck, Frank Martin, Heinrich Schütz, P.F. Böddecker and others. It will be so lovely to sing with the group, Joachim Dreher (the church musician there) and in Dillenburg. Who knows when I'll ever do it again!

I've hooked up with the local church and there are some gems of musicians hidden away there. A retired professional accompanist has been helping me prepare for the concert in Dillenburg and we are having fun just singing all sorts of things and thinking about what we could perform in a recital. We might do a joint recital with a wonderful baritone, Craig Turpie, who is also a member of the church.

I have a few singing pupils already, just by word of mouth, but hopefully I'll be able to get a few more in the coming months.

Presenting Hildegard von Bingen - IWAH General Meeting 17 April 2012

A couple of years ago I offered to the then Chairwoman of the International Women's Association of Hannover (IWAH) that I could do a presentation on Hildegard von Bingen for one of the monthly General Meetings. A few months ago, 2 Chairwomen later, I was asked to make good on that offer.

It happened yesterday. I've never done a PowerPoint presentation or really any type of public speaking before, although as a professional singer, it's not that far removed from performing in public. When I arrived at the venue, the venue IWAH has been using month in and month out for years and years, apparently a photographer for the kindergarten kids had been installed in the large meeting hall that we always use. And he refused to move. Well, there are a couple of much smaller but none-the-less large rooms upstairs which were offered to us. Luckily, the room we used was just big enough to hold the 30 or so members who came to hear me speak (and sing).

I spoke about Hildegard's life and work, showed some of the illuminations from her books of visions, and other pictures and sang a few excerpts from various songs and one complete song (O quam magnum miraculum est). Luckily, after all the illness I've had and travel I've been doing, my voice held out. I had intended on recording the whole talk with my iPhone, but someone called me in the middle (argh!!!) and I didn't get it started up again properly. So, I've only got about 10 minutes of it.

Although the audience was more knowledgeable about Hildegard than I had expected, I don't think anyone quite realized just what an amazing woman she was and how many kettles she had in the fire. The title of the blurb I wrote for the IWAH Newsletter really is true: Hildegard von Bingen - Nun, Mystic, Healer, Poet, Composer. What I really wanted to accomplish - to bring her to life for them - was accomplished I hope.

Singing Hildegard in Poland

This is really seriously after the fact, and I apologize, but no one ever accused me of being timely, so there you have it!

My good friend and colleague, Allegra Silbiger (a member of my girl-group Elysium), asked me to fill in for a singer in her ensemble for medieval vocal music, "Diadema", for a pair of concerts near Krakow, Poland. I thought about it for about 2 seconds, said yes, and then wondered how I was going to manage with the Boy.

As it turned out, it was even more difficult to find someone to babysit than originally anticipated because the concerts were in the middle of the school summer vacation in Lower Saxony and all my regular girls were away. However, one had a friend who was still in town and we were able to have her babysit on a teaching day before I left, so that Dante could get to know her a bit.

So, at about noon on Thursday I left home first for Berlin to meet up with the other women in the ensemble and fly onward to Krakow. Magnus was traveling until I don't remember when that day. The train and air travel all went off without a hitch and we arrived at the Tyniec Abbey (full of Benedictine Monks), where we were staying and singing on Sunday, 25 July 2011, at dinner time, albeit a bit late.

We were shown our rooms and advised that the doors to the guest house are locked at 9:30pm and that if we were going to leave the building that we should be sure to return closer to 9:00pm. Silence was to be observed after 10pm. Morning bells would ring at 5:45 and breakfast would be from 7:30 to 8:30. Phew! It was going to be a restful weekend! And I wondered if I would be able to spend even a couple of hours visiting Krakow, "Poland's most beautiful city"? More on that later.

The rooms were small but clean and serviceable. I did, in fact, go to sleep around 10:30 every night and slept until 7:30 (with a brief interruption for the bells) so I did come home pretty rested! Woot! We were fed in the refectory, but women were not allowed to eat with the Monks. They were somewhere else. Unfortunately, 2 of 3 meals consisted of bread (pasty white stuff mostly), cheese, cold cuts, tomatoes and cucumbers. Lunches were hot and quite tasty, but it took me merely a day and a half to realize that I wasn't going to see a fresh fruit for 5 days and so I went into the village and bought some. Which was delicious. Fresh and regional peaches! Mmmmmh!

We rehearsed most of the day on Friday, in the concert hall in the beautifully renovated/remodelled building where the guest house was as well. Considering we had only rehearsed together the one time in Berlin, it went very well. To our credit, the others in the group have sung together numerous times, Allegra and I are like a two-headed, Hildegard-singing monster, and I'd done the Benefit concert in Barbara Thornton's honor a couple of years ago with them and other add-ons as well. I guess it shouldn't have been such a surprise. Nevertheless, I did feel a bit like I didn't know a couple of the pieces well enough, but that soon passed.

The weather sucked. Except for Saturday, which was at least sunny, if not exactly warm. After the concert on Saturday we sat out on the patio of the cafe on the premises (closed by that time) and watched the sun set spectacularly.

The Saturday concert was at the Benedictine Convent about a half hour's drive from Tyniec. The tiny church had a very interesting acoustic, which was a bit hard to suss. The place was filled pretty much and the audience included about 10 children under the age of 8, who were unbelievably well-behaved. I guess all that church-going trains them pretty well. The performance went very well and we were satisfied. We got a standing ovation. A Consul from the German Consulate in Krakow and her family were in attendance and we spoke to them at length. They were pleasantly surprised and taken with the music, which they'd never heard.

Sunday's concert was at Tyniec in this beautiful hall. The acoustic was wonderful for Hildegard and vocal music. It was a pleasure to sing there.

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Poetry Planet No. 3 and concerts

Oh NOOOO! Editing the rough recording of the next Poetry Planet for StarShipSofa and Audacity crashed. Thought I'd only lost about 2 minutes of work, because I'd been a good girl and saved after almost every change. No such luck. Upon reopening the file Audacity claimed it couldn't open it (or the back up file) because there was no data on it. AAARRRGH! Luckily there was some other back-up file of the same recording, but it was the rough recording with none of the edits. Arrrrgh. Well, it could've been worse. I might've had to re-record everything....

In other news, today I leave for Poland. I'm singing 2 concerts with women's medieval singing group Diadema, directed by my good friend Allegra (from Elysium). We will be singing at this beautiful convent near Krakow. The program will consist mostly of music by one of my favorite composers and historical figures: Hildegard of Bingen.

Then I have a few days at home and it's off to the Italian seaside for 2 weeks in the sun! Yippee!

If I only had a brain...

This line from the Wizard of Oz has come to mind so often in the past year it's scary. And I really must wonder. I was hoping that once Dante was weaned I would get my brain from the Wizard, or at least get it back, but it's been a month and there's still hide nor hare of it.

What makes me despair so, you may ask? Read on...

I discovered at 14:35 (2:35pm for the Americans) on Sunday, 31 October 2010 that I had gotten the date of the Hildegard von Bingen concert wrong by a year. Yes, I showed up to sing a concert a year in advance! I have since checked the initial email inquiry that Joachim Dreher made only to discover to my horror that it was always my mistake! He did indeed ask me if I would like to reiterate my part in the program on Sunday, 30 October 2011. I was so addled and didn't even notice that the date I checked was 31 October 2010. When I asked for a copy of the exact program and the date in 2011 was at the top, I decided it was a typo. (The difference 30 to 31 didn't even enter my consciousness!)

Magnus and I arrived at the church in Dillenburg at 14:35 and I ran upstairs to the sanctuary, which was dark and empty. I was worried. Oh no! Did I get the venue wrong? Oh dear... There were people cleaning up from some lunchtime event in the parish hall downstairs where Magnus was feeding Dante and I asked them if they knew where Joachim and the choir were. I got blank stares. There was one helpful man, who said he knew nothing about a rehearsal or a concert and Herr Dreher just left, although he might still be in the rectory. Nope, he wasn't and he wasn't home yet either. And I'd forgotten to enter his new cell phone number in mine. Sigh.

Man, we would've arranged our activities for this weekend much differently had I not thought I had a concert to sing in Dillenburg! Magnus was in the UK until midnight Friday and had to return to England on Monday early early. We probably would've gone to England together and spent a relaxing weekend with friends of ours in Northwestern England. Instead, we had a lovely but rather stressful weekend of travel and rushed visits with friends and the church family.

On the positive side, besides seeing my goddaughter Madeleine and my BFF Pamela, her husband and meeting their 18 month old for the first time, I got to see several friends and acquaintances at Christ the King Church, the Episcopal Church (English language) that I attended when I lived in Frankfurt. I also was allowed to sing spontaneously (thank you Simon!). So all my practicing for the Hildegard program was not for naught! I sang Ave generosa, which was also a bit of an adventure, because although I've sung the song in its entirety a million times, I hadn't bothered to practice the verses the choir was to be singing and it didn't occur to me until I was in the middle of the first verse! Ack! Well, it went extremely well, no mistakes and it was a pleasure to be able to sing for my friends and church family again.

So, now I dread that question - "so how did the concert go?" and blush to answer it truthfully...

Of concerts and recitals

I forgot to mention a few other news-worthy items in my last post. Don't know how it could happen. I mean how many concerts have I sung recently? None! My last public performance was shortly before Dante's birth 13 months ago. My next performance will be on Oct. 31st. And no, it will not be an evening of Halloween music (is there such a thing? I must look into this!). I'll be reprising my performance of various pieces by none other than Hildegard von Bingen, one of my most favorite composers and a fascinating figure in History (or Herstory, considering she was a woman doing amazing things in the middle ages). This is the 4th or 5th time I've performed this particular program with the Schola Hildegardensis of Dillenburg, but it's been several years since the last one. It'll be wonderful to do it again and to see the women in the group and work with Joachim Dreher (the organist/choir director at the Herz Jesu Pfarrei in Dillenburg). It feels great to have something to work toward (I work best with a concrete goal) and the voice feels pretty good. Perhaps a little rusty, but not like one would think after months of use solely for lullabies and children's songs.

So, in the unlikely event that you actually live near Dillenburg, Germany and would like to come hear me sing, here are the pertinent details:

Schola Hildegardensis (Direction/Leitung Joachim Dreher) with Diane Severson, Solo
Music by / Gesänge von Hildegard von Bingen
Sunday/Sonntag, 31 October 2010, 17:00 (5:00 pm)
Pfarrei Herz Jesu, Dillenburg (Kirchberg)

Shortly thereafter, I'm providing my singing pupils with an opportunity to perform one of the songs we've worked on for the others. This is not a public performance. It will take place in my studio (at home!) and only those taking lessons from me will make up the audience. I used to do these regularly when I lived and taught in Frankfurt and this is the first one I've organized here in Hannover. Each singer will perform one song and it'll be about half/half classical music and pop/Jazz. A nice mix. At the end, I'll sing a few songs. I hire a pianist for these things, since I am a miserable accompanist and I'd like to listen as well. There will be 8 pupils singing, plus me, so it'll only last about 45 minutes at most, I'd say. Each pupil will have a brief rehearsal on the day with the accompanist.

I think I forgot to mention that my mother-in-law asked me to sing for some of her friends at a Kaffee Klatsch while we were in Italy recently. This is the first time she's ever done so. And I was happy to do so. So many of Magnus' family have never heard me sing and I took that opportunity to repeat the program for the family that came to Dante's birthday. This was the program:

Durante, Danza, danza fanciulla
Caccini, Amarilli mia bella
Giordani, Caro mio ben
Händel, Ombra mai fu (Xerxes)
Händel, Lascia, ch'io pianga (Rinaldo)
Mozart, Ach, ich fühl's (Zauberflöte)
Schubert, An die Musik
Schumann, Widmung
Händel, Oh, had I Jubal's Lyre (Joshua)

I must say, it went extremely well. I had put together a CD of the accompaniment (karaoke style) and stood in front of the TV and sang to about 10 people sitting on the terrace. I suppose the whole neighborhood could have listened too. Needless to say, they loved it. I'll probably do it again. It was fun!

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Concert in Berlin

On 8 November 2008 I'll be participating in a benefit/memorial concert in honor of Barbara Thornton, founder of Sequentia, ensemble for medieval music, and director of the women's vocal ensemble, Vox Femina (of which I was a member), who died 10 years ago of a brain tumor, while Vox Femina/Sequentia was touring doing Ordo Virtutum by Hildegard von Bingen.  The concert proceeds will go to the German Brain Tumor Fund (die Deutsche Hirntumor Hilfe).

8 November 2008 8pm / 20:00
St. Johannes Evangelist Church
Auguststr. 90
Berlin, Germany


The concert is organized by my fellow Elysia, Allegra Silbiger, who had a close pupil/mentor relationship with Barbara. Several of the performers in the concert worked with Barbara at one time or another.

I can't believe that it has been 10 years already. It seems like yesterday, somehow. Her death, while we were all on tour, was hard to take. We all knew it was coming and we had all suffered through trying periods (the first tour half a year earlier), while Barbara was still working with us.  But she was a brilliant musician, a real work-horse and inspirational in many ways. She brought the world the music of Hildegard of Bingen in a way that made it immediate, not 900 years old. It was an honor to work with her and I hope that in some way she lives on through me.