HELLO! Hello? hello? ello? lo?

Is there an echo in here?!? There surely must be since I haven't written a post since New Years, it seems! Wow. Well, maybe this will be the first of many new posts. We'll see...

An update:

My son Dante continues to occupy most of my time. He's adorable and fascinating and funny. And I'm smitten.

I'm continuing to teach, and in January I started teaching again, full-time, so to speak, meaning that I managed to get all of my pupils and a couple of new ones to commit to coming on one of 2 days per week. I'm now teaching Monday and Friday afternoons and usually into the evening. I have a babysitter who watches Dante in the Living Room while I teaching down at the other end of the apartment. It works pretty well. I'm considering changing Fridays to Thursdays, so that we can have a long weekend and I won't necessarily have to reschedule all the lessons.

I recorded another story for PodCastle in March and neglected to blog about it - "Love Among the Talus" by Elizabeth Bear. A nice little story that you can listen to here

They've asked my to record another story for them and Tony from StarShipSofa has also asked for a recording, this one by Gwyneth Jones! I'll be sure to blog more about them when I've finished and when they air.

I had an audition rehearsal with a local cabaret a cappella group here in Hannover called Ferrari Küßchen, which went pretty well. It would be a big commitment, but a great opportunity and something different for me. It would definitely get me out there singing, which is what matters to me at this point. :-) It's not a done deal yet though. We are going to have more meetings/rehearsals, and Magnus, Dante and I are going to spend a performance day with the group to see what it involves. I probably wouldn't start performing with them before January anyway. I'll keep you posted!

So, I'd say that's enough for now! If you are still around drop me a comment, and let me know! Thanks!

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Going back to work

Hi my friends!

Dante is now a full 2 months old! My, how time flies. It seems like the last 2 months of pregnancy (and pregnancy itself) were interminable and now, when I'd like to savor each moment, it just flies by in an exhausted blur!

Anyway, on the recommendation of my midwife, Sabine, and a bit of impatient pushing from one of my pupils (the one I trade lessons for massages with), I started teaching again a couple of weeks ago now! Sabine thought that I needed something besides Dante in my life, to do something for me. Her daughter, Charlotte, comes over on Monday afternoons and I teach for an hour, get a massage and then teach another pupil for an hour. It's pretty awesome. Charlotte is great with the Li'l Poet and I get some quality me time and professional, adult time.

I had originally thought I would start teaching all my pupils in December, but I've decided I just can't. I don't want to be away from Dante that much! :-) Besides, December is a crazy month anyway and short with Christmas, so I've decided I'll start again in January. I hope it works out. I have 8 people and a massage I need to fit in. Hopefully I'll manage on 2 days: Mondays and Fridays, when Charlotte can come. Magnus may be able to take over on Fridays, when he can get away from the office.

So, that's my update. Here the most adorable picture of the Li'l Poet:

La Voix Liberée - Masterclass in Paris

Last week I was in Paris. I really could have been anywhere for all I saw of Paris, but it was nonetheless the wonderful to be there.

I was there for 5 days of Masterclasses with Carol Baggott-Forte, a singing teacher from Canada. I've talked about her and her work in previous posts, here and here. She works with voices in the same manner as my beloved, late mentor Cornelius L. Reid (no not the baseball player!).

We convened in the Canadian Student House on the campus Cité Universitaire in south Paris. They had a nice big room with a grand piano. Unfortunately, it was colder than the dickens, because we had to keep the loud, rattling heater off during lessons. But I digress. There were several people I knew from other classes Carol has given in various European cities (Brighton, Lyon and Frankfurt), it's one big family. We are trying to bring more people into the family, but it is slow going. I was especially pleased that my friend Alexa from Toronto made the trip over. We had fun and formed a nice mutual admiration society together with Thomas from Hamburg.

I had 5 lessons in 5 days. Hoo boy! Are we getting into some tough stuff with my voice. It's a really good thing too, because it's starting to cause problems. I'm confident we are on the right path and that my voice will sort itself out. I will get a couple more lessons while Carol is here in Hannover, so we can continue the work. I would really like to go to Canada and have lessons for 2 weeks straight. Will have to consider that.

It was also incredibly worthwhile listening to Carol teach and I learned some new tricks for my own pupils. Unfortunately, most of the participants in Paris were advanced singers or singers familiar with the work and with a high degree of musical experience and musicality. A lot of it doesn't apply to my own students at the moment and I'd love to pick Carol's brain or hear her work with a beginner with a limited amount of talent. Now that would be interesting.

While I was in Paris I stayed with my good friend and Prosperity Girl Sue and her husband Xavier. It was so kind of them to let me crash at their place, eat their food and take off everyday for most of the day. Of course Xavier had to work and Sue had things to do during the day too, so it wasn't so tragic, but still. They were very tolerant. I had a great time with them. We watched the inauguration together and cried together! :-)

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Voice Studio

What a joy it is to be teaching again! I didn’t realize how much I missed it really. I spent most of my time in London trying to find singing work, or a teaching job, that I didn’t really try hard to find private pupils. So, as a consequence, I didn’t teach much at all. I had a couple of people call me (they saw my entry in an online teachers list) asking for a lesson to prepare for an audition they had coming up. But they weren’t interested in learning how to sing. Later, close to the end of my stay in London I took on 2 pupils, one a Canadian who I met at Carol Baggott-Forte’s course in Brighton, and the other a woman who’d found me through the internet. I was very sorry to leave them in the lurch like that, having only just started teaching them and leaving town just a few short months later.

But now, here in Hannover, I have tried a little harder to find pupils right away, but not much. I hung a few notices in Libraries and such and put up entries on various classified type websites, but that was it. And as of now I have 3 pupils who’ll come regularly and one who’s coming after Easter for a trial lesson, but who seems keen! Not bad.

Now if I could just find someone to hire me to sing sooner rather than later, I’d be happier than a clam.

New Students

I have a couple of new singing students lined up, but alas, 'tis the season for illnes, I guess, and both cancelled just before their first lessons. Have rescheduled, but hey, it's frustrating. Anyway, it's gone pretty quickly getting interest in lessons. Which reminds me, I have to try to reach another person who contacted me again. She said she's hard to reach...