On My Way!

This was a really good week for me! I saw Neil Mackie on Tuesday at the Royal College of Music. I was a little nervous, but not too bad, really! But none-the-less I don't think I really put my best foot forward. My mistake was wanting to see him sooner rather than later, and so I didn't really have much time to prepare. My voice has been a little cranky since I got home, so I was careful instead of just laying it on the line. Sigh. When will I learn? But I am happy I wasn't shaking - that helps! But Neil is a very vibrant, little Scotsman and we worked for a good hour after I sang him my first two pieces. It was fun, different than what I've gotten used to over the years, and certainly more aggressive than Paul (which is good!). He was pretty completmentary, saying that my voice is very fresh and has a beautiful, clear tone, which just needs a bit more depth. There are some things I felt like I had to translate into Cornelius terminology, but I think I can get past that. At any rate, I believe that he can really whip me into shape. He gave me several good tips and encouragement too. He said that getting an agent in London is very difficult. Agents generally show up at college concerts or other concerts, but don't hold auditions. He said I should just contact the directors of choral societies and ask if I could come and sing for them some time. He also said I should contact the BBC Singers and the Monteverdi Choir (John Elliot Gardiner, conductor) to find out when they hold auditions for vacancies. He said he thought I would have no problem getting a job in a school, with my experience teaching. I don't know if I really want to do that, but it's good to know that it's an option, especially since I have no certification.

He also told me about a concert by Andrew Lawrence King at Southwark Cathedral. Andrew was one of my teachers in Bremen and we had actually done the Play of Daniel, which is what he was doing here in London, while I was there! I decided it would be a very good idea to go to the concert and reintroduce myself to him afterwards. To my surprise there were some other people in the production that I knew - Susanne Ansorg on medieval Fiddle, Ian Harrison on Fiddle, shawm and tenor and Michael Metzler on percussion. I know them all from Germany, so it was nice to see them here. I hope that they will put in a good word for me, after all, Andrew only knows me as a student!

Susanne asked us if we would join them in the pub afterwards and so we followed some of the singers to a pub, had a lovely conversation with them only to discover that Susanne and the rest were at a different pub! So we went over there. I had a chance to chat with Andrew, catching up on what he's been up to over the past 10 years since I left Bremen (Omigod! has it been that long?!?).

So, the very next day, I wrote Andrew an email, and sent him the important bits of my CV. I also contacted the BBC Singers and the Monteverdi Choir about auditioning.

Today I have a cold. Ugh.

Post Christmas plans

I returned from 2+ weeks at home in Madison, Wisconsin and Bancroft, Iowa and am raring to go!

First off, I have a consultation/lesson next week with Niel Mackie who is the acting Chairman of the Voice Department at the Royal College of Music here in London. I'll sing 3 pieces for him and then we'll discuss what the best way forward is for me. Every singer should continue to work on their voice and have outside help to do it with. Neil Mackie was recommended to me by my colleague Margaret Peckham from Frankfurt. I also need advice and help regarding auditioning for and getting work here in England. And who knows? Perhaps I'll decide to go back to school and work on a Masters Degree (or whatever the equivalent is here!)!

Next, will be a performance by Elysium on March 4, 2007. We'll be performing in Salem, Oregon, USA at St. Paul's Episcopal Church. We'll begin with Evensong (encorporating lots of chant!) and continue with our program of medieval Italian songs, "Piety and Passion". For more information visit http://www.stpauloregon.org/music%20menu.htm . Have a look at Elysium's website: www.elysium-sings.net and our MySpace Music space: www.myspace.com/elysiumsings

After that will likely be a premier performance in Fort William, Scotland of the work "Endurance" by Paul Moxon. Have a little listen: www.myspace.com/pwmoxon

Elysium will be performing again in May, this time in Berlin. More details will be forth-coming so watch this space!

Date Confirmed

OK, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here, but Paul just wrote to say that our preferred date for the performance of his work "Endurance" has been confirmed. So, if it happens, it'll be on 24 March 2007. However, the financial bit has yet to be submitted to the sponsors so I suppose there could be some hang-up, but I don't foresee that happening. So, Yea!!!! If you can make it to Fort William, Scotland on March 24th then I'll see you there!

The Answer is Yes

So, the answer to the question I posed in my last post, "Do people in the music biz actually end up working together, meeting each other in real life, or is this [MySpace] purely virtual?" is YES! I now have my first official gig in the UK and all thanks to MySpace! As of yet there is no confirmed date, but it will likely be toward the end of March. I will be performing the premier of Paul Moxon's work entitled "Endurance". The piece is 5, 10 minute episodes for orchestra and soprano. The subject, which is programmatic in nature, since I'll have no text to sing, is Shackelton's ill-fated expedition in 1914 to Antartica.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition
The occasion is the exhibition of photography, by Frank Hurley, salvaged from that expedition which will be on display at the Lime Tree Gallery in Fort William, Scotland from February 16 - March 24, 2007. I'm really excited about this project!!! I'll keep you posted...

In the meantime, check out my MySpace:

www.myspace.com/divadianesoprano

MySpace

Ok, I know this is old news, but not so much for me! I heard about MySpace in mid-September on a train to Paris, where Magnus and I met to musicians (popular music). We had an interesting conversation and Angèle told me about MySpace. I signed up shortly after we got home. They were right, it's very addicting. You can spend a lot of time, especially browsing other people's Spaces. But that is the way to network. I've "met" several interesting people, mostly composers (because that's all I've had time to search), and there's a possibility of a collaboration with one of them early next year! If it works out, I will be very excited! At this point I'm not sure how virtual all of this is. Do people in the music biz actually end up working together, meeting each other in real life, or is this purely virtual? I guess I'll find out. I've only been active on it for about 2 months. We'll see

Sad Hotel #6

Just got back from Germany where I performed "Sad Hotel" again with Barbara Wachendorff and Jens Peter. In case you don't remember, Sad Hotel is the program on poetry by Anne Sexton. Jens plays the piano and composed the songs I sing, and Barbara recites other poems with Jens quasi-improvising accompaniment. It's a very powerful program and we always get good feed-back. Thursdays performance wasn't any different. The audience was made up mostly of psycho-therapists, I think, since the concert was sponsored by the IGST-Forum and part of their seminar on Fear. They appreciated the choice of poems and the program itself. It was recorded this time by the technician on the premises. I hope it turns out good. However, a terrible thing happened on my first note: The technician had forgotten to turn the volume down and at the last minute I had decided to stand directly behind the microphone, albeit a good distance back, because he said the recording was only through those microphones. No ambient mics. Anyway, the first note is good and solid and scared me half to death! So much so that my voice cracked and I jumped away from the mic. I wish I had stopped and started again, but oh well. I'm quite satisfied with the rest and am glad to have made a recording if only for posterity's sake. We agreed that I would try to sell the program in England, which would mean Barbara reciting everything in English. She'll do a wonderful job, I'm sure.

Ten days in the States

I'm just about to end my tour of the US.  Just kidding, I was only in Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York City. I had a concert with the Voices Found Singers (formerly known as the Lady Chapel Singers) at Bryn Mawr college in Pennsylvania yesterday.  It went extremely well, especially given that it was a completely new program.  But it's a wonderful program, full of fun music from all over the Americas - Cuba, Mexico, Canada, the US (folk songs, spirituals and modern compositions). I had a great time.

Last Tuesday Lisa Thomas and I gave a presentation on Voices Found and a bit about Hildegard von Bingen at Rowan College. Another member of VFS, Lourin Plant, teaches voice there and is co-teaching a class entitled "Songs of Protest, Songs of Praise", for which we gave the presentation.

From there I went to New York City for lessons with Cornelius Reid.  He looked well, but complained a bit about disintegrating - he turns 96 later this month!!!! My lessons were great and restored my confidence greatly.  I also went to Patelson's Music Store and bought the last remaining book of Cornelius', his Dictionary of Vocal Terminology. Now my collection is complete!

While in NYC I spent a lot of time with Anna Levenstein, a member of Elysium. We had some stuff to do to prepare for our concert in Salem, OR in March.  It was lovely to spend time with her. I also took advantage of Tower Records' closing sale and bought several DVDs ("Good Night and Good Luck", "The Big Sleep" and Peter Sellars' opera production "Cosi fan tutte") and CDs ("The Magic Flute", Mozart; "Don Pasquale", Donizetti and "The Cries of London").

So, that was that.