Singing for my supper

Out of the blue. Coup de foudre. And with less than a week's notice ... I found myself on  a 10 day "tour de France". Normally, my last-minute travel is gig-related, but this particular trip required no singing on my part: I was invited to be a replacement-chaperone for my daughter's chorus tour.  Eighty adolescents, 6 of whom (none of them my own) were under my care for the duration. Despite some seriously cold feet before we left, it couldn't have turned out any better - the entire experience was absolutely wonderful at so many different levels.  I've enjoyed many trips to France before, but I can honestly say that this was among the best.  I can also say that it is unbelievably liberating not to have to worry about "the voice" while traveling!  For once, somebody else was doing the singing (all 80 of them :).  I didn't have to cast a single thought to allergy medications, air conditioning issues, what kind of water I was drinking, whether or...

5 auditions, three photoshoots (that I took, rather than was in!), two headcolds, and a full production of Figar o. Talk about "feast or famine" (and that's before we include my husband's concert commitments, as well as our daughter's school play and charity dance performances.) It's been insane! It's also been fantastic. Figaro , as always, was such a joy to work on (Mozart's music never seems to pall, even after 11 productions!) - and it was rewarding that it was so warmly received by the full houses we garnered. With my lovely Figaro colleagues Olivia Vote, Zulimar Lopez-Hernandez, and Troy Cook at the closing party I love my job(s), but all that said after another audition and 350 miles of driving today, I can't deny that I'm very glad for a day off tomorrow without any set commitments!

(PSA: this post probably ought to come with a tilt-shift alert!! The camera I was using recreates the effect of these adjustable focal-plane lenses digitally and since I love it I may have... uh... indulged a little..... :) Duddingston Village (from Arthur's Seat) Towards the Lothian Coast (from Arthur's Seat) Duddingston Loch (from Arthur's Seat) Edinburgh from the Castle same view without the TS effect You can always find a muckle coo if you look... The Forth Railway Bridge

The University Yup, blue sky. In January. Kelvingrove Art Gallery (organ recitals - in the art gallery - most lunchtimes) The Burell Collection, in the idyllic grounds of Pollok Park Pollok House (The tilt-shift feature of my Canon s95 saw a lot of use this trip...!) One of the themes of the entire visit: Muckle Coos (aka Highland Cattle). The prizewinning herd at Pollok House are known around the world

Nearly thirteen years. Since I left the UK I've had a baby, established a career, and watched my life morph from what was more-or-less still a student lifestyle to that of boring (but stable!) suburbia. I've been re-assimilated into my birth country and had the luxury of living near my parents and getting re-acquainted adult-to-adult. I've learned to accept and enjoy the higher standard of American living, embracing the 24hr supermarket with open arms, and have grown to consider firehose-strength water pressure a constitutional right. I've even started thinking of Chipotle as our "local". Still, within minutes of landing in Glasgow, it felt like being back home. Now, granted, I never lived in Scotland (although I did work there and spend extended time there), so perhaps the changes of 13 years weren't as obvious to me as they would have been in London or Manchester, but even with that in mind, there was that sense of coming home and, frankly, of never ha...

Nul points for me on the blogging front this month, I think. Student juries and recitals, a delicious string of Messiah performances, Christmas preparations and a feast of food and family (groovy alliteration, huh?!) have kept me good and busy. It's been an unexpectedly joyful season this year, which was a lovely boost - good music and good people do a lot to restore one's faith in humanity, and I had ample supplies of both this month. Looking forward to adventures in January with a family trip to the UK, and a new production of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro starting rehearsals in February, giving us much to be excited about - hopefully this time I'll have enough energy at the end of the day to write about it! In the meantime, the happiest New Year to readers: 2010 has seen things start to look up again after such difficult times for so many in 2009 - keeping fingers crossed that 2011 continues the trend!

11 musical numbers and 12 dialogues to finish memorizing before rehearsals start on July 6th. Two photo shoots to complete. School's out. Heatwave. All washed down with a healthy dose of "Gene-Genie-isms", since our continued march through the British TV we've managed to miss in the last 5 years includes currently catching up with Ashes to Ashes (aside: it's slightly dangerous to let my husband watch this program in the large quantities we're currently enjoying it, since his dry sense of humour and Manchester upbringing mean that he lapses into his own brand of Huntspeak all too easily. The plus side to this is that I haven't stopped laughing in about 4 days, so I'm not really complaining...). Next up: doing every scrap of laundry I can find so I leave the troops with clean clothes. And packing.

I'm not quite sure how it went from the carefully planned work curve I mapped out for this month to zOMG, but it has. So, this is just a short update. I suspect part of the sudden feeling of 0-60 comes from losing a lot of "normal" daily life to the weather (I believe we're now up to about 80" of snow for the season, and it's just started dumping it AGAIN), and also to the wonderful 4-day-trip to Vancouver to take up a friend's invitation to see the dress rehearsal of the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. The trip itself was wonderful, even if travelling in-between snowstorms was more than a tad complicated! But we managed to make it both out and back, so one mustn't complain. In the meantime, back to memorizing a LOT of music for a lrecital I'm doing next month. Watch this space for more news!

By the side of the rural road, high on a hilltop....

It's been a tough week. The first wave of personally-affecting bad news from the economic kaboom hit not merely close to home but AT home, as my local opera company declared bankruptcy and cancelled the remainder of the 08-09 season and all future plans which sadly includes a couple of (good) contracts of mine. This has of course been bad news for me personally, but is also distressing for the longer-term impact on the local arts community, the opera industry in general and the sadness that goes with the loss of a respected institution. People are shaken, to say the least. It wasn't entirely unexpected - there'd been rumours - but it's still something of a shock. As a performer, you get used to the idea that you won't necessarily have the security of a permanent position, but once you HAVE the contract in hand for a gig, that's always felt safe. Not any more, it seems. Thinking it all through, I realise that the demise of another company away from home - ...

Yesterday: 80 degrees Monday: Snow showers

I sometimes think international travel is easier – at least you know to expect it to be complicated! The trip west was… complicated. And long. Very, very, VERY long. Door to door, it was almost 12 hours to travel 500 mile… by PLANE (I could, quite literally, have driven the distance in approximately the same amount of time). Baggage restrictions on the small “puddle-jumper” planes meant all my careful packing was for naught and I STILL wound up rearranging everything at the check-in desk, and then the first leg of the trip was delayed and I missed the connection, resulting in a 5hr layover until I could get on the next flight. Fun, fun, fun! (By the way, a note for travellers: as of May 1st, several airlines will be charging for a 2nd checked bag - check your airline and plan accordingly!) But, the important thing is… here I am. Arrived. In one piece, with all bags intact. Thankfully, I have a fridge and a microwave in my room – this really cuts down on e...