No job yet, no gig yet, no school yet, yet a house...

So we've decided to move ahead with our plans without a solid job offer. The Brussels house fits our needs very well, and we are ironing out the final details with the owners. It looks as if we will be able to move in there in the first week of September, so that means that we will likely have a couple of weeks in Europe to spend visiting with friends or staying in other accomodations.

We've been pretty busy negotiating about the house, so we've made little progress in the past month on the immigration issues. Maggie is getting some intelligence from her contacts in Belgium that hiring cycles are on the upswing, so we are continuing to solicit Brussels employers.

We still suspect that obtaining a visa based on our guranteed income from Maggie's sabbatical will be possible, in the event that no contracts come through before we leave.

Today a rude, brief, recitative...

It's been a very busy day juggling a lot of competing responsibilities... for example, I finished up with office work around 4:30, took Malcolm around the corner to order some pizzas, then met Maggie at 5:00, just to rush off to a rehearsal for Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony, and Elgar's Coronation Ode (with Jurgen Petrenko and the Toronto Classical Singers/Talisker Players) that went on until 10:00 or so this evening. Then some final office work for tomorrow, then to bed. I wonder what the people who try to have only one career, and no family, do in their spare time!

The Vaughan Williams and the Elgar are very interesting for me, in the sense that they were written within ten years of each other, but are completely different in their feeling. To me, the Elgar has aged to become a deeply ironic work; its lyrics speak of the glory of the British Empire, and the crowning of Britain's mighty victory with peace. Given the events of the 20th century that would follow its 1902 premiere, it loudly celebrates a star that we realize now was, at the time of its writing, already very much on the wane.

In contrast, Vaughan Williams' music isn't centred textually in any era, which - with all due respect to Elgar's genius - makes it a piece of truer art, to my taste: like the sea itself, being of no fixed time, it is timeless.

Update: A very nice house...

It looks like our proposed house rental in Brussels is going to happen. We had friends in Brussels take a look at it on the weekend, and in their words it is "un bijoux" (a jewel). I spoke with the owner this morning, and we've agreed on a mutually satisfactory price.

We are still trying to secure a job for Maggie at an international school, primarily so that Malcolm can attend school in English without incurring a huge tuition cost.

I enclose a photograph of the house. It is really lovely and has four bedrooms, as well as two additional bedroom sized rooms that are currently being used as offices. There is a piano, a large enclosed garden, a farm style kitchen with a large fridge and a big gas stove. We are really very excited, and expect lots of guests from Canada and other places... I'm going to try to figure out how to post a guest calendar, so you can block off your reservations online.

A nice house in Brussels...

Happy Tuesday,

We've had contact from a resident of Brussels who owns a beautiful house that he is looking to rent or exchange for the next year, and it looks like it would be solidly in our price range. Quite a relief to find out that the rental costs are not as astronomically high as we thought they might be. Now it's a matter of looking around for comparable houses.

We are still working away at finding a teaching job for Maggie. Following up with the schools that were interested initially but are perhaps not familiar with the work permit application process (which only they can initiate) is our present priority.

In other news, it looks like the only utility we won't have to cancel is our telephone number, which has stayed the same since we came to Toronto. Fortunately, recent changes in Canadian legislation allow us to take our number with us and move to a VOIP, or "internet" telephone, which works pretty much independently of where one is located. It's good to know that our friends and family will continue to be able to reach us during our stay in Europe.

Speaking of friends and family, we are already scratching our heads trying to fit in shared dinners and visits with all of our loved ones in advance of our departure... not an easy task, given that our calendar is already filling up quickly.

Cheers,
Matthew

A nice concert at Easter.

This past April 8th, I had a chance to sing some beautiful music by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams at an Easter morning service here in Toronto. It was the "Five Mystical Songs" that we performed, with Anne Marie Page on piano, Daniel Kushner on violin, and the Eastminster choir.

This piece is personally very moving for me, and very satisfying because of the chance to perform it with such talented people. It was all the more valuable for me as it serves as a good introduction for the uppcoming Vaughan Williams "Sea Symphony", which, along with the Elgar Coronation Ode, I have a chance to sing on April 29th, with Jurgen Petrenko and the Toronto Classical Singers at Christchurch Deer Park here in Toronto. It's surprising how few people know VWs music, beautiful as it is...

If you'd like a listen to the archival recording that we made, go to my "myspace" page here.
The Toronto Classical Singers' webpage can be found here.

Happy Easter!

Welcome...

Welcome to my European Opera Adventure Blog.

I thought I'd write a little description about our preparations for moving to Europe to sing, starting in August of 2007. These preparations cluster into several categories, listed here in no particular order:

1. arrange for the absence
2. find a tenant
3. obtain residency in another country
4. find a job for one or both of us
5. get the kids in school

#1: Arrange for the absence

Maggie: Within Maggie's profession as a teacher, the principle of the paid sabbatical is well-established. Maggie applied for what is known as a "Four-over-five", meaning four years' pay distributed evenly over five years. The idea is that you work for four years for 80% of your base pay and take a paid year off at the same rate. This works so well as a set-and-forget savings plan that some teaching professionals stay on the four over five programme continuously. This is a way to write that book, lie on a beach in Mexico for a year, take a big bite out of that Ph.D., etc. while still getting paid your customary salary.

Surprisingly, the cool thing is that you don't have to be in academics to take advantage of this; talk to your payroll department and HR departments to see if they can swing it.

Status: applied for and approved, sabbatical to commence June 2007.

Matthew: In addition to my musical career, I also work during the day as a business analyst for a large corporation, and chose not to apply for a four-over-five arrangement with them. Instead, I applied for an unpaid leave of absence. In this arrangement my employer agrees to hold a job for me during my leave. I receive no pay during this period, but I do have the option of continuing to maintain my benefits package - provided I pay the premiums - and continue to accumulate service time as an employee of the company. This leave is for one year, with an option to extend it to a second year.

Status: applied for and approved, leave to commence August 15th, 2007.

#2: Find a tenant

Maggie took a number of pictures of the house, and posted a profile on a number of sites, including the University of Toronto bulletin board, and www.sabaticalhomes.com. These postings cost $30. As it turns out she had more luck with www.sabbaticalhomes.com, ending up with around 150 viewings within the first three weeks. We had several offers, and rented to a family from Australia with whom we negotiated an acceptable rental agreement.

Family friends Kimball and Marilyn Sarin of www.bosleyrealestate.com here in Toronto were very helpful in guiding us through developing a customized rental agreement; there are a number of specific details that should be clearly thought out and added to the agreement, before you even begin to post an ad.

Status: reliable tenant found, rental agreement signed, deposit accepted

#3: Obtain residency (see #4 below)

#4: Get a job

These two are closely related: success at getting a job clears the main hurdle in obtaining residency.

European countries such as Belgium allow for visitors from Canada to stay without visas for up to three months. Obtaining residency for longer periods is more problematic.

In every European country we have investigated, the process must start with an offer of work by an employer to a foreign worker (us). The process looks like this:

• the employer offers the foreign worker a job
• the employer applies for a work permit in the destination country
• the employee applies to the forgein consulate in their home country for a VISA
• the VISA allows the foreign worker to reside in the destination country

In our case we thought it made more sense to settle Maggie and the boys in a location that suits them best, as operatic and concert work is by nature itinerant and transitory. As well, teachers are likely to be hired on the basis of a good resume, references, and a telephone interview; the same cannot be said of singing actors.

We are looking into the contingency of having no job at all in August 2007. There is a possibility because of our self-sustaining financial situation that we might be able to obtain residency without employment.

Status - Maggie: continuing to try to find an employer who will formalize an offer to hire her to teach. The hiring cycle in Belgium seems to be gaining momentum at this time of year.

Status - Matthew: auditions for several opera houses and agents in Belgium, France, and Amsterdam are established for September.

Status - contingency: We are inquiring with the embassy and department of immigration about the possibility of obtaining residency without employment.

#5: Get the kids in school

Our two children are four and eight years old. The oldest has exposure to French, and the youngest is young enough that he should adapt, so we are still exploring the possibility of enrolling them directly into the Belgian normal school system. Were Maggie to find a job with an international or private school, that would open additional possibilities.

Status - on hold until the employment riddle is solved; Belgian normal school is a possibility.

That's it for now, I'll be back soon to give you an update, and thanks for your interest.

Matthew