This morning we did the third convocation ceremony of this session, and the guest speaker gave an interesting address: he emphasized the importance of international experience and adaptability as instrumental in living one's life in a meaningful way. He had a commerce undergraduate degree from Queen's and an MBA from Chicago, and as we were chatting after the ceremony, it turns out that after leaving Brampton, he moved to Brussels. He used to live on Avenue Louise in Ixelles, and then moved to Braine-l'Alleud near Waterloo, before moving in Paris, and he now makes his home in London. It's really quite interesting and inspiring to hear the words of the different invitees and recipients of honorary doctorates, find the common threads that run through their advice, and observe their public speaking techniques. There is an art to a good speech, and I enjoy learning from a good speaker.
It's a rainy, cool day here in Kingston, which is a change from earlier in the week. The weather here in Canada was great when I first arrived, and I made sure to get in some swimming in right away at the local pool in Toronto, before coming down to Belleville with my parents on Sunday afternoon. I've yet to get any swimming in at the Queen's pool; the cost of a weekly membership will only really make sense later on in my stay, when I'm here for more than a couple days at a time. I'll be back in Toronto tonight anyway, and our neighborhood pool is free.
Monday I helped my Dad disassemble and reposition a neighbor's garden shed, and did some heavy lifting of sacks of crushed stone and patio stones. I'm still a little stiff from that, but it's nothing serious. Reports from home are unremarkable; everyone seems to be adjusting well to my absence. That's quite a relief to hear, as bad news can stress you out, especially when there's nothing at all you can do about it from almost 6ooo kms away!
Tomorrow morning after my voice coaching I'll be heading down to London, for some lessons with Bruce, and some time visiting with the cast, conductor and crew of The Magic Flute which is getting ready to open in London. That should be a lot of fun.
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Saturday, 23 May 2009
flight to Canada
I made it into Toronto just fine, and am relaxing now... I find the jet-lag is always worse going back to Europe than it is coming here; here I just feel like I'm staying up later than usual.
I had a little adventure on the train with a couple of young guys who tried to steal my suitcase, but nothing doing, I stopped the train with the help of the conductor, and chased them down the platform. They got away, leaving my (quite heavy) bag, and I didn't lose anything, but the attempt got my adrenaline going, and I self-medicated a little with a gin and tonic on the plane ride, which was very comfortable, as always with Jet Airways.
Once in Toronto I caught the airport bus, and in ten minutes was riding the subway back to my old neighborhood, and to Bruce's place, where I'm staying over tonight.
Tomorrow I'm off to Belleville and from there, Kingston, to sing the first convocation ceremony Tuesday morning. Tonight the house is pretty quiet as everyone is occupied with their own activities, and I don't think I should go to bed just yet, so I'm going to go have dinner with my friend Darren, and we're going to see the early showing of the new X-men movie. Purely parental research, you understand, to see if it's suitable for my young ones...
I had a little adventure on the train with a couple of young guys who tried to steal my suitcase, but nothing doing, I stopped the train with the help of the conductor, and chased them down the platform. They got away, leaving my (quite heavy) bag, and I didn't lose anything, but the attempt got my adrenaline going, and I self-medicated a little with a gin and tonic on the plane ride, which was very comfortable, as always with Jet Airways.
Once in Toronto I caught the airport bus, and in ten minutes was riding the subway back to my old neighborhood, and to Bruce's place, where I'm staying over tonight.
Tomorrow I'm off to Belleville and from there, Kingston, to sing the first convocation ceremony Tuesday morning. Tonight the house is pretty quiet as everyone is occupied with their own activities, and I don't think I should go to bed just yet, so I'm going to go have dinner with my friend Darren, and we're going to see the early showing of the new X-men movie. Purely parental research, you understand, to see if it's suitable for my young ones...
Friday, 15 May 2009
Happy Birthday for Malcolm
blog entry 17:04 14 mai, TGV, near Charles de Gaulle stop
The train was slightly delayed, about ten minutes leaving, but we seem to be making good time, and I should still manage to catch the local train from Gare Midi heading to Louvain La Neuve L'Université that leaves 43 minutes past the hour, arriving at Watermael at 27 minutes later.
The audition went well; this is twice in a matter of a few weeks that I've led off with the Papageno aria, which is a quite new one for me, and I think it's getting better each time; certainly I feel like I'm able to do more with it each time I present it. Several people whom I trust have told me to learn Papageno, and I never really bothered before. When I think about it, I wonder why I didn't? I've sung the other two arias and two duets (with Pamina and Papagena) in concert, but have never memorized them, and never sang the suicide aria before deciding to add it this spring.
Another thing I've tried is to streamline my audition repertoire a little bit, leaving out arias from older characters and larger roles, to make my list of arias a little more youthful and a little less ambitious. By that I mean that someone might hire me to do a secondary role or a bit part, but no one in a major European house is going to take the chance and have me, still a virtual unknown in Europe, sing Count Almaviva!
As for the Papageno, it's all just daydreaming at the moment, as no one has hired me yet to sing it, but one can always hope. I do so love singing Bach and Schubert in German; if I were forced to pick my three favorite composers (a pointless task considering the possibly choices) it would probably have to be those two, and Mozart. Since the only other opera of his I know that is sung in German (Abduction from the Seraglio) doesn't have a baritone part in it, that leaves Flute. The good news is that it is still one of the most performed operas in the world, if not the most performed, and there are lots of Flute specialists who've basically paid for their houses on the strength of its roles, the Queen of the Night being a prime example. Papageno is the real mensch, the genuine human being in this opera, the figure everyone can identify with Not a bad thing to lock down.
Today is Malcolm's birthday, and tomorrow his brother comes home. We have a busy weekend ahead, with Brussels Bowling Birthday part II: this time it's personal on Saturday afternoon, followed by St. John's International School's Family Day on sunday. That's pretty much a command performance, and it will occupy most of the afternoon. Tonight I get to tell Malcolm that his birthday present is going to see AC-DC in Amsterdam with his dad! Simonas and his father are going too, so it promises to be a good time. Duncan is going to be sooooo jealous.
Starting Monday we are blissfully back into the normal routine, although not for long, because next weekend I leave for Canada for three weeks. That should be quite a challenge for Maggie and the kids, having to go to garderie earlier in the day, and come home later. Malcolm with have to go to étude and get his homework done there, before he comes home, without the benefit of his dad cracking the whip. His report card had some trouble spots on it that I want to try to fix, and unfortunately he has a whole raft of year-end tests, ten of them, with half of them taking place while I'm still away, and half just after I get back. I won't be able to help him with preparing for those after this week, so that's going to take some time out of my schedule this week, and he's going to have to take charge of the preparation, with some help from Mom. His strengths still seem to be in Math, Geometry, Grammar and Spoken Language, something that was also seen in his English studies. The dictée is still tough for him, and unscrambling mixed-up sentences is very difficult because he doesn't always have the vocabulary out-of-context. When you think of how hard this must be for him, he's really doing very well, and already has more grammar (in any language) than his parents put together. He asked me the other day, "what's plus-que-parfait in English, dad?" I've long ago stopped trying to b.s. my way out of those questions, and check google and wikipedia to find several answers instead, until I've got a pretty good sense of what to tell him.
18:34, less than an hour out from Brussels
How can I tell I'm back in the north? Three guesses, rain, rain and rain. We're passing a regional airport right now, I'm not sure which one it is. Probably Lille; that's the last stop before Brussels. I'll have to dig the umbrella back out from my suitcase and have it ready for when I arrive home.
19:19 Well I spoke too soon... looks like we won't get into Brussels until almost 20:00... that's the last two times that I've taken the SNCF that they've been fine going south, but have been late coming back.
That's about it, maybe I'll write a bit more tonight when I'm home with an internet connection, just before I post.
midnight May 14th, 2009
Maggie made an interesting comment this evening as she was falling asleep: she asked if I remembered this night, ten years ago. I hadn't thought about it until she mentioned it, but I realize now that it was prophetic of what was to come: I spent my first night as a father away from my wife and new child, because of music. In actual fact, I slept that night of May 14th, 1999 at the cottage, at Maggie's suggestion, because I had just sung a "Blue Skies in the Community" show in Northbrook, and staying over at the cottage made the most sense. It's funny how things repeat themselves, with me being away because of music, but things were a tiny bit different this year: I was here for the chocolate cake tonight, and the opening of presents.
Happy birthday, Malcolm!
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
In Lyon
I didn't have internet access until a few minutes ago, so I wrote down some words on the train, and will append them here.
blog entry wed 13 may 13:12, Marne la Vallee - Chessy, France
We have already passed the Charles de Gaulle stop and are on our way southward towards Perpignan. I get off the train in perhaps two hours, in Lyon. It is truly amazing to me how high speed rail has made Europe much smaller than it was before; for close to the cost of a train ticket between Toronto to Kingston, I can go from Brussels to Paris in as much time, and continue that distance again into the heart of France. 726 Km from Brussels to Lyon, and it takes four hours.
There are also promotions that crop up occasionally, offers to take the TGV return from Brussels to Paris or London for the day for some crazy amount, like 20 Euros. It's funny though, I was talking with Aart, a singer who I performed with on the weekend, and he said that many Belgians take for granted the fact that Paris is less than two hours away by train, so they never bother going. Kind of like living your whole life in Toronto and never climbing the CN tower, or never visiting Niagara Falls or Algonquin Park. I mean, those attractions aren't going anywhere, are they? What's the hurry? That old expression is true: familiarity breeds contempt. We even feel it: we've been here almost two years now and I've yet to get to Paris, not since my preliminary trip with Bruce in February 2007, and never yet with Maggie... we'll have to remedy that somehow.
On the music front, things are really starting to gain some momentum, which is exciting. I loved having the opportunity to sing again in the Mendelssohn this past weekend, even if it was a modest couple of solos, and the contacts that have come out of that are waiting to be followed up on. That excitement of being on the stage performing reminded me why we're here, why I'm doing what I'm doing.
A couple of new successes: my audition in Easter with Mervin Fick was successful, and he's offered me a "Best of Broadway" style concert with the Mississauga Choral Society in February 2010. So this means that my list of upcoming performances now looks like this:
2009:
Being a singer promoting yourself is tricky, and it's kind of like being a salesman: if you aren't making sales this week, you aren't having a slow week now; you had a slow week six months ago, or whatever your clients' planning cycle length may be, and you didn't make as many calls as you could have back then. It's necessary to keep thinking ahead, planning and making those calls for the future in order to increase the chances that you'll be successful.
15:49, Hotel de Bretagne, Lyon
Ok, this has got to be the tiniest, skankiest hotel room I've ever seen... it's kind of perversely amusing actually, kind of a caricature of a grotty one-star hotel. No evidence of vermin of any type, so that's something to be thankful for. I tried opening a window but I'm not sure that the atmosphere trickling in from the ventilation shaft is really going to make much difference to the musty smell. Oh well, it's still fairly early, and this room is not the kind of place I feel like staying in, to be honest, so I might just head out myself and have a cup of coffee somewhere, maybe at a cafe that has wireless access?
17:00 Café Leffe, next to the Maison de Ville, Lyon
Success! The Café Leffe not only has Leffe beer on draft, but it also has free internet. Yee-haw! I'm limited by two things in my enjoyment of both: the first is a finite battery life, and the second is the necessity to be cautious about the amount of alcohol I enjoy tonight. Train travel dries you out the same way flying does, with the canned, filtered stuff that passes for air on board, and it's windy and humid today, so I need to be careful.
Alsas, my single glass is almost gone so it's time to go find something to do for the next two hours until the restaurants open at 19:00. There's a museum right across the street, so that might do. There's nothing on at the Opera tonight, so that's no good. I guess that means letter and journal writing, and reading my book for the next little while, or I might find a grocery, although the prospect of preparing a meal and eating in that room has a negative effect on my appetite. (It's funny, I paid much less money for the hotel Vertigo in Marseille, and had no issues at all; in fact I'd recommend it wholeheartedly.) Once again, the reality of being a startup opera singer in a new country is much less than glamourous, but then offstage glamour isn't why I'm doing it, is it?
17:28
Well, it looks like I'm going no place at the moment. Right now the dryest place in Lyon is under the big beige parasols here at the Café Leffe. My umbrella is quite sensibly keeping the inside of my suitcase dry, back at the hotel, and as it was quite hot when I set out an hour ago, I neglected to bring a jacket on my little walk, just a sweater. Hopefully this rain will subside shortly and I can make my break for the hotel until dinner time. At least I have a cover for the computer, so it won't get wet.
Perhaps I'll write more tomorrow in Lyon, or it might have to wait until I'm back home in Brussels tomorrow night. A bientot!
blog entry wed 13 may 13:12, Marne la Vallee - Chessy, France
We have already passed the Charles de Gaulle stop and are on our way southward towards Perpignan. I get off the train in perhaps two hours, in Lyon. It is truly amazing to me how high speed rail has made Europe much smaller than it was before; for close to the cost of a train ticket between Toronto to Kingston, I can go from Brussels to Paris in as much time, and continue that distance again into the heart of France. 726 Km from Brussels to Lyon, and it takes four hours.
There are also promotions that crop up occasionally, offers to take the TGV return from Brussels to Paris or London for the day for some crazy amount, like 20 Euros. It's funny though, I was talking with Aart, a singer who I performed with on the weekend, and he said that many Belgians take for granted the fact that Paris is less than two hours away by train, so they never bother going. Kind of like living your whole life in Toronto and never climbing the CN tower, or never visiting Niagara Falls or Algonquin Park. I mean, those attractions aren't going anywhere, are they? What's the hurry? That old expression is true: familiarity breeds contempt. We even feel it: we've been here almost two years now and I've yet to get to Paris, not since my preliminary trip with Bruce in February 2007, and never yet with Maggie... we'll have to remedy that somehow.
On the music front, things are really starting to gain some momentum, which is exciting. I loved having the opportunity to sing again in the Mendelssohn this past weekend, even if it was a modest couple of solos, and the contacts that have come out of that are waiting to be followed up on. That excitement of being on the stage performing reminded me why we're here, why I'm doing what I'm doing.
A couple of new successes: my audition in Easter with Mervin Fick was successful, and he's offered me a "Best of Broadway" style concert with the Mississauga Choral Society in February 2010. So this means that my list of upcoming performances now looks like this:
2009:
- May-June: Queen’s University Convocation Ceremonies, Kingston, CA
- November: Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem, Kingston Symphony, CA
- December: Bach Weinachtsoratorium, Cornelius Three Kings, Pax Christi Chorale, Toronto, CA
- December: Handel Messiah tour (with Kerry Stratton), Ontario, CA
- January: Artists Mass (my choice of material, probably Bach) St. Carolus Borromeus Church, Antwerp, BE
- February: “Best of Broadway”, Mississauga Choral Society, CA
- date TBD but probably March/April: duo recital (organ - voice), Calcant concert series, Flanders, BE
Being a singer promoting yourself is tricky, and it's kind of like being a salesman: if you aren't making sales this week, you aren't having a slow week now; you had a slow week six months ago, or whatever your clients' planning cycle length may be, and you didn't make as many calls as you could have back then. It's necessary to keep thinking ahead, planning and making those calls for the future in order to increase the chances that you'll be successful.
15:49, Hotel de Bretagne, Lyon
Ok, this has got to be the tiniest, skankiest hotel room I've ever seen... it's kind of perversely amusing actually, kind of a caricature of a grotty one-star hotel. No evidence of vermin of any type, so that's something to be thankful for. I tried opening a window but I'm not sure that the atmosphere trickling in from the ventilation shaft is really going to make much difference to the musty smell. Oh well, it's still fairly early, and this room is not the kind of place I feel like staying in, to be honest, so I might just head out myself and have a cup of coffee somewhere, maybe at a cafe that has wireless access?
17:00 Café Leffe, next to the Maison de Ville, Lyon
Success! The Café Leffe not only has Leffe beer on draft, but it also has free internet. Yee-haw! I'm limited by two things in my enjoyment of both: the first is a finite battery life, and the second is the necessity to be cautious about the amount of alcohol I enjoy tonight. Train travel dries you out the same way flying does, with the canned, filtered stuff that passes for air on board, and it's windy and humid today, so I need to be careful.
Alsas, my single glass is almost gone so it's time to go find something to do for the next two hours until the restaurants open at 19:00. There's a museum right across the street, so that might do. There's nothing on at the Opera tonight, so that's no good. I guess that means letter and journal writing, and reading my book for the next little while, or I might find a grocery, although the prospect of preparing a meal and eating in that room has a negative effect on my appetite. (It's funny, I paid much less money for the hotel Vertigo in Marseille, and had no issues at all; in fact I'd recommend it wholeheartedly.) Once again, the reality of being a startup opera singer in a new country is much less than glamourous, but then offstage glamour isn't why I'm doing it, is it?
17:28
Well, it looks like I'm going no place at the moment. Right now the dryest place in Lyon is under the big beige parasols here at the Café Leffe. My umbrella is quite sensibly keeping the inside of my suitcase dry, back at the hotel, and as it was quite hot when I set out an hour ago, I neglected to bring a jacket on my little walk, just a sweater. Hopefully this rain will subside shortly and I can make my break for the hotel until dinner time. At least I have a cover for the computer, so it won't get wet.
Perhaps I'll write more tomorrow in Lyon, or it might have to wait until I'm back home in Brussels tomorrow night. A bientot!
Sunday, 10 May 2009
Good concert
It's almost 10pm, I'm having a little drink now after the kids have gone to sleep and Maggie is reading, and we are getting ready to go to bed ourselves.
The concert went very well. A big choir, maybe 100 voices, and a nice sized orchestra; they all played and sang extremely well. Very good soloists (I haven't heard much German recitative before so I was watching the other soloists closely and taking mental notes) and a conductor who was so easy to follow, and the audience was extremely appreciative. I did my parts without incident and the conductor was pleased with my delivery. The other conductor (of the visiting German choir from Hanover) complimented me on my voice and gave me his card, so I can audition for him sometime; I haven't sung anything in Germany yet and it would be nice to do so. As well the soprano (from Switzerland) gave me the name of her Paris agent, and suggested that I look him up when I'm there next to arrange an audition. One never knows where the next contact will come from.
It was good to be singing again.
Tomorrow Duncan is off to a week with his class at Nettine. Quite the thing, sending a six-year old off for a week alone, but I think he'll be fine, that's how they do things here. He'll have all his school mates so it should be no problem. Maggie has his bag all packed, and he's wiggly with excitement. We're not too worried; he's such a confident little guy I'm sure it will go just fine.
That's it... early to bed, because tomorrow morning at 10:00 I coach with Peter Tomek in preparation for my Lyon audition next Thursday.
Have a good week!
The concert went very well. A big choir, maybe 100 voices, and a nice sized orchestra; they all played and sang extremely well. Very good soloists (I haven't heard much German recitative before so I was watching the other soloists closely and taking mental notes) and a conductor who was so easy to follow, and the audience was extremely appreciative. I did my parts without incident and the conductor was pleased with my delivery. The other conductor (of the visiting German choir from Hanover) complimented me on my voice and gave me his card, so I can audition for him sometime; I haven't sung anything in Germany yet and it would be nice to do so. As well the soprano (from Switzerland) gave me the name of her Paris agent, and suggested that I look him up when I'm there next to arrange an audition. One never knows where the next contact will come from.
It was good to be singing again.
Tomorrow Duncan is off to a week with his class at Nettine. Quite the thing, sending a six-year old off for a week alone, but I think he'll be fine, that's how they do things here. He'll have all his school mates so it should be no problem. Maggie has his bag all packed, and he's wiggly with excitement. We're not too worried; he's such a confident little guy I'm sure it will go just fine.
That's it... early to bed, because tomorrow morning at 10:00 I coach with Peter Tomek in preparation for my Lyon audition next Thursday.
Have a good week!
Saturday, 9 May 2009
got a ride home
The rehearsal went well. The choir sounds very well prepared, and the music is quite exciting: there is a four-part women's chorus in the middle that is really beautiful, it gives me goosebumps. The choir in this case is augmented by a large group of Germans; it seems that they performed this work last week in Hanover with some chorusters from there and have brought them along for this concert as well.
I had a very generous offer of a ride back to Brussels with Adelheid, who sings in this choir and works during the day in project management for Siemens corp. She also sings in some other choirs, in Mechelen and Brussels, and they do hire soloists, so she's offered to put me in touch with their directors.
One never knows what connections will arise from any meeting: yesterday while speaking with my doctor, he mentioned that the gentleman across the street from him is a physicist and an avid pianist, who owns a Bösendorfer grand piano, and is mad about Bach. As we spoke he a) offered to put me in touch with this fellow b) suggested a couple of venues for a chamber music concert and c) mentioned a local amateur of music who hires a piano from Hanlet (the local big piano place) and produces her own concerts of chamber music; she lives a stone's throw from me!
Once again, one never knows the connections that will come to light; but if you sit at home waiting for the phone to ring, you can be sure to know what will happen: NADA! One needs to be out there, making one's presence known.
Anyway, that's enough ranting. I'm off to bed, to rest up for tomorrow's rehearsal with the orchestra.
I had a very generous offer of a ride back to Brussels with Adelheid, who sings in this choir and works during the day in project management for Siemens corp. She also sings in some other choirs, in Mechelen and Brussels, and they do hire soloists, so she's offered to put me in touch with their directors.
One never knows what connections will arise from any meeting: yesterday while speaking with my doctor, he mentioned that the gentleman across the street from him is a physicist and an avid pianist, who owns a Bösendorfer grand piano, and is mad about Bach. As we spoke he a) offered to put me in touch with this fellow b) suggested a couple of venues for a chamber music concert and c) mentioned a local amateur of music who hires a piano from Hanlet (the local big piano place) and produces her own concerts of chamber music; she lives a stone's throw from me!
Once again, one never knows the connections that will come to light; but if you sit at home waiting for the phone to ring, you can be sure to know what will happen: NADA! One needs to be out there, making one's presence known.
Anyway, that's enough ranting. I'm off to bed, to rest up for tomorrow's rehearsal with the orchestra.
Friday, 8 May 2009
Day off for Malcolm...
...so we went to see Star Trek instead of hanging around inside. This is the eleventh installment of the series, or perhaps it's # zero, if you opt for the chronology thing. Malcolm pointed out a few inconsistencies with the original series, and events that happened in the later films, but for the most part it was faithful to the spirit of the original tv series, and was a good ride, surprisingly free of any major cringe-inducing moments.
I don't want to spoil anything for those who will see this film by revealing plot details, but let's just say that my stubborn preference for choosing Kirk over Picard as my wing-man in a hypothetical bar fight was vindicated. Still, I found myself thinking that a well-placed judo chop to the neck at a critical moment would have saved this new, younger Kirk from strangulation twice inside of half an hour. Oh well, maybe he learns judo later on from Sulu?
* * *
In another hour or so I'm off to my rehearsal in Antwerp, for Sunday's concert... I'm just going to do a little more warming up and then get going.
Have a good weekend!
Have a good weekend!
Monday, 4 May 2009
A big weekend
Bowling was a big success. It has changed a little bit since the last time I went, which would have been more than twenty years ago; the scoring is computerized, which minimizes argument about whose turn it is and what each person bowls, and there is an option of raising barriers or bumpers to prevent gutter balls, which makes it a much more satisfying game for novices.
We had a total of seven players, and they all had a great time, even using the heavier ten-pin bowling balls. We played two games, which took over two hours, and then the cake arrived, which was topped off with fireworks (yeah!).
The kids enjoyed the cake and soft drinks (while the parents enjoyed a calming beer from the bar).
The children all had a great time, although we probably didn't need the second game of bowling; they were a little punchy by about half-way through, and it meant that there wasn't time for Duncan to open his presents in front of the other kids... that was a bit disappointing for them. We took pictures of him opening the presents at home later, and will send copies in the thank-you cards.
As you can see from the photograph below everyone was having fun. (Mental note: someone's got to tell Duncan about the orientations of his "peace" signs: I've been told that his hand gestures actually mean something different in the UK).
So that was the bowling birthday.
* * *
This has turned out to be a Duncan blog entry... we had a little breakthrough last night with his reading.Maggie has been bringing home lots of books for Malcolm, and he's burning through them as fast as she can get them. Thank goodness St. John's has a huge library! I remember being the same age Malcolm is now, and going to the local public library on a Saturday to get out the maximum number of books allowed (I think they might have let me take out an extra one or two) and returning on Tuesday to load up again.
Duncan has been insistent that Maggie borrow some books for him too, and so she recently delivered a raft of them for him to "read". He's been fascinated with books for a long time, and has been doing pre-reading activities for a couple of years, but doesn't seem to connect with letters much. We review the alphabet with him frequently, and he writes his letters very clearly, but he still misidentifies some letters and seems to find them difficult to remember. He also doesn't seem to have a natural "phonics" awareness the way Malcolm seemed to from the very beginning. We have been trying to figure out how to help this along but we've been thinking it's simply a developmental thing.
Last night I picked out the original Curious George book, and decided to choose a few words to leave unspoken, and to point at those words and have Duncan say them instead. By the end of the book he could find and read the words "George", "hat" and "man", and also could find "man" as part of the compound words "fireman" and "watchman".
How exciting! For those of you who have grown children, or no children, this might not seem like a big deal, but books are one of chief pleasures of our lives, and we've been trying hard to help Duncan along, so this is a breakthrough. It may simply be that he connects with the whole word, and not with the sounds of the individual letters, so maybe we've been using the wrong approach with him. We'll give straight word memorization a try and see how that goes.
* * *
I was a bit under the weather last week following my trip to Marseille, but I'm feeling much better now, and am glad to have some quiet in the house after three days of holidays. Next on the list is to get ready for this weekend's performance of "Paulus" in Antwerp; I have a small solo in that I've been preparing. Early next week I have an audition in Lyon, and so I hope to coach with Peter Tomek again before that happens. The auditioning seems to be cooling off a bit now that we are starting to come to the end of the season, but there are a number of companies that asked me to contact them in June so there's still stuff to do.
A bientôt!
A bientôt!
Saturday, 2 May 2009
Duncan's party day
It's a little after 1pm and we're off to Brussels Bowling for the party. We've received confirmations from pretty much all the invitees, so it should be fun. I'm hoping that some of the parents stay, just to help with the bowling, since most of the kids are francophone, and it will be hard to keep them under control... fortunately there are barriers up between the different bowling lanes, to help them "keep it between the fences" as it were.
More later...
More later...
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