A night in Vienna

On the left is a promotional image from the Queen's School of Music "Night in Vienna" that was produced by Queen's School of Music this past weekend.

The performances were by students, faculty and alumni who returned to support their alma mater, and their superb work was very well received. Originally concieved by Bruce Kelly and Gordon Craig in 2003 as an event to raise funds for a new grand piano, the event has returned to Grant Hall on the Queen's campus on two occasions since then. The Austrian embassy provided a large Austrian flag, there were dancers from a local studio performing Viennese waltzes, and the whole evening was filled with music, laughter, fizzy wine and of course, sachertorte.

Bruce was doing triple duty as producer, vocal soloist, and sometime conductor, and the extra work didn't seem to slow him down at all: his performances were great. How lucky Queen's is to have him!

I was one of the surprise guest performers of the evening, picked out of the crowd to perform a viennese operetta aria at a moments' notice. It was great to sing with Dina again, and it makes me look forward even more strongly to our next recital of Die Schöne Müllerin in 2011. Dina and I surprised quite a few people in attendance with our operetta piece, and I've already been approached for more work because of it. One never knows who might be in the audience, so as Dina once told me, it always pays to prepare for a concert as if you were doing so for the prime minister.

Tonight we are doing a mardi gras opera gala at St. James, and I just sang an audition as a sort of warm-up. Tomorrow there is some rehearsing with Caroline Davidson and David Murrell, the soprano and pianist for the Mississauga concert that is coming up. It's going to be a busy few days from now until my departure.

Happy Mardi Gras!